Home > SSL Support > Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) > - Covalent Apache ERS v 2.4

Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) -
Covalent Apache ERS v 2.4 or earlier

To generate a CSR, you first need to create a key pair for your server. These two items are a digital certificate key pair and cannot be separated. If you lose your public/private key file or your password and generate a new one, your SSL Certificate will no longer match your private key. You will have to request a new SSL Certificate.

We recommend that you contact Covalent for additional information.
Generate Keypair and CSR
Step 1: Generate a Private Key and Server Certificate

Note: The recommended key bit size is 2048-bit. All certificates that will expire after December 31, 2013 must have a 2048 bit key size

1. Change to the /path/to/ssl1.5/bin directory.

2. Start the Covalent SSL Certificate and Key Management Tool.

3. For the graphical interface, execute: ./sslctl. For the text interface, execute: ./sslctl --textmode.  The main screen displays.

4. Select Generate Certificate and Key.

5. Enter the name of the server you want to certify.

6. Select the size of your private key. We recommend a key size of 2048-bits.

Note: For Extended Validation certificates the key bit length must be 2048.

7. Enter and confirm a pass phrase for your private key.

8. Define and enter the information for your server certificate.  
 
The server certificate is stored in the directory /path/to/ssl1.5/certs and is named yourserver.domain.cert (for example, www.covalent.net.cert).
The key is stored in the directory /path/to/ssl1.5/keys and is named yourserver.domain.key (for example, www.covalent.net.key).
This step will create the X.509 attributes of the certificate:
Country Name (C): Use the two-letter code without punctuation for country, for example: US or CA. 

State or Province (S): Spell out the state completely; do not abbreviate the state or province name, for example: California 

Locality or City (L): The Locality field is the city or town name, for example: Berkeley. Do not abbreviate. For example: Saint Louis, not St. Louis.

Organization (O): If your company or department has an &, @, or any other symbol using the shift key in its name, you must spell out the symbol or omit it to enroll. Example: XY & Z Corporation would be XYZ Corporation or XY and Z Corporation.

Organizational Unit (OU): This field is optional; but can be used to help identify certificates registered to an organization. The Organizational Unit (OU) field is the name of the department or organization unit making the request. 

Common Name (CN): The Common Name is the Host + Domain Name. It looks like "www.company.com" or "company.com".

SSL certificates can only be used on Web servers using the Common Name specified during enrollment.

For example, a certificate for the domain "domain.com" will receive a warning if accessing a site named "www.domain.com" or "secure.domain.com", because "www.domain.com" and "secure.domain.com" are different from "domain.com".

Please do not enter your email address, challenge password or an optional company name when generating the CSR.

9. Modify the Apache configuration file if necessary.  
 
If you are securing the main server and using the included httpsd.conf, the file is configured correctly by default. No modifications are necessary. If you are securing an additional virtual host, you must include two containers for the secure site in the configuration file: 
Include a virtual host for HTTP requests listening on port 80.
Include an SSL virtual host for HTTPS requests listening on port 443. The HTTPS server must use an IP-based address and should include the SSLCertificateFile and SSLCertificateKeyFile directives. 

10. Run the server with the key and temporary server certificate.  

If your server is running, stop the server by executing:  /path/to/apache1.3/bin/covalent-faststart-ctl stop
11. Start the server with Covalent SSL by executing: /path/to/apache1.3/bin/covalent-faststart-ctl startssl 
 
During server start-up, you will be prompted to enter the pass phrase for the server certificate.

12. Make a backup of your server certificate and private key.

Step 2: Generate a CSR.

1. Select Generate Certificate Signing Request from the Covalent SSL Certificate and Key Management Tool. You are prompted to select a server certificate to be signed. Select VeriSign, Inc.  

2. Covalent SSL automatically generates the correct format CSR for VeriSign, Inc.

3. Enter the pass phrase you used to encrypt the key that corresponds to this server certificate.

4. Define and enter the information for your CSR.

5. Select a directory and filename for the generated CSR, for example /root/cert-2507. Covalent SSL saves the CSR to the file you designated.

6. Go to the enrollment and enter the information requested in the enrollment form.



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