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How to add an SSL certificate

Posted 2009-01-22 21:18 by andreychek

This tutorial covers how to add an SSL certificate to a Virtual server.

You will need an IP address dedicated to this purpose -- you can obtain IP addresses from the ISP hosting your server.

This tutorial assumes you have first logged into Virtualmin.

  1. Choose the domain for which you would like to add the SSL Certificate. You can do that by selecting the domain name from the drop-down box on the top-left.

  2. Click 'Server Configuration' -> 'Change IP Address'.

  3. Click the radio button next to 'Use private address' in the 'New IP address' section.

  4. Enter your Virtual Server's new private IP address you obtained for this SSL certificate in the 'Use private address' field.

  5. Click 'Change now'.

  6. Click Edit Virtual Server.

  7. Click Enabled features.

  8. Check the 'SSL website enabled?' checkbox.

  9. Click Save Virtual Server.

    At this point, you have a self-signed SSL Certificate. That means your communications are secured, but since this certificate wasn't generated by a certificate authority, your users will receive a security warning every time they access the site.

    It's recommended that you get a commercial certificate -- the following steps detail how to obtain and install one.

  10. Click Server Configuration.

  11. Click Manage SSL Certificate.

  12. Click Signing Request.

  13. Enter the domain name you wish to use for SSL in the Server Name field.

  14. Enter your email address in the Email Address field.

  15. Enter your business name or organization in the Organisation field.

  16. Click Generate CSR Now

  17. This next step you have to do on your own. Take the resulting "CSR", and take it to one of the many companies able to create SSL certificates. Have them use the CSR you made to generate your SSL Certificate.

  18. Click New Certificate.

  19. Paste in the contents of the SSL Certificate you received into the Signed SSL certificate field.

  20. Keep the Matching private key provided by Virtualmin.

  21. Click Install Now.

You should now be able to access your site securely by using https://example.com, where example.com is the domain name you used while generating your SSL Certificate.