SSL Cert IIS6 create new request on dummy site vs renewing on running site.

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toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#119749 12-Jun-2013 10:56

I have some conflicting information here. It seems that renewing an SSL cert on a running site should not affect anything as per here:
http://www.geocerts.com/csr/iis_renew_6
They recommend just renewing the cert.
But digicert who we are using as our provider recommentd creating a dummy site and generating the request off that:
http://www.digicert.com/ssl-certificate-renewal-iis-6.htm

Is there a proper and recommended way to go here? Anyone got any reasons why you would choose one way over the other?

Cheers
Paul

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wasabi2k

2096 posts

Uber Geek

#834661 12-Jun-2013 11:10

Renewing a cert would normally generate a request using the same private key. There will be no impact on the existing site until you change to use the new certificate.

Using a dummy site would generate a new private key.

In short, no real difference, the private key/cert pairing is a machine thing and can apply to whatever site you want. Doing it on a dummy site would probably be less stressful if you are unsure (given that if you break something somehow it won't affect live).

toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#835719 12-Jun-2013 12:50

Cheers, thanks for that. I was also just told that because I cannot guarantee the CA server that did the previous certificate, an automatic renew might fail if the CA server has changes somehow. So it is best to just do a new cert off a dummy site.

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