Frequently Asked Questions

SSL Certificate Renewal - Tomcat 4.x/5.x/6.x

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Last Updated: July 15, 2015 3:26 PM

After we approve your certificate renewal request, you can download your SSL and intermediate certificate. For more information, see Downloading an SSL Certificate. You must install both files on your Web server.

You can also download the intermediate certificate here.

Follow the instructions below to download and install signed certificate and intermediate certificates on your Web server.

Note that Java 2 SDK 1.2 or above must be installed as the following describes how to install a certificate using keytool.

Installation Option One: Installing SSL Certificate and CA Bundle (sf_bundle.crt) Implementing a PKCS12 Keystore

Before you install your SSL certificate you must download our root certificate bundle (sf_bundle.crt) on your Web server. You may download the bundle from the repository.

Use the following OpenSSL command to combine the ca bundle (sf_bundle.crt) and your SSL certificate:

openssl pkcs12 -export -chain -CAfile sf_bundle.crt -in -inkey -out keystore.tomcat -name tomcat -passout pass:changeit

Updating the server.xml Configuration File

When you have completed installing your certificate, you must configure your Tomcat server.xml configuration file to point to the correct pkcs12 keystore file:

  1. Open the server.xml file.
  2. After uncommenting the SSL/TLS connector from server.xml, locate the following Factory tag section and COMMENT IT OUT:
    <Factory className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteServerSocketFactory" clientAuth="false" protocol="TLS" />
  3. Add the following directives to the Connector tag:
  4. keystoreFile=<path to>\keystore.tomcat keystorePass="changeit" keystoreType="PKCS12"
  5. Restart Tomcat.

Installation Option Two: Installing SSL Certificate and Intermediate Certificates Separately

Installing Root and Intermediate Certificates

Once you have downloaded the certificates to your local machine, please use the following keytool commands to import them:

Root:

"keytool -import -alias root -keystore tomcat.keystore -trustcacerts -file valicert_class2_root.crt."

First intermediate (sf_cross_intermediate.crt):

"keytool -import -alias cross -keystore tomcat.keystore -trustcacerts -file sf_cross_intermediate.crt"

Second intermediate (sf_intermediate.crt):

"keytool -import -alias intermed -keystore tomcat.keystore -trustcacerts -file sf_intermediate.crt"

Installing SSL Certificate

Use the following command to import the issued certificate into your keystore:

keytool -import -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.keystore -trustcacerts -file [name of your certificate]

Updating the server.xml Configuration File

When you have completed installing your certificate, you must configure your Tomcat server.xml configuration file to point to the correct keystore file:

  1. Open the server.xml file.
  2. After uncommenting the SSL/TLS connector from server.xml, locate the following text section:
    <Factory className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteServerSocketFactory" clientAuth="false" protocol="TLS" />
  3. Add the "keystoreFile" and "keystorePass" directives:
    <Factory className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteServerSocketFactory" clientAuth="false" protocol="TLS" keystoreFile="/full/path/to/tomcat.keystore" keystorePass="changeit" />
  4. Restart Tomcat.