To generate a CSR, a key pair must be created for the server. These two items are a digital certificate key pair and cannot be separated. If the public/private key file or password is lost or changed before the SSL certificate is installed, the SSL certificate will need to be re-issued. The private key, CSR and certificate must all match in order for the installation to be successful.
Generate a Certificate Request
Retail customers Note: The recommended key bit size is 2048-bit. All certificates that will expire after October, 2013 must have a 2048 bit key size.
MPKI for SSL customers Note: The recommended key bit size is 2048-bit. All certificates that will expire after December, 2013 must have a 2048 bit key size.
Create a new certificate request using the Configuration utility.
- To connect to the Configuration Utility: in a browser, enter the administrative IP address of the BIG-IP device: https://<IP-Address>
- A Security Alert dialog box appears, click Yes
- The authentication dialog box appears
- Enter user name and password
- Click OK
- The Welcome screen opens.
- In the navigation pane, click Proxies > Create SSL Certificate Request tab
- In the Key Information section, select a key length (2048) and key file name
- In the Certificate Information section, enter the following information
- Country Name (C): Use the two-letter code without punctuation for country, for example: US or CA.
- State or Province (S): Spell out the state completely; do not abbreviate the state or province name, for example: California
- Locality or City (L): The Locality field is the city or town name, for example: Berkeley.
- Organization (O): If the company or department has an &, @, or any other symbol using the shift key in its name, the symbol must be spelled out or omitted, in order to enroll.
Example: XYZ Corporation
- Organizational Unit (OU): This field is optional; but can be used to help identify certificates registered to an organization. The Organizational Unit (OU) field is the name of the department or organization unit making the request.
- Common Name (CN): The Common Name is the Host + Domain Name. It looks like "www.company.com" or "company.com".
VeriSign certificates can only be used on Web servers using the Common Name specified during enrollment. For example, a certificate for the domain "domain.com" will receive a warning if accessing a site named "www.domain.com" or "secure.domain.com", because "www.domain.com" and "secure.domain.com" are different from "domain.com".
Please do not enter an email address, challenge password or an optional company name when generating the CSR.
- Click Generate Certificate Request
- Verify your CSR
- In the SSL Certificate Request screen, start the process of obtaining a certificate from VeriSign.
- Click on the URL for the VeriSign SSL certificate product to obtain a certificate for the server.
Note: For all SSL certificates the key bit length must be 2048.
Contact Information
During the verification process, VeriSign may need to contact your organization. Be sure to provide an email address, phone number, and fax number that will be checked and responded to quickly. These fields are not part of the certificate.