Generating A Certificate Request To Send To A Ca - Red Hat LINUX 7.2 - OFFICIAL LINUX CUSTOMIZATION GUIDE Manual

Section 15.7:Generating a Certificate Request to Send to a CA
The server.key file should be owned by the root user on your system and should not be accessible
to any other user. Make a backup copy of this file and keep the backup copy in a safe, secure place.
You need the backup copy because if you ever lose the server.key file after using it to create your
certificate request, your certificate will no longer work and the CA will not be able to help you. Your
only option would be to request (and pay for) a new certificate.
If you are going to purchase a certificate from a CA, continue to Section 15.7, Generating a Certificate
Request to Send to a CA. If you are generating your own self-signed certificate, continue to Section
15.8, Creating a Self-Signed Certificate.
15.7 Generating a Certificate Request to Send to a
CA
Once you have created a key, the next step is to generate a certificate request which you will need to
send to the CA of your choice. Type in the following command:
make certreq
Your system will display the following output and will ask you for your password (unless you disabled
the password option):
umask 77 ; \
/usr/bin/openssl req -new -key /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key
-out /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.csr/server.csr
Using configuration from /usr/share/ssl/openssl.cnf
Enter PEM pass phrase:
Type in the password that you chose when you were generating your key. Your system will display
some instructions and then ask for a series of responses from you. Your inputs will be incorporated
into the certificate request. The display, with example responses, will look like this:
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a
DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:North Carolina
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Durham
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits]:Test Company
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Testing
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