I can set them up one-by-one with self-signed certs, but it's not practical for how many subdomains I'm working with.
Is there an easier way to do this?
Easiest is to use a wildcard certificate signed by a recognized authority. That also makes the certificates valid and validatable which is not the case for self signed certificates.
A wildcard certificate costs a fee for the signing service. Some 20 Euros a year currently. And you obviously have to go through a verification process, typically per telephone. The Let's Encrypt certificates are great, but they do not offer wildcard certificates. You certainly can automate the creation of their certificates by scripting, though, if you are willing to invest effort into that.
I personally used startssl in the past. Their portal is a bit difficult to use, but things work, and I failed to find anything comparable if it comes to prices. You need their "level 2" for a wildcard certificate, the free certificates are always for a single host name only. Each wildcard certificate will cost extra, obviously, but similar obviously you can use a single wildcard certificate with all host names within a given domain name which is what you are looking for I think.
I have a SSL cert installed on http://example.com. I've finished a mobile version of the same site and it sits on http://mobile.example.com. I need to secure that subdomain as well so I purchased another SSL. But now I'm trying to understand how to set it up.. because I know you can only have one SSL per server, correct?
So what's the correct way to go about this? Do I need to change the original SSL to wildcard? Do I need two SSLs?
You can use a wildcard certificate or a certificate that allows multiple SANs (Subject Alt Names). How you set them up is very dependent on your web server. A wildcard certificate only works for subdomains, while SANs can be used for completely unrelated domains.
With Apache (don't know about others) you can also use two separate certificates as long as you're willing to drop support for XP-users (see e.g. http://www.digicert.com/ssl-support/apache-multiple-ssl-certificates-using-sni.htm for details).
We currently have a single development environment with Cloud66. We are hoping to expand to staging and production environments which will be secured with SSL.
Is it possible to use the same wildcard certificate to secure all three environments (obviously with different names for each)?
I've added the detail below as I don't think my original question was clear enough.
Specifically what I want to know is if Cloud66 will allow a single wildcard certificate to be used to secure domains across a number of stacks or if a single certificate can only be used on a single stack.
Yes. When you order a wildcard SSL certificate you can use it to secure multiple sites assuming they each use the same base domain of the wildcard certificate.
Yes you can, Wildcard SSL certificate is used to secure multiple domain names but your main domain name will be same.
Using wildcard you can secure
www.yourdomain.com
blog.yourdomain.com
login.yourdomain.com
secure.yourdomain.com
etc.yourdomain.com.
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I'm wanting to cover the a few domains with an SSL Certificate.
e.g.
portal.domain.com
app.domain.com
app1.domain.com
app2.domain.com
I'm a bit confused as to whether I can go for the cheaper Unified Communications Certificate, or whether I need to fork out for a wildcard certificate.
Is the only difference that the wildcard can have an unlimited number of subdomains, where the UCC only covers a set number under the SANs?
Thanks in advance
Yes, you are right Unified Communications Certificate covers a set on SANs but it can secure multiple domains, and hosts configured in your Exchange server where a traditional wildcard SSL cannot. For e.g. A wildcard ssl can secure first level of sub-domains like *.example dot com where a Unified Communications Certificate secures www.example dot com, www.example dot net etc.
Yes. Keep in mind that some old X.509 implementations might not support SAN, but that's pretty rare today (some Symbian OS phones for example, see http://www.digicert.com/subject-alternative-name-compatibility.htm).
Generally, a domain name or URL requires just one certificate to be secure. But what if you need to secure multiple domains? How can you manage their security without sacrificing budget and time?
Securing Multiple Domains
Securing multiple domains can be achieved with 2 approaches, Wildcard certificates and Unified Communications Certificates (UCC), also known as SAN (Subject Alternative Name). SAN lets you specify additional host names (sites, IP addresses, common names, etc.) to be protected by a single SSL Certificate, while a Wildcard certificate can support a single domain and an unlimited number of first-level subdomains. SAN/UCC can also be combined as an extension with a Wildcard to add functionality to the certificate. You can combine these two certificates as a Multi-domain Wildcard SSL Certificate depending on your needs. This makes managing the security of multiple websites much easier and cheaper than managing a separate SSL certificate for every domain you own.
Read More: Wildcard Vs SAN/UCC Certificates
It's only cheaper up until a certain number of domains, because UC and SAN certs charge by each domain name. You'll notice the price changes as you enter and subtract domains from this UCC link
If you know that you will have more than say 5 subdomains, save some cash with the wildcard because it's a set prices regardless of the number of sub domains.
UCC and SAN is only recommended for exchange server. your requirement seems like you need ssl with common name *.domain.com so that single ssl works for all sub-domains.
Know what exactly UCC and SAN is..
UCC / SAN cert is recommended only if you need to secure different tld like urdomain.com urdomain.co.uk urmydomain.net. This kind certs cost too much as it starts from $200.
Answering your question, I checked few brands wildcard ssl RapidSSL wildcard, comodo positive ssl wildcard, globalsign alphassl wildcard, geotrust wildcard ssl. I tested these brands installed ssl website in my iPhone and Samsung android phone. All works perfect.
I reviewed many ssl providers for UC certificates pricing. Apart from the pricing, I found some ssl providers sell same product with different names, like multi-domains ssl, san certificate and uc certificates.
Microsoft exchange server requires typical UC certificate, strongly recommended by Microsoft. I decided to purchase UC certificate but it costs too much, starts from $300 to $600 with veriour providers like comodo, globalsign, digicerts etc. First I purchase single domain ssl and failed in exchange server installation. I thought could save $$$ with single domain ssl.
Later I searched for UC certificate prices $50 to $100 and found ssl2buy ssl company provides comodo uc certificates for $60 only and it includes 4 domains.
https://www.ssl2buy.com/comodo-multi-domain-ssl.php
I purchased this uc certificate and installed on my exchange server. It works fine! No error - No installation issue, nothing.
I've got a webserver that has a single domain SSL certificate: https://secure.example.com
I also have a couple of subdomains that point to different servers:
http://www.example.com, which points to the main server.
http://subdomain.example.com which points to a completely different server.
What is the best way to add SSL to the subdomain https://subdomain.example.com
Is it possible to configure something like this with a wildcard certificate? Or is it better to purchase another single-domain certificate and install it on the seperate server?
You can get a wildcard cert but that is probably more expensive than you need and you'd need to copy your private key to each server -- which really is not recommended unless you are a crypto expert. You are better off simply purchasing two more certs for the two additional machines.
Wild card certificates only cover domains on the same server. I believe it's because the key used in the certificate is tied back to the server.
If you want to add a certificate for sites on other servers you will need specific certificates for those server/domain combinations.