Automatically generate a Certificate Signing Request

concept australia Updated Sep 10, 2026 1 min read request-new-csr-automated.md

You can generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) on the instance by providing the required information on the catalog form.

Creating a CSR manually can be a cumbersome and error-prone process. Automatic CSR generation can be enabled on the Request New Certificate and Request New Ceriticate (Automated) forms. This feature is disabled by default for security.

To enable automatic CSR generation, set the system property sn_disco_certmgmt.enable_csr_generation to true. This property also controls whether the PKCS12 certificate format is available, because a PKCS#12 key store requires a private key that is generated with the CSR. See Discovery properties for more information.

Once enabled, a Want to generate CSR? checkbox is displayed in the certificate request form. Selecting the checkbox enables the required input fields to generate the CSR. Provide the necessary information and select Generate. The input data is validated and the CSR is formated accordingly.

The CSR is generated in the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) field, and a private key is generated in the Private Key field. Select the Download link to save the private key for later use. By default, the private key size is 2048 but can be changed using the system property sn_disco_certmgmt.private_key_size. See Discovery properties for more information.

When selecting Submit, the form provides a warning to download and save the private key. For security, ServiceNow does not store private keys, so the private key must be saved before leaving the form or else it is lost.

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---
title: Automatically generate a Certificate Signing Request
description: You can generate a Certificate Signing Request \(CSR\) on the instance by providing the required information on the catalog form.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/request-new-csr-automated.html
release: australia
product: Discovery
classification: discovery
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Automated certificate management for TLS certificates, Configure, Certificate Inventory and Management, ITOM Visibility, IT Operations Management]
---

# Automatically generate a Certificate Signing Request

You can generate a Certificate Signing Request \(CSR\) on the instance by providing the required information on the catalog form.

Creating a CSR manually can be a cumbersome and error-prone process. Automatic CSR generation can be enabled on the **Request New Certificate** and **Request New Ceriticate \(Automated\)** forms. This feature is disabled by default for security.

To enable automatic CSR generation, set the system property **sn\_disco\_certmgmt.enable\_csr\_generation** to true. This property also controls whether the PKCS12 certificate format is available, because a PKCS\#12 key store requires a private key that is generated with the CSR. See [Discovery properties](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/r_DiscoveryProperties.md) for more information.

Once enabled, a **Want to generate CSR?** checkbox is displayed in the certificate request form. Selecting the checkbox enables the required input fields to generate the CSR. Provide the necessary information and select **Generate**. The input data is validated and the CSR is formated accordingly.

The CSR is generated in the **Certificate Signing Request \(CSR\)** field, and a private key is generated in the **Private Key** field. Select the **Download** link to save the private key for later use. By default, the private key size is 2048 but can be changed using the system property **sn\_disco\_certmgmt.private\_key\_size**. See [Discovery properties](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/r_DiscoveryProperties.md) for more information.

When selecting **Submit**, the form provides a warning to download and save the private key. For security, ServiceNow does not store private keys, so the private key must be saved before leaving the form or else it is lost.