[BUG] remote connect-pnponline - The Certificate does not have a private key

[MvL12]

I am trying to manage some Sharepoint Online sites with pnp. I can run scripts locally on a server and they work like a charm, but if I try to execute the scripts remotely on the very same server as a target, they fail due to a certificate error:

It is a selfsigned certificate, so it doesnt have a private key, but still I am confused that the same script throws an error if I try to run it remotely.

The cerrtificate is uploaded to the entraID portal and it is installed on my server in the private local machine store, so its accessible for every user. Any advices how to fix that behaviour?

Thank you in advance

Which operating system/environment are you running PnP PowerShell on?

• Windows
• Linux
• MacOS
• Azure Cloud Shell
• Azure Functions
• Other : please specify

[KoenZomers]

The public key (.cer) goes into your Entra ID AppReg. The private key (.pfx) needs to be present for the PnP PowerShell script to connect. That can be by referencing its file path or having it in your certificate store. Regardless of which option you go by, it needs to be present. In your case this seems not to be the case. Reason for that is hard to say as it can be countless reasons. I would say export your PFX to a file, put it on your file system on your server and reference it by its path to see if that does work. If so, you know you're having issues accessing the cert store with your account on your server and you can start digging in that direction.

[MvL12]

Thanks for your reply, it helped me some steps forward and I uploaded a Certificate which has a private key on my machine which runs the script. It worked out so far, but now it runs into a timeout when I try to execute it remotely (From Server X on the machine where it worked out). My Script currently looks like this:

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

pwsh{
import-module PnP.PowerShell
[system.net.webrequest]::defaultwebproxy = new-object system.net.webproxy('http://myProxy:8080')
#Proxy doesnt need authentication
[system.net.webrequest]::defaultwebproxy.BypassProxyOnLocal = $true

$PWEncoded = "MyPW" |ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -force

Connect-PnPOnline "https://.sharepoint.com/sites/MySite/"  -ClientId "MyClientID" -Tenant "MyTenant.onmicrosoft.com" -CertificatePath "\\MyServer\D$\SPO\MyCert.pfx" -CertificatePassword $PWEncoded  -Verbose

Add-PnPFile -Path "C:\Temp\MyFile.txt" -newFileName "MyName"  -Folder "MyFolder/Test"

}

When I run this Script remotely from Server X on the very same machine where it was working locally, I get a timeout while connecting with my client ID:

VERBOSE: Cmdlet execution started for Connect-PnPOnline [...] -Verbose
VERBOSE: Connecting using Entra ID App-Only using a certificate[0m
VERBOSE: Using ClientID MyClientID
pwsh.exe : Connect-PnPOnline:
In Zeile:1 Zeichen:1

• pwsh.exe "C:\Users\Me\Desktop\Scripts\pwshTest.ps1"

•   + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (Connect-PnPOnline: [:String) [], RemoteException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError
  
  
  

[Connect-PnPOnline "https://MyTenant.sharepoint.com/sites/
Request to the endpoint timed out.

I also tried pwsh.exe $ScriptPath but it ended the same way.

[MvL12]

Hello everyone,
any advice on my case here? Im still not able to figure out the cause of this behaviour.

Kind regards and thanks in advance