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Assign a Server Certificate to a Web Site

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Server certificates contain information about the server that allows the client to positively identify the server before sharing sensitive information. After you obtain a server certificate from a trusted certification authority and install the server certificate on the Web server, you need to assign the server certificate to the Web site.

Requirements

  • Credentials: Membership in the Administrators group on the local computer.

  • Tools: Iis.msc.

Recommendation

As a security best practice, log on to your computer using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the Run as command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At the command prompt, type **runas /user:**administrative_accountname mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc.

Procedures

To assign a server certificate to a Web site

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the local computer, and then expand the Web Sites folder.

  2. Right-click the Web site or file that you want, and then click Properties.

    Depending on whether you are configuring a Web site or a file, select either the Directory Security or File Security tab, and under Secure communications, click Server Certificate.

  3. In the Web Server Certificate Wizard, click Assign an existing certificate.

  4. Follow the steps in the Web Server Certificate Wizard, which guides you through the process of installing a server certificate.

  5. You can view the information about the certificate by clicking the View Certificate button on the Directory Security or File Security tab of the Web sites Properties page.