Distinguished Names

The Distinguished Name (DN) uniquely identifies an entity in an X.509 certificate.

The following attribute types are commonly found in the DN:
The X.509 standard defines other attributes that do not typically form part of the DN but can provide optional extensions to the digital certificate.
The X.509 standard provides for a DN to be specified in a string format. For example:

CN=John Smith, OU=Test, O=IBM, C=GB

The Common Name (CN) can describe an individual user or any other entity, for example a web server.

The DN can contain multiple OU and DC attributes. Only one instance of each of the other attributes is permitted. The order of the OU entries is significant: the order specifies a hierarchy of Organizational Unit names, with the highest-level unit first. The order of the DC entries is also significant.

IBM® WebSphere® MQ tolerates certain malformed DNs. For more information, see WebSphere MQ rules for SSLPEER values.