SSL Certificate Installation and Binding

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Verifying an SSL certificate is the process of ensuring the certificate the site holds is valid and identifying it correctly.

Prerequisites:
  • A valid SSL Certificate
  • Windows PowerShell Desktop Client
  • Internet Information Services(IIS) Manager Client Software
  • Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Client Software

SSL Certificate Installation and Binding:

Follow the below steps to install SSL certificate and to add certificate binding to a web app deployed in Azure Virtual Machine.

Step 1: Open PowerShell and Use the following commands to get the content of the SSL certificate.

Command:

$fileContentBytes = get-content ‘C:\Desktop\Certificates\<certificate name>.pfx’ -Encoding Byte

Note: Use certificate location path in above specified path.

Command:

[System.Convert]::ToBase64String($fileContentBytes) | Out-File -Encoding ASCII ‘<Certificate name >.pfx.txt’

Step 2: Open the converted SSL certificate text file and copy the content in it (Note: remove unnecessary spaces at the last)

Step 3: Login to VM of respective environment and create a text file and paste the content of SSL certificate text and click on save as and save the file name (file name will be certificateName +.pfx, save as type will be ‘All’, Encoding will be ‘ANSI’).

Step 4: The next step is to import certificate using MMC Snap-In. Open Microsoft Management Console(MMC), From the File menu, select Add/Remove Snap In. From the Available snap-ins list, choose Certificates, then select Add.

In the Certificates snap-in window, select Computer account and select Next. In the Select Computer window, leave Local computer selected, and then select Finish.

Step 5: The next step is to bind the SSL Certificate to HTTPS port 443. Binding refers to the process of configuring the certificate to use port 443 on the web application.

Open Internet Information Services(IIS) Manager for mapping the imported SSL Certificate and follow the below steps to add binding:

Click the Bindings…. Link in the Actions section in the upper right hand portion of the window.

In the Site Bindings window click the Add button.                                                 

In the Add Site Binding dialog, select https for the type and configure port to 443 and the friendly name of the certificate. From SSL Certificate drop down box select imported certificate and click on ok to add.

Step 6: After binding the certificate to the web app, restart the web app.

In the IIS Manager, Click the Restart Link in the Actions section in the upper right hand portion of the window under Manage Web Site to restart the application.

Step 7: The final step is to test the application. Test the web application page using an HTTPS URL such as https://<domain-name>.com/<app-name>