Can I spell it out a different way.

Your client can check the validity of the server's certificate, and make
sure it is IBM you are connected to.
To do this, you need a CA certificate matching the IBM server's
certificate. Most machines have a wide selection, and so this should not be
a problem.

As part of the handshake the server can request/require a certificate from
the client.
If you use a self signed certificate,  which IBM has it's own copy off -
it would work - but is impractical  (think of the management overhead of
these).
You can have a certificate (signed by a CA) which you send to IBM. IBM has
the same CA so can validate the certificate.   This means IBM knows the
name (Distinguished Name) of the certificate  (O=MYCOMPANYNAME,C=GB), but
IBM may not be set up to associate this DN with your company - IBM might
use your account number instead.
At a different level you can set up z/OS to map certificate DNs to a userid
(O=MYCOMPANYNAME, C=* )  or say with this specific DN use this userid.

Colin

On Thu, 20 Mar 2025 at 12:53, Kurt Quackenbush <[email protected]> wrote:

> > There is a requirement that the client must be FTPS enabled to connect
> to IBM site.
>
> > Can i use Self signed certificate for my FTP server ? Or IBM distributes
> certificate to their customer to upload them in our mainframe and trust it ?
>
> If you download from an IBM FTP server to your z/OS, then the server is
> IBM's, and you run an FTP client on your z/OS.  To authenticate with the
> IBM server, your FTP client must trust the root certificate that issued the
> IBM server's certificate, not some random self signed certificate you
> generate.
>
> What are you trying to download, and which IBM server are you trying to
> download from?
>
> Kurt Quackenbush
> IBM  |  z/OS SMP/E and z/OSMF Software Management  |  [email protected]
>
> Chuck Norris never uses CHECK when he applies PTFs.
>
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