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Knowledge Base

DigiCert will deprecate the Organizational Unit field

Solution ID : AL050820190047
Last Modified : 10/21/2023

Description

To comply with industry standards, Per the CA/B Forum, as of Sept 1, 2022 (9/1/22), public TLS certs will not have an OU, and will ignore OU in a request for public TLS.

DigiCert will retire the Organizational Unit (OU) field for all public TLS/SSL certificates by August 24th 2022.

August 3, 2022 - Is the last day Digicert will allow new orders, reissue, duplicate orders to be submitted with an OU. If you attempt to place a new order, reissue, or duplicate after this date, the OU will not be listed on the certificate.

Why is the OU field being removed?

DigiCert will deprecate the Organizational Unit (OU) field to simplify certificate ordering. The OU field allows optional metadata to be stored in a certificate, however, it’s intended purpose is extremely limited and is subject to validation requirements. To reduce confusion around this optional field and to help improve validation times, we are removing it from future ordering processes.

How does this affect me?

  • Soon the OU field will no longer appear in order forms, will be ignored in API requests, and will be removed in all new, renewed, and reissued public TLS certificates.
  • This change will not affect previously issued certificates with a valid OU field. 
  • This does not affect private TLS certificates or other types of non-TLS certificates.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact your account manager or customer support.