Knowledge Base

How to Install an SSL Certificate

An SSL Certificate is a text file with encrypted data that you install on your server so that you can secure/encrypt sensitive communications between your site and your customers. Learn more about SSL certificates.

After you create a CSR (certificate signing request) and purchase a certificate, our Validation team validates and processes your certificate request. (Learn more about the certificate validation process.) Once validated, we issue your SSL Certificate and send it to you via email. You can also download your SSL Certificate in your DigiCert account.

Intermediate Certificate

When you install an SSL certificate on a server or SSL-enabled application, you’ll also need to install an intermediate certificate. This intermediate certificate establishes the trust of your SSL certificate by tying it to your Certificate Authority’s root certificate (your DigiCert issued SSL certificate → the intermediate certificate → DigiCert root certificate). To complete the certificate trust chain, a Browser requires the intermediate certificate to be present. Learn more about the role of intermediate and root certificates.

Note: For some servers (such as Microsoft), the intermediate certificates are bundled with the SSL certificate.

Common Platforms & Operating Systems

All CSR Creation Instructions by Platform/OS

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