How to Install SSL Certificate on Apache Redhat Linux

SSL Certificate Installation on Apache Redhat Linux Server

The following guide contains a small amount of steps with easy and quick explanation to install your SSL certificate on Apache Redhat Linux.

Apache Redhat Linux Server SSL Certificate Installation Guide

Step One
Once you’ve got an approval of your certificate from the Certificate Authority (CA), you will have email, which will contain an encryption key valuables in hash algorithm such as;

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIAGCSqGSIb3DQEHAqCAMIACAQExADALBgkqhkiG9w0BBwGggDCCAmowggHXAhAF
UbM77e50M63v1Z2A/5O5MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEOBAUAMF8xCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMSAw
(.......)
E+cFEpf0WForA+eRP6XraWw8rTN8102zGrcJgg4P6XVS4l39+l5aCEGGbauLP5W6
K99c42ku3QrlX2+KeDi+xBG2cEIsdSiXeQS/16S36ITclu4AADEAAAAAAAAA
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Step Two
Copy and paste above entire portion from —–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–
To —–END CERTIFICATE—– into text file and rename that following text file to server.crt

Now, you’ll want to store the following file on the following directory, which you’re going to keep all your certificate files;

Example: /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/

The above listed directory will also include multiple important files such as;

/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/   this is the directory path where SSL certificates should be stored
/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/   this is the path where the web server's private key is stored.
/etc/httpd/conf/ca-bundle/   this is the path where the CA bundle file should be stored

Note: It should be noted and it is recommended that the directory which contains the private key is only readable by the root user.

Step Three
Now, you should install the Certificate Authority Certificate as the second part of the installation process. Apache users can save time when installing the Certificate Authority (CA) certificates by using the “bundle” method.

Within your Virtual settings for your website, you’ll want to go into the httpd.conf file, and complete the following modifications listed below.

1. Copy the PEM formatted Bundle CA certificate file to the directory path where CA-bundled files are already stored such as; /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/
2. Add the following command to the panel of SSL certificate in httpd.conf.
   Example; SSLCACertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/cachainpem.txt

Note: if the location and certificate file names are different then you’ll have to rename the files and the path to reflect the right names on the Apache server.

Once completed, the SSL section of your httpd.conf file should look along the lines of something similar to what is listed below;

SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt 
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key
SSLCACertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/cachainpem.txt

Step Four
Save httpd.conf file and restart Apache