CSR Generation Instructions

The following instructions will guide you through the CSR generation process on Tomcat. 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. Go to the Directory where you will manage the certificate.
  2. Generate a keystore and private key by running the following command:

    keytool -genkey -alias server -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -keystore your_domain_name.jks

    Note: Replace "your_domain_name" with the primary domain you will be securing with the certificate.

  3. Enter a keystore password.
  4. Enter your Organization Information.

  5. Note: When prompted to enter your First and Last Name, input your “domain name” instead of your personal name.

  6. Enter y or yes when prompted only if all information is correct.
  7. Enter your keystore password and press Enter.
  8. Your keystore has been created in the current directory.
  9. From the newly created keystore, generate your CSR by running the following keytool command:

  10. keytool -certreq -alias server -file csr.txt -keystore your_domain_name.jks

  11. Enter your keystore password and press Enter.
  12. Your CSR has been created in the current directory.
  13. Locate and open the newly created CSR in a text editor such as Notepad and copy all the text including:

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

  14. 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 Tomcat.