You can obtain server certificates from an outside certification authority (CA), or you can issue your own server certificates using Certificate Services. After you obtain a server certificate, you can install it. When you use the Web Server Certificate Wizard to obtain and install a server certificate, the process is referred to as creating and assigning a server certificate.
For detailed steps, see How to Obtain a Server Certificate from a Certification Authority.
This section explains the issues to consider when deciding whether to obtain your server certificates from an outside CA, or to issue your own server certificates. This section includes the following information:
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Obtaining server certificates from a certification authority
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Issuing your own server certificates
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Installing server certificates
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Backing up server certificates
Obtaining Server Certificates from a Certification Authority
If you are replacing your current server certificate, IIS continues to use that certificate until the new request has been completed. When you are choosing a CA, consider the following questions:
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Will the CA be able to issue a certificate that is compatible with all of the browsers used to access my server?
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Is the CA a recognized and trusted organization?
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How will the CA provide verification of my identity?
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Does the CA have a system for receiving online certificate requests, such as requests generated by the Web Server Certificate Wizard?
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How much will the certificate cost initially, and how much will renewal or other services cost?
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Is the CA familiar with my organization or my company's business interests?
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Some certification authorities require you to prove your identity before they will process your request or issue a certificate.
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Issuing Your Own Server Certificates
When deciding whether to issue your own server certificates, consider the following:
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Understand that Certificate Services accommodates different certificate formats and provides for auditing and logging of certificate-related activity.
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Compare the cost of issuing your own certificates against the cost of buying a certificate from a certification authority.
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Remember that your organization will require an initial adjustment period to learn, implement, and integrate Certificate Services with existing security systems and policies.
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Assess the willingness of your connecting clients to trust your organization as a certificate supplier.
Use Certificate Services to create a customizable service for issuing and managing certificates. You can create server certificates for the Internet or for corporate intranets, giving your organization complete control over certificate management policies. For more information, see Certificate Services in Windows Server™ 2003 Help.
Online requests for server certificates can only be made to local and remote Enterprise Certificate Services and remote stand-alone Certificate Services. The Web Server Certificate Wizard does not recognize a stand-alone installation of Certificate Services on the same computer when requesting a certificate. If you need to use Web Server Certificate Wizard on the same computer as a stand-alone Certificate Services installation, use the offline certificate request to save the request to a file and then process it as an offline request. For more information, see Certificate Services in Windows Server 2003 Help.
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If you open a Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) certificate, you may receive the following notice on the General tab: The certificate has failed to verify for all of its intended purposes. This notice is issued because of the way SGC certificates interact with Microsoft Windows® and does not necessarily indicate that the certificate does not work properly.
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Installing Server Certificates
After obtaining a server certificate from a CA, or after issuing your own server certificate using Certificate Services, use the Web Server Certificate Wizard to install it.
Backing Up Server Certificates
You can use the Web Server Certificate Wizard to back up server certificates. Because IIS works closely with Windows, you can use Certificate Manager, which is called Certificates in Microsoft Management Console (MMC), to export and back up your server certificates.
For detailed steps about how to add Certificate Manager to an empty MMC, see How to Add Certificate Manager to Microsoft Management Console.
After you install Certificate Manager, you can back up your certificate. For detailed steps, see How to Back Up Your Server Certificate.
After you configure your network to issue server certificates, you need to secure your Exchange front-end server and the services for your Exchange server by requiring SSL communication to the Exchange front-end server. The following section describes how to enable SSL for your default Web site.