Chapter 1: Getting Started with SSL Certificates in Windows Server

We are constantly making use of SSL certificates, although we may not appreciate the

frequency. When we navigate to a site using HTTPS, we are making use of an SSL certificate.

When we encrypt a message to send to another party, we are depending on an SSL

certificate. When we install software that has been signed by a trusted source, we are once

again making use of SSL certificates. Their prevalence in IT environments indicates just

how valuable they are in a number of applications. It is not surprising that sooner or later,

many systems administrators, application managers, and other Windows professionals

need to install and manage SSL certificates.

This book is designed to help you understand how to select an SSL certificate, install it in a

Windows environment, manage multiple certificates, and use them with specialized

applications, such as the SQL Server relational database. The guide is organized into four

chapters.

Chapter 2: Understanding the Microsoft Certificate Store

One of the things we quickly realize when we start to work with SSL certificates is how

many we need to manage. We can have SSL certificates for Web servers, mail servers,

various kinds of application servers, and individual users can have servers, too. And those

are just the servers we generate or acquire for internal purposes. We also need to manage

certificates for trusted third parties, like Microsoft or security vendors that provide SSL

certificates. Certificates from these trusted sources are kept on our computers so that we

can determine the authenticity of certificates signed by these parties. Clearly, we need a

way to keep track of all the digital certificates. This is where a certificate store comes in.

In this, the second chapter of How to Install SSL Certificates for on Microsoft Servers, we will

examine some of the basic tasks associated with managing and maintaining SSL certificates.

Before we jump into various certificate operations, we need to understand a bit about the

certificate store and tools for working with that store.

The chapter is organized into three main sections:

• Overview of the purpose of the certificate store
• How to manage certificates with the Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
• Maintenance tasks associated with SSL certificates

The object of this chapter is to familiarize you with how the Windows operating systems

(OSs) manage certificates and what you need to do to before taking the next step of

deploying SSL certificates in your Web servers, email servers, database servers, and other

enterprise applications.

Chapter 3: Using SSL Certificates in Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)

The goal of this book is to provide readers a step‐by‐step guide to working with SSL

certificates in a Windows environment. In the first chapter, we considered different types

of SSL certificates and the reasons for choosing one type over another. In the second

chapter, we delved into the Microsoft Certificate Store and reviewed how to use the

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to perform basic certificate operations and

management tasks. In this chapter, we turn our attention to one of the most common

business drivers for using SSL certificates: providing assurance about the authenticity of

our business' Web sites.

Web sites make use of SSL certificates to authenticate themselves to clients and to support

encrypted communication with clients. Windows systems administrators responsible for

maintaining Web sites will likely have to install and maintain SSL certificates for one or

more sites. This chapter provides a detailed explanation of how to install SSL certificates

with Internet Information Server (IIS) Manager, including binding certificates to sites,

configuring SSL settings, and verifying installation. The role of authenticating clients with

SSL certificates is also discussed. We conclude this chapter with a discussion of setting up

development and test environments with self‐signed certificates.

The chapter is organized around three tasks commonly performed when working with IIS:

• Installing SSL certificates in IIS with the IIS Manager
• Authenticating clients with client certificate mapping
• Setting up SSL‐enabled development and test environments

Most of the work involved in these steps occurs within the IIS Manager, but as we will see

next, an important step begins with requesting a certificate from a trusted third‐party

provider.

Chapter 4: Installing SSL Certificates in Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft SQL Server

SSL certificates are often associated with Web servers such as

Microsoft IIS, but they are actually used in a variety of Microsoft

applications, including Microsoft Exchange email server, Microsoft

SharePoint collaboration server, and the Microsoft SQL Server database.

The process of installing an SSL certificate has both common and

application-specific steps across these applications. This final chapter

discusses how to install an SSL certificate in Microsoft Exchange

Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and Microsoft SQL Server. We begin

with a quick overview of the common parts of the installation process,

then discuss each application in more detail.