How can I get the private key needed to create the .p12 file?

[James Black]

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The keytool program does not generate a private or public key for me.  different attempts of "-genkeypair" and "-genkey" did not product a public key or private key.

The private key is needed to create the .p12 file.

This is a large headache for me as I'm not that familiar with creating keystores or configuring ssl certificates.

Many sites repeat the same information stating that the "keytool -genken" command creates the keypair.  When the file was inspected, there was no key to be found.  Only the information related to the "self signed certificate" (MyDomain, MyCompany, etc).

If ten people tell me I'm crazy.  I must be crazy, but "how" can I be crazy?

[James Black · Accepted solution]

The solution was to use the openssl command to create the key and csr at the same time.

openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -out <MyDomain.csr> -keyout <MyDomain.key> -subj "/C=<MyTwoLetterCountryCode>/ST=<MyState>/L=<MyCity>/O=<MyOrganization>/OU=<MyDepartment>/CN=<MyDomain>"

Taken from this handy site:

https://www.digicert.com/easy-csr/openssl.htm

I don't understand why keytool doesn't create the key and openssl does create the key, but this does work for me.