You can generate your own test certificate or get a test certificate
from a CA. The test certificate should be used to test your Red Hat Linux Secure Server to
make sure it is operating correctly.
To request a test certificate from VeriSign, point your Web browser to
https://digitalid.verisign.com/server/trial/trialIntro.htm.
Follow these instructions:
Read the information on the Before You Start
page and the VeriSign Trial Subscriber Agreement. Click on
Continue when you're finished.
The next page, Generate CSR, shows you
instructions on how to generate a certificate request (CSR). If
you followed the instructions in the section called Generating a Certificate Request, you already have a CSR in
/etc/httpd/conf/server.csr file. If
not, create your key and CSR using the instructions in that
section now. Then click on Continue in the
bottom right corner.
The next page, Submit CSR, is shown in Figure 3-1.
Figure 3-1. Submit CSR
Copy the contents of
/etc/httpd/conf/server.csr file and paste it
into the text box on the Submit CSR page. Be
sure to include the BEGIN CERTIFICATE
REQUEST and END CERTIFICATE
REQUEST lines, but don't add any extra space
before or after the leading and ending hyphens. Extra white
spaces can cause problems, so be careful when you copy the file to
get just the characters, from the beginning hyphens to the ending
hyphens, with no extra empty spaces. After doing so, the page
should look like Figure 3-2.
Figure 3-2. Paste in Your server.csr
Click on Continue at the bottom right of
the Submit CSR page.
The next page, Complete Application, is shown
in Figure 3-3. The top of this page will
be automatically filled in with the information you provided when
you created your certificate request.
Figure 3-3. Application for Test Certificate from VeriSign
Scroll down the page, which contains a form for you to fill out.
Under Enter Technical Contact Information,
fill in the fields with contact information for your Red Hat Linux Secure Server's
administrator or webmaster.
After you have filled in the technical contact information for
your Red Hat Linux Secure Server's administrator or webmaster, you should read the
server agreement provided at the bottom of the page. Then click
on Accept at the bottom of the page if you
accept the terms of the agreement and to indicate that you would
like to be issued a test certificate.
VeriSign should indicate that your application was received and
processed, and will e-mail you a test certificate. If you receive
an error message instead, follow the instructions it provides, but
first check your e-mail. In some cases, despite an error message
indicating that there was some problem with your application, the
test certificate may have already been e-mailed to you.
Save the test certificate, including the entire
BEGIN CERTIFICATE and
END CERTIFICATE lines, in
/etc/httpd/conf/server.crt. Make
sure that you don't add any leading or trailing white spaces
before or after the hyphens that start and end the certificate.
Cut and paste your certificate request (the contents of
/etc/httpd/conf/server.csr) into the
Certificate Signing Request text box on
Thawte's Web page.
Set the amount of time for which the test certificate should be
valid. Note that at the time this manual was written, a Thawte
test certificate could be set for up to 365 days of validity.
Select when you need the test certificate to be valid.
Select Test X509v3 SSL Cert as the Type of
Test Certificate.
Select Use the default for your kind of cert
under Certificate Format.
Click the Generate Test Certificate button
at the bottom of the page.
The returned Web page will include your test certificate (see
Figure 3-5). Cut and paste the
test certificate, including the BEGIN
CERTIFICATE and END
CERTIFICATE lines, into
/etc/httpd/conf/server.crt.
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