We have provided here step by step guide plus useful information on How To Install SSL Certificate on Rackspace Cloud Server guide using Ubuntu 13.10 as the Server OS. If you are fully new, you might want to read the full step by step guide to Install WordPress on Ubuntu 13.10 on Rackspace. All PHP-MySQL based web softwares usually will require the same setup like that of WordPress. If you do not need PHP and / or MySQL, just install Apache2.
You can know the basics on only the SSL certificate part on these two linked articles – SSL Certificates and Rackspace Cloud Server and Extended Validation SSL Certificate.
How To Install SSL Certificate on Rackspace Cloud Server : Preparation
Most important part to learn from this guide on How To Install SSL Certificate on Rackspace Cloud Server is the sequence of the decisive steps. We recommend to use some paid SSL certificate’s Demo version to start with, in case you are fully new. So, you need to decide first, which company’s certificate you will actually use. Get prepared to register on that SSL certificate seller’s website.
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What you will need first is to install OpenSSL on your server. This part, as you know is free :
1 | sudo apt-get install openssl openssl-devel |
Generate the RSA key first for your domain example.com :
1 | sudo mkdir -p ~/example.com.ssl && cd ~/example.com.ssl |
Now, we need to generate a private key using this OpenSSL utility :
1 | openssl genrsa -des3 -out <private key file name>.key 2048 |
Now we will generate a CSR file (it is .pem file) :
1 | openssl req -new -key ~/example.com.ssl/example.com.key -out ~/example.com.ssl/example.com.csr |
Password will be blank (no password). All SSL authority will ask you for this CSR file. Plus you have to enable your server for using SSL. Actually it is quite easy in Ubuntu / Debian and Apache :
1 2 | sudo a2enmod ssl sudo service apache2 restart |
You will need to have an IP address for your SSL certificate and an unique IP address for each SSL that you want to host. Certificate authorities and browsers require that all the SSL certificates will be on their own IP address. Rackspace has provision to allocate more than one IP for one server, on additional cost. However, most of us need only one IP for one server. Now, technically the basic thing is easy; on Apache virtual host, we have a default-ssl.conf file under sites-available directory ; practically we need to add the port 443 (that is SSL), on virtual host :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | <VirtualHost Full-IP-Address:443> ServerName example.com DocumentRoot /path/to/your/public/root/for/https/urls SSLEngine ON SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/example.com.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/example.com.key ErrorLog logs/ssl.example.com.com.error_log CustomLog logs/ssl.example.com.access_log combined </VirtualHost> |
So, actually, you can test with copying the free OpenSSL certificates :
1 2 3 4 | # located here /usr/local/apache/conf/ssl.crt # or here /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt |
How To Install SSL Certificate on Rackspace Cloud Server : Paid Stuffs
As the World is good before we purchase sellers’ stuffs, it is better to go for trial first. Understand it – these paid SSL are Closed Source material, here is some good guide for paid SSL certificate installation for Comodo (will work for all) :
1 | https://support.comodo.com/index.php?%5Fm=knowledgebase&%5Fa=viewarticle&kbarticleid=264&nav=0,1 |
All SSL Certificate sellers will have such guide. We have shown you the main method, now you definitely have to exactly follow their directive for the virtual host part. Usually, people mess up here. As these paid SSL are Closed Source materials, unlike OpenSSL; they might create very small to larger amount of issue/pain etc.
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