Windows Knowledge Base

[IIS Tutorial] How to acquire and install SSL(Secure Sockets Layer ) Certificate on you IIS Server?

SSL (Secure Socket Layer ) is a must have security measure  for any website collecting sensitive information online. To implement SSL on your site, you'll need to obtain a server certificate from a commercial CA such as Verisign and install the certificate on your web server. Most CA's also provide time-limited certificates for free that you can use to test your SSL site before purchasing a commercial server certificate.

To obtain a certificate from a third-party CA and install it on a web site, first generate a certificate request as follows:
1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. In the left pane, expand the web site, right-click on the site, and select Properties.
3. Select the Directory Security tab.
4. Click the Server Certificate button to start the Web Server Certificate Wizard and click Next.
5. Select Prepare the request now but send it later and click Next.
6. Type the name of the web site (in this example, windowspeople.com) and click Next.
7. Leave the bit length at 1024 or choose a higher value if desired for greater security and click Next.

Figure-1 Certificate Wizard enter bit length and Name of the site
8. Type the name of your organization and organizational unit and click Next.
9. Type the DNS name of your web site and click Next.
10. Type the specified geographical information and click Next.
11. Save your certificate request file as C:\SSLRequest.txt.


Next, you need to find 3rd party CA, such as Verisign and send the request online using the content in SSLRequest.txt. Once you complete the process, you will receive an email from the site with the certificate.

To install your server certificate on your website, follow below procedure:
1. Copy the entire section from BEGIN CERTIFICATE to END CERTIFICATE (including these two lines) from the CA's email message save it as a *.cer file; for example, C:\SiteCert.cer.
2. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
3. In the left pane, expand the console tree to display the MTIT Corp web site, right-click on the site, and select Properties.
4. Select the Directory Security tab.
5. Click the Server Certificate button to start the Web Server Certificate Wizard and click Next.
6. Select Process the pending request and install the certificate and click Next.

Figure-3 Install the certificate you received from 3rd party vender.
7. Specify the path to the *cer file containing the certificate (e.g., C:\newcert.cer) and click Next.
8. Accept 443 as the standard SSL port number, click Next, and then Finish.