SSL Certificate will not save

Question

I am trying to install an SSL Certificate (from GoDaddy.com) onto IIS 7. I can add the certificate following the directions found here and it shows up in my list of Server Certificates but once I leave the Server Certificates page and return to it, the certificate no longer shows up in the list.

This certificate is also used on an Apache box to authenticate our website (I am using IIS for a WCF Service API). The certificate is assigned to *.mydomain.com so I thought I could use it for the Apache website server (www.mydomain.com) as well as my API (services.mydomain.com). Am I incorrect in this assumption? Do I need to do something different then the instructions I referenced above to install?

Answer 1

Brian,

I assume you just grabbed the .cer file and imported this onto your IIS box. Sadly this is not possible as your certificate will not contain a private key so it won't be an option in IIS.

The GlobalSign instruction you referenced are fine but that is if you created the CSR on the IIS server itself.

What you will have to do is to create a PFX from from your .key and .cer files from the Apache server and then you can import this PFX onto your IIS Server followed by assigning it for use.

So use this to create your PFX file; https://support.globalsign.com/customer/portal/articles/1229676-back-up-certificate---apache-openssl

Followed by; https://support.globalsign.com/customer/portal/articles/1217281

As for everyone else if you just have a .CER file you and did not create the request you need a private key. So create a new CSR and request a reissue from your relevant CA.

The fact you cannot assign a certificate in IIS is because you do not have a private key that corresponds to the certificate.