How to create self signed SSL Certificate in Windows 2003 server
Posted by Rajesh Kumar on January 12, 2010
Have you ever thought of hosting your web sites in a secured protocol (https) than general http? To host the web site or web services in https, we need to have the certificate issued by CA, Verisign, GoDaddy etc and these are very expensive.
Microsoft is so kind to give the feature to generate a temporary certificates from Windows 2003 server which can be used for development purpose. In this article, I am going to explain you how to create and assign the SSL certificate for a web site. For this tutorial, we are going to create and assign SSL for “Default Web Site“
Follow the steps given below in Windows 2003 server:
1. Click on Start -> Run.
2. Type “inetmgr” and hit Enter key. IIS manager should be opened now.
3. Expand the “Internet Information Services” on left side window till you see your desired Web site.
4. Right-click on “Default Web Site” and choose “Properties”.
5. In “Default Web Site Properties” window, click on “Directory Security” tab.
6. click on “Server Certificate” button.
7. Click on “Next” button.
8. Select “Create a new certificate”.
Note: If this option is not available, then you might be having a pending certificate. Either create a new web site or delete the pending request by following the wizard and start from step 4.
9. Select “Prepare the request now, but send it later” and click on “Next” button.
10. Type the name for certificate (let’s say it as “TestCertificate“) and click on “Next” button.
11. Type your “Organization” and “Organization unit” and click on “Next” button.
12. Type the common name (it can be any) and click on “Next” button.
13. Type Geographical Information and click on “Next” button.
14. Enter the certificate file and path, click on “Next” button.
15. Click on “Next” and then “Finish” button.
16. Click on “Web Site” tab and then type “443” as the port number in “SSL port:” field.
17. Now select “Directory Security” tab again.
18. Click on “Edit” button under “Secure communications” group.
19. Check “Require secure channel (SSL)” option and click on “Ok” button.
20. Click on “Ok” button to finish it completely.
With this, we have created a new certificate and configured it to the web site. From, now onwards you can start accessing your site with “https“.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.
