Apache Using OpenSSL

• Create a CSR
• Installation

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Generating a CSR and private key

Please SSH into your webserver.

Generate a private key and a public Certificate Signing Request (CSR) by using the following command:

openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout myserver.key -out server.csr

Certificate Information Guidelines

Location - Enter the location where your business operates, not where your server is located. If you are an international customer in a country without a State/Province or City/Locality, leave those fields blank.

• Country Name - Enter the two letter International Organization for Standardization (ISO) abbreviation of the country where your organization is legally located.
• State/Province - Spell out the entire name of your state or province. For example, if your business operates in Texas, enter "Texas" and not "TX".
• City/Locality - Spell out the entire name of your city or locality.

Organization - Enter the full, unabbreviated legal name of your business. Include any applicable suffix, such as "Inc" or "LLC". If your company name is registered in an abbreviated form, then you may use that abbreviation if you want.

Organizational Unit - This field will not be included in your certificate, so you can leave it blank.

Common Name - Enter the web address of your site. It must be a fully qualified domain name. Both www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com are acceptable. Do not include http:// or https://. When ordering a wildcard Server Certificate, you will use *.yourdomain.com

Email Address - Enter the address of the person responsible for digital certificates in your organization. This field is optional.

You will now have the opportunity to set a password for the private key. If you do choose to set a password, your private key will be useless if you forget the password. In addition, you will be required to provide this password to Apache each time it starts.

This creates two files. The file myserver.key is the private key. The private key is integral in the digital certificate process.

Protect your new private key for a digital certificate

1. Never give this file to anyone outside your company. Also restrict the access to it to the smallest possible group of employees.
2. When you get your certificate, you must install this private key in a secure folder that has limited access to a root user and is protected with read-only permission.
3. Backup your private key. There is no way to recover it if it is lost. Protect that backup with additional security such as an encrypted or password-protected backup. Your private key is integral to the digital certificate process.
4. If you suspect that your private key is compromised, alert VikingCloud™ immediately. VikingCloud will revoke your certificate so that you can generate a new private key and CSR. You can then submit the new CSR for VikingCloud to reissue your certificate.

Submit the CSR to VikingCloud

Now navigate to the location of your saved CSR and open it with a suitable text editor such as Notepad, TextEdit, or vi. Copy the entire text - including the top and bottom dashed lines. You can paste this text directly into the VikingCloud Control Center - Submit your CSR to proceed to validation.