Installing and Testing Your Certificate

At this point, you should have a file named server.key, containing your key, and a file named server.crt, containing your test certificate. The server.key and server.crt files should be in your /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key and /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt directories, respectively. If they are somewhere else, move them to those directories. If you changed any of the default locations or filenames for the Red Hat Linux Apache/SSL Server in your Apache configuration files, you should put these two files in the appropriate directory, based on your modifications.

Now start your server as described in the section called Starting and Stopping Your Server in Chapter 4. If your key file is encrypted, you will be asked for the password. Type in your password. Your server will now be running.

Point your Web browser to your server's home page. You should see a dialog box which indicates that your browser needs to be configured to accept the test certificate.

Follow the instructions provided by your browser to accept the test certificate. You can just accept the defaults by clicking Next until the dialogs are finished.

Once you've configured your browser to accept the test certificate, your Red Hat Linux Apache/SSL Server will show you a default home page as shown in Figure 3-6.

Figure 3-6. The Red Hat Linux Apache/SSL Server Default Home Page

Your Web server is running. The next step is to buy and install a real certificate.