CSR Generation Instructions

The following instructions will guide you through the CSR generation process on Microsoft Office Communications 2007 Server. To learn more about CSRs and the importance of your private key, reference our Overview of Certificate Signing Request article. If you already generated the CSR and received your trusted SSL certificate, reference our SSL Installation Instructions and disregard the steps below.

  1. Click Start, then select Programs, then Administrative Tools, and finally Office Communications Server 2007.
  2. Expand the Enterprise Edition Server snap-in.
  3. Right-click the correct Server and select Certificates.
  4. Select Next on the Certificate Wizard, then select Create a New Certificate, then click next again.

  5. Select the Prepare the request now, but send it later option, click Next.

  6. Enter a friendly name for your Certificate, something you will be able to reference easily later. And select 2048 as your Bit Length.

    Note: If you want the certificate to be exportable, make sure to select that option on this screen.
  7. Over the next few screens of the wizard, enter the following information to complete the CSR:
    • Organization Name (ON): The full legal name of your organization including the corporate identifier.
    • Organizational Unit (OU): Your department such as 'Information Technology' or ‘Website Security.’
    • Subject Name (SN): The FQDN (fully-qualified domain name) you want to secure with the certificate such as www.google.com, secure.website.org, *.domain.net, etc.
      Note: If you are dealing with a multi-domain certificate, enter your SANs on this screen as well.
    • Country Name (C): The official two-letter country code (i.e. US, CH) where your organization is legally incorporated.
    • State or Province (S): The state or province where your organization is legally incorporated. Do not abbreviate.
    • Country Name (C): The official two-letter country code (i.e. US, CH) where your organization is legally incorporated.
    • Locality or City (L): The locality or city where your organization is legally incorporated. Do not abbreviate.
  8. Select a file name and a location to save your CSR.
  9. Review your selections and close the Wizard.

  10. Locate and open the newly created CSR from the specified location you choose in a text editor such as Notepad and copy all the text including:

    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
    And
    -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----


  11. Return to the Generation Form on our website and paste the entire CSR into the blank text box and continue with completing the generation process.

Upon generating your CSR, your order will enter the validation process with the issuing Certificate Authority (CA) and require the certificate requester to complete some form of validation depending on the certificate purchased. For information regarding the different levels of the validation process and how to satisfy the industry requirements, reference our validation articles.

After you complete the validation process and receive the trusted SSL Certificate from the issuing Certificate Authority (CA), proceed with the next step using our SSL Installation Instructions for Microsoft Office Communications 2007.