I am not a certificate guru by any means. We do a hand full of updates every year and every system has a different interface/process to import. The SmartZone Cert import seems to give me the most problems.
All our certificates are generated from Godaddy. Godaddy offers multiple flavors to download a cert. When I say flavors I mean they offer the cert in IIS, Apache, Tomcat, etc...formats. I have never been able to find any format just import straight into the SZ. I always have to call support for them to "tweak" the certificate.
This time I had the tech provide the instructions as I will not remember the process when it is time to renew again. I decided to post the step here in case there was anybody else struggling with a GoDaddy certificate import.
These steps will create the files (Root, Intermediate, and Server). From there the import should be straightforward....
Step 1: Open the .CRT File
- Locate the .CRT file on your computer.
- Double-click the file to open it in the Windows Certificate Viewer.
Step 2: View the Certificate Chain
- In the Certificate Viewer, go to the Certification Path tab.
- Here, you will see a hierarchy showing:
- Root Certificate (Top-most)
- Intermediate Certificate(s) (Middle)
- Server Certificate (Bottom)
Step 3: Extract the Server Certificate
- Click on the lowest-level certificate (this is the Server Certificate).
- Click View Certificate.
- In the new window, go to the Details tab.
- Click Copy to File… (This opens the Certificate Export Wizard).
- Click Next, then choose Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER) format.
- Click Next, choose a destination, and save it as server_certificate.cer.
Step 4: Extract the Intermediate Certificate(s)
- In the Certification Path tab, select the Intermediate Certificate (middle level).
- Repeat the same steps as above to export it.
- Save it as intermediate_certificate.cer.
Step 5: Extract the Root Certificate
- Select the Top-most certificate (this is the Root Certificate).
- Follow the same steps and save it as root_certificate.cer.
