Receiving and Installing Your SSL Certificate

Generally, CAs provide detailed instructions for the installation of their SSL certificates; however, I’ll cover some broad points here.

The CA from which you order a certificate will email you either the certificate, or a link at which you can download it. Follow the instructions provided precisely—especially with regards to opening a certificate in a text editor. Do not use a word processor or rich text editor, as the certificate code can become corrupted. You should also take care to ensure that no leading or trailing spaces follow the beginning and end of the certificate code—see Example 4.1, “Example Emailed Certificate”

Example 4.1. Example Emailed Certificate

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIICzjCCAjegAwIBAgIBAjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADCBrDELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMx
ETAPBgNVBAgTCFZpcmdpbmlhMRQwEgYDVQQHEwtTcHJpbmdmaWVsZDEYMBYGA1UE
ChMPSlJJIFdvcmxkLCBJbmMuMRAwDgYDVQQLEwdPbnRhcmlvMR0wGwYDVQQDExRv
bnRhcmlvLmpyaXdvcmxkLmNvbTEpMCcGCSqGSIb3DQEJARYaYmlsbGZAb250YXJp
by5qcml3b3JsZC5jb20wHhcNMDUwNDA3MjI0MTU3WhcNMDYwNDA3MjI0MTU3WjCB
rDELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxETAPBgNVBAgTCFZpcmdpbmlhMRQwEgYDVQQHEwtTcHJp
bmdmaWxlZDEYMBYGA1UEChMPSlJJIFdvcmxkLCBJbmMuMRAwDgYDVQQLEwdPbnRh
cmlvMR0wGwYDVQQDExRPbnRhcmlvLmpyaXdvcmxkLmNvbTEpMCcGCSqGSIb3DQEJ
ARYaYmlsbGZAb250YXJpby5qcml3b3JsZC5jb20wgZ8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAD
gY0AMIGJAoGBAM81vIgjw0DWAfReVKthdvwe4YP4Z29UU2QZKx/cTt7pJYnW2vnD
pieGoIyiWr5qW+rmtEFRe1yqarZxU0oGyz2w/1ZlOrhU6vBvsa4JOY6DndSixiRq
jVpzspNk9iJUA5AcjKQVC7SCgDHeySLyHm/zzNKOlATRge3HMgge/qzbAgMBAAEw
DQYJKoZIhvcNAQEEBQADgYEAS6MTN6SWlXu24JhNBPjYpwNs/h0HJ+s4uZnQAq49
pPoRm8omMFx4ilEwuihIUnH0Q9rG6hViiThq6pxRj3gkY8UJ5UaKuXr9yLcfNGf5
r6iaPTHeiauHVqXeBfY+ZWTWlIl9FNePo8Sc9eYI8s/KuR+dn97iYmTAHC8kOzlY
gGg=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----