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I have a current .COM website, which uses SSL provided by the hosting company. URL example is https://domain.sansolo.com/shop/paymentform.asp where 'sansolo' represents the provided SSL.

I will soon be launching a new website for the same domain and need to prepare it with SSL ready for launch.

Can I add the domain to a newly purchased SSL Certificate and apply it to the new website, in its new hosting, and not cause any problems with the current site?

Once launched the domain will point to the new website; so this will be a temporary arrangement.

Edit: the current website has the .COM, the new website is online with a .NET; at launch I'll point the .COM to the new hosting. So this SSL question is about preparing the new site to have SSL ready for launch.

Thanks

Stephen
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  • It would help understand your question better if you could give some more details - notably, what SSL provider you would be using for the 'production' version of the setup, and (related) whether getting those certs would require your DNS to reflect the final setup (e.g. if you were using LetsEncrypt). In general, so long as you can get the certs without touching your DNS, I don't see what issues would be caused, although you probably will want to test the final setup fairly thoroughly before going live. – iwaseatenbyagrue Apr 15 '17 at 10:56

3 Answers3

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Thanks for all your input to this question. I'm posting an answer because I was able to resolve this and have now launched the new site.

The original hosting company provided its own SSL via a domain it owned, "sansolo.com". My company used this SSL via a subdomain "mycompany.sansolo.com".

As a result I could per-purchase an SSL certificate for "mycompany.com" and have it installed in the new site's hosting, ready for the new site launch, without effecting the old site.

If effect, "mycompany.com' had not had it's own cert before so it worked fine.

Stephen
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Yes, so long as the domain name is exactly the same. You'll need access to the private key and certificate, and a secure way to copy them to the new server - eg scp / sftp. Make sure you know how to renew / update the certificate.

You can validate this yourself.

  1. Set up your new server, including web server
  2. Put the certificate and private key on the new server, configure the web server to use it
  3. Change the hosts file on your PC to hard code the new IP to the domain. Flush your DNS cache.
  4. Navigate to the domain, and validate that you're hitting the new server, perhaps by making the content different.

Updated answer It sounds like you want to set up a new server with a new SSL certificate, which wasn't clear to me after reading your question.

Yes, you can do this. I know Let's Encrypt best so I'll tell you about that. Rather than type it all out, have a read of this question and answer, which provides one way of doing this that doesn't rely on A records pointing at the new server.

Other CAs will have other ways of doing this. For example you may have to create keys, send them away manually with various types of documentation, then get the certificate issues once checks have been done. This is the kind of process you'll need if you want a higher level certificate (certificate types) that authenticates who you are, rather than just letting you use SSL - eg an EV certificate.

Community
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Tim
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  • Thanks for your answer. The existing SSL is owned and provided by the host, so I will not be taking that with me. I'm fine with buying an SSL for the new hosting. Just don't want to create a conflict having the COM in two SSLs. – Stephen Mar 31 '17 at 01:17
  • @Stephen I've updated my answer. I'm not an expert but this sounds to me like it shouldn't be too difficult. – Tim Mar 31 '17 at 01:40
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As per you said, for .com domain your hosting company has already enabled SSL certificate but if you want the same SSL certificate for your .net domain then it is not possible because the SSL is issued on, for example xyz.com and now if you need same SSL certificate for xyz.net so the same SSL certificate will not work for the .net domain, if you have single domain SSL certificate. But if you have multi-domain SSL certificate then it will work because multi domain ssl certificate allows to add new domain name during the validity (before expiry date) of the ssl certificate.

Hosting companies normally provides single domain SSL certificate with hosting plan by default. So first check which SSL certificate your .com website currently have.

Dana
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