$ openssl req -new -key /path/to/wwwservercom.key -out /path/to/wwwservercom.csr This will fire up OpenSSL, instruct it to generate a certificate signing request, and let it know to use a key we are going to specify – the one we just created, in fact. Generate CSR - OpenSSL Introduction. This article provides step-by-step instructions for generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) in OpenSSL. This is most commonly required for web servers such as Apache HTTP Server and NGINX. If this is not the solution you are looking for, please search for your solution in the search bar above. Sep 11, 2018 You apply by generating a CSR with a key pair on your server that would, ideally, hold the SSL certificate. The CSR contains crucial organization details which the CA verifies. Generate a CSR and key pair locally on your server. The key pair consists of a public and private key. This command creates a new CSR (domain.csr) based on an existing private key (domain.key): openssl req -key domain.key-new -out domain.csr. Answer the CSR information prompt to complete the process. The -key option specifies an existing private key (domain.key) that will be used to generate a new CSR. How to Generate a CSR for Apache Web Server Using OpenSSL The following instructions will guide you through the CSR generation process on Apache OpenSSL. To learn more about CSRs and the importance of your private key, reference our Overview of Certificate Signing Request article.
Generate a certificate signing request
Before you can install a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate, you must first generate a certificate signing request (CSR). You can do this by using one of the following methods:
OpenSSL
The following sections describe how to use OpenSSL to generate a CSR for a single host name. If you want to generate a CSR for multiple host names, we recommend using the Cloud Control Panel or the MyRackspace Portal.
Install OpenSSL
Check whether OpenSSL is installed by using the following command:
CentOS® and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®
The following output provides an example of what the command returns:
Debian® and the Ubuntu® operating system
The following output provides an example of what the command returns:
If the preceding packages are not returned, install OpenSSL by running the following command:
CentOS and Red Hat
Debian and the Ubuntu operating system
Generate the RSA key
Run the following commands to create a directory in which to store your RSA key, substituting a directory name of your choice:
Run the following command to generate a private key:
Create a CSR
Run the following command to create a CSR with the RSA private key (output is in Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) format):
When prompted, enter the necessary information for creating a CSR by using the conventions shown in the following table.
How To Generate Csr
Note: You cannot use the following characters in the Organization Name or Organizational Unit fields: < > ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / ( ) ? . , &
Field | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
Common Name | The fully qualified domain name to which the certificate applies. The domain names example.com and www.example.com are distinct from each other, so be sure to submit your request for the right domain. If you are purchasing a wildcard certificate, use *.example.com. | example.com |
Organization Name | The exact legal name of your organization. The Certificate Authority (CA) might seek to confirm that your organization is real and legally registered, so don’t abbreviate words that aren’t abbreviated in the organization’s legal name. | Example Inc. |
Organizational Unit | The branch of your organization that is making the request. | Marketing |
City/locality | The city where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the city name. | San Antonio |
State/province | The state or province where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the state or province name. | Texas |
Country/region | The two-letter International Standards Organization (ISO) abbreviation for your country. | US |
Warning: Leave the challenge password blank (press Enter).
Verify your CSR
Run the following command to verify your CSR:
After you have verified your CSR, you can submit it to a CA to purchase an SSL certificate.
Windows IIS Manager
Use the following steps to generate a CSR by using Windows IIS Manager:
Note: The following steps are for IIS 8 or IIS 8.5 on Windows Server 2012.
- Open IIS Manager.
- In the left-hand Connections pane, click the server for which you want to generate a CSR.
- In the center server Home pane under the IIS section, double-click Server Certificates.
- In the right-hand Actions pane, click Create Certificate Request.
In the Request Certificate wizard, on the Distinguished Name Properties page, enter the following information and then click Next.
Field Explanation Example Common Name The fully qualified domain name to which the certificate applies. The domain names example.com and www.example.com are distinct from each other, so be sure to submit your request for the right domain. If you are purchasing a wildcard certificate, use *.example.com. example.com Organization Name The exact legal name of your organization. The CA might seek to confirm that your organization is real and legally registered, so don’t abbreviate words that aren’t abbreviated in the organization’s legal name. Example Inc. Organizational Unit The branch of your organization that is making the request. Marketing City/locality The city where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the city name. San Antonio State/province The state or province where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the state or province name. Texas Country/region The two-letter ISO abbreviation for your country. US On the Cryptographic Server Provider Properties page, enter the following information and then click Next.
- Cryptographic service provider: Unless you have a specific cryptographic provider, use the default selection.
- Bit length: 2048 is the recommended bit length.
- On the File Name page, enter the location where you want to save the certificate request file and then click Finish.
After you have generated the CSR, you can submit it to a CA to purchase an SSL certificate.
Cloud Control Panel
Rackspace provides the CSR Generator for generating a CSR. The CSR Generator shows you the CSRs that you currently have and lets you create new CSRs with a simple form. After you have entered your details, the generator combines them with your private key so that you can submit the combined encoded information to a CA.
When you are done with the generator, you can return to the Cloud Control Panel by clicking any of the links in the top navigation or by going to login.rackspace.com and selecting Rackspace Cloud from the drop-down product menu in the top navigation bar.
Access the CSR Generator
Access the CSR Generator directly or through the Control Panel by using the following steps:
- Log in to the Cloud Control Panel and select Rackspace Cloud from the drop-down product menu in the top navigation bar.
- In the top navigation bar, click Servers > Cloud Servers.
- Click the name of the server for which you want to generate a CSR.
- In the right-hand Managing Your Server section under Help me with, click Generate a CSR.
The generator lists your existing CSRs, if you have any, organized by domain name.
Generate a CSR
Click Create CSR.
Enter the following information, which will be associated with the CSR:
Field Explanation Example Domain Name The fully qualified domain name to which the certificate applies. The domain names example.com and www.example.com are distinct from each other, so be sure to submit your request for the right domain. If you want to secure both domains, you can use the Alt Names field. If you are purchasing a wildcard certificate, use *.example.com. example.com Alt Names (Optional) Additional domains that you want to add to the request. Each CA treats these differently, and the CA might charge for additional names. You can submit a comma-separated list. www.example.com, secure.example.com Email Address (Optional) A contact email address for the certificate. support@example.com Organization Name The exact legal name of your organization. The CA might seek to confirm that your organization is real and legally registered, so don’t abbreviate words that aren’t abbreviated in the organization’s legal name. Example Inc. Organizational Unit (Optional) The branch of your organization that is making the request. Marketing City The city where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the city name. San Antonio State or Province The state or province where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the state or province name. Texas Country Choose your country from the drop-down menu. The two-letter ISO abbreviation for your country is included in the CSR. United States Private Key Bit Length Key sizes smaller than 2048 are considered insecure and might not be accepted by a CA. 1024,2048,4096 Hashing Algorithm Both algorithms are currently trusted in mainstream browsers and offer industry recommended security. SHA-512 requires additional CPU processing. SHA-256, SHA-512 Note: You cannot use the following characters in the Organization Name or Organizational Unit fields:
< > ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / ( ) ? . , &
After you have entered all the required information, click Create CSR.
Generate Csr Iis
It can take between 5 and 60 seconds for the CSR to be generated. You might need to refresh the page that displays your CSRs before the new CSR is listed.
View CSR details
When CSR has been generated, you can click its UUID (unique identifier) in the CSR list to view its details screen.
This screen displays the information that you provided, the text of the CSR, and its associated private key.
Submit the CSR to the CA
The text in the Certificate Request field is the CSR. It contains encoded details of the CSR and your public key.
To request your SSL certificate, copy the Certificate Request text and submit it to your CA. Include all the text, including the BEGIN and END lines at the beginning and end of the text block.
Install the private key
Copy the private key to the server that will host the certificate. See your application documentation to determine where to install the private key and certificate on your server.
MyRackspace Portal
If you are a Managed or Dedicated customer, you can request a CSR through the MyRackspace Portal by using the following steps:
- Log in to the MyRackspace Portal and select Dedicated Hosting from the drop-down product menu in the top navigation bar.
- In the top navigation bar, click Tickets > Create Ticket.
- On the Tickets / Create New Ticket page, select Generate Certificate Signing Request (CSR) from the Subject drop-down list.
Enter the following information in the Ticket Details section:
Field Explanation Example Device(s) The server or servers for which you want to generate a CSR. Use the drop-down menu to select your servers. Common Name The fully qualified domain name to which the certificate applies. The domain names example.com and www.example.com are distinct from each other, so be sure to submit your request for the right domain. If you want to secure both domains, you can use the Alt Names field. If you are purchasing a wildcard certificate, use *.example.com. example.com Alt. Names (Optional) Additional domains that you want to add to the request. Each CA treats these differently, and the CA might charge for additional names. You can submit a comma-separated list. www.example.com, secure.example.com Email Address (Optional) A contact email address for the certificate. support@example.com Organization The exact legal name of your organization. The CA might seek to confirm that your organization is real and legally registered, so don’t abbreviate words that aren’t abbreviated in the organization’s legal name. Example Inc. Organizational Unit (Optional) The branch of your organization that is making the request. Marketing Locality (City) The city where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the city name. San Antonio State or Province Name The state or province where your organization is legally located. Do not abbreviate the state or province name. Texas Country Choose your country from the drop-down menu. The two-letter ISO abbreviation for your country is included in the CSR. United States Note: The bit length is automatically set to 2048.
- Click Create Ticket.
Next steps
Reference
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These instructions are suitable for any server using ApacheSSL or Apache+mod_ssl or Apache 2. On the contrary do not apply these instructions on servers with an overlayer (Cobalt, Plesk, etc.) or Tomcat Generate a CSR for Tomcat.
Openssl Generate Key File
New: Use our command line generator
In order to gain some time, you can now generate your command line with our CSR creation assistant tool. Just copy/paste to finalize !
To install a certificate on Apache Windows, you will need a cryptographic tool to generate the private key and the CSR. To do so, you can use 'OpenSSL':Install OpenSSL on a Windows computer
1- Generate the private key
- Connect under
root
and access the setup directory of your Apache server.
It is often: - We'll place our working files here but you can choose an other repertory.
- Choose a file's name that fits you and generate the key with the following command:
- If you want this key to be protected by a password (that will be requested any time you'll restart Apache), add:
'-des3'
after 'genrsa'. - You can also enhance the quality of your key. To do so, add the instructions below after 'genrsa':
'-rand/var/log/messages'
.
It enables random numbers to be used.
Make a backup copy of the .key file!
- Protect your file with:
2- Create your certificate request (CSR)
- Use this command to generate the CSR:
- The system will then ask you to fill in fields. To do so respect instructions of the page Obtain a server certificate
Country Name (2 letter code) []: (FR in France for example)
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: (your state or province name, name of your département in France)
Locality Name (eg, city) []: (the name of your city)
Organization Name (eg, company) []: (your organization name)
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: (do not fill - advised - or enter a generic term such as 'IT Department'.)
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: (the name of the website to be secured)
Email Address []: (let blank) - Do not fill in fields such as: 'A challenge password' or 'An optional company name'
3- Finalize the order process
- Use the appropriate link to place your order on our website. See Access an order form
- Copy/paste the content of the www.example.com.csr file in the form.
Configuration and use options of OpenSSL
- To generate the CSR, OpenSSL reads openssl.cnf by default. But on some platform this file is not appropriate.
In that case you can download ours:- For Symantec or Thawte server certificates: openssl-dem-server-cert-thvs.cnf
- For TBS X509 or Sectigo server certificates: openssl-dem-server-cert.cnf
- For Certigna Server Client certificates: openssl-dem-certigna-srv-cli.cnf
- For Apache under Windows, the instructions are the same. You just need to make sure you have installed Apache with OpenSSL first.Download it here. Concerning the remaining instructions, just replaceopenssl by openssl.exe
OpenSSL and SHA256
By default, OpenSSL cryptographic tools are configured to make SHA1 signatures.
for example, if you want to generate a SHA256-signed certificate request (CSR) , add in the command line: -sha256, as in:
Useful links
- Generate your command line with our CSR creation assistant tool.