Digital Certificates : Installing A Custom Certificate

Content V1 — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 12:00:00 GMT

Installing your Custom Digital Certificate

Once you have a obtained a signed digital certificate, you need
to install it and set up SSL to use your certificate and private key instead of the default.

NOTE: If you have not already ordered SSL for your Virtual Private
Server, you will need to do that before continuing with the steps outlined below.

When you got your certificate, you most likely saved it to a file on your local computer. You will need to copy the file onto
your Virtual Private Server via FTP. Be sure to copy the file using ASCII
format to avoid corrupting the file. Save the file in the ~/etc/ directory with the name ssl.cert.

Once the certificate is on your server, get the Private Key, which you generated at the same time as you generated the CSR,
and copy it to the ~/etc/ directory with the name ssl.pk. Make sure to keep a copy of the Private Key in a
different location as well so if you make a mistake you don't lose your Private Key. You may want to create a directory on
your Virtual Private Server and store a copy of both your Private Key and the Certificate until you are certain that the new
certificate is working properly.

With both files in place, connect to your Virtual Private Server via SSH or
Telnet and run the following command.

% openssl rsa -in ssl.pk -out ssl.pk

This command removes the default encryption on your key, and makes it useable by the Apache Web Server. With the key
decrypted, run restart_apache to restart the Web server using your new certificate. You can tell if your Private Key has
been decrypted or not by looking at the file. When your key was generated, the first few lines should have looked similar to
the following.

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,BCC23A5E16582F3D

hfWyPkea3gnVCHCZJ/zgQpCH9RZF7WjYXGYohdbfkJY0ETLwXaqjvnNHQlLomwIt

After decrypting your key, the key should have changed to look similar to the following.

Check to make sure the new certificate is working by connecting to the domain your certificate is set up to use via HTTPS.
For example, if your domain name were www.my-domain.name, you would type the following into your browser's location
bar.

https://www.my-domain.name

If the page loads without any errors, find the lock icon on your browser and click on it (depending on your browser,
you may need to double-click). This will bring up the certificate information, or a window that lets you view certificate
information. Check to see that the certificate is using the correct domain name and has the correct information.

If you get an error trying to view the page, see the
Troubleshooting Certificate Installation Problems page to
help you get the certificate working.

viaVerio :: Digital Certificates : Installing A Custom Certificate

Digital Certificates : Installing A Custom Certificate

Installing your Custom Digital Certificate