Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
Apache + Open SSL
Login as root cd /usr/bin/ (/your path to openssl/) openssl genrsa -des3 -out <name_of_your_certificate>.key 1024
You will need to enter a passphrase for your key here, and then enter it again in the next step.
openssl req -new -key <name_of_your_certificate>.key -out <name_of_your_certificate>.csr
At this point you’ll have to enter information about the site/owner of the SSL cert. Keep in mind that the common name (CM) is actually the address of the site (without http://, etc), and that each cert is only for one host. IE: yoursite.com is not the same as www.yoursite.com. Some certs can be created with multiple/alternative common names.
You’ll need the contents of the csr file to create the cert on godaddy or whichever cert site you’re using. Either download it or VI, and copy and paste the contents.
Installing SSL Certificate and the Intermediate Certificate
Once you’ve gotten the actual certs from the cert site (CRT files), you’ll need to upload them onto the server. You can put them wherever you want, but try to keep things organized because you’ll need to reference them later.
Next you’ll need to edit your conf files. In Apache 1.x this will be httpd.conf, Apache2 will most likely be ssl.conf (or some variation thereof), if the server is using virtual hosts there will be either separate conf files for each host, or seperate entries for each host within the ssl.conf or httpd.conf.
Either add, or uncomment these lines:
SSLCertificateFile /path/to/your/certificate/file
this is the CRT file provided by the cert site
SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/your/key/file
this is the KEY file you created previously
SSLCertificateChainFile /path/to/intermediate/bundle/file
an intermediate CRT file also provided by the cert site, this file is only required by certain cert providers
Server Restart
Next you’ll need to restart the web server, this can be done in numerous ways, but if you need to restart via SSH use the command:
apachectl -k graceful
This will restart the server and also allow any connections currently in place to finish. You may need to perform the restart twice, and enter the passphrase that you created your original key file with.
