> [!CAUTION]
> **Caution:** This documentation covers Edge for Private Cloud 4.50.00, which is no longer supported. Google does not provide security patches, bug fixes, or technical support for this version. The current supported version is 4.54.00. See the [Edge for Private Cloud documentation](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/latest/overview) for the current version, or [All versions](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/versions) to compare releases.

Apigee mTLS requires that a certificate and key exist on each node in the cluster.

To generate the certificate, choose one of the following options:

- **If you have your own, established Certificate Authority (CA):** Use it to generate your certificate and key, as described in this section.
- **If you do not have a CA:** Apigee recommends that you install Consul and use it to generate the certificate/key pair. For more information, see [Step 2: Install Consul and generate credentials](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-configure#installconsul).

> [!NOTE]
> **NOTE:** While each node will have its own unique local key/cert pair, all nodes use the same CA's key/cert pair. Both the local key/cert pair and the CA's key/cert pair must be present on each node.

This process consists of the following steps, which you must perform on each node:

1. **[Create the private key](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-certs-createpk)** for the node. Each node must have a unique private key.
2. **[Create the signature config](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-certs-createsig)** for the node. Each node must have its own signature configuration file.
3. **[Build the request](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-certs-buildreq)** by converting the signature configuration file into a signature request file.
4. **[Sign the request](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-certs-sign)** so that you can get a local key/cert pair for the node.
5. **[Integrate](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-certs-integrate)** all the key/cert pairs with your nodes.

Apigee recommends that you perform steps 1 through 4 for all nodes, and then perform step 5 for
all nodes, rather than walking through all 5 steps for each node, one at a time.

[Get Started!](https://docs.apigee.com/private-cloud/v4.50.00/mtls-certs-createpk)