System Status
Buy Now
  • Email & Apps
  • Office 365
Login
  • MyRackspace Portal
  • Cloud Control Panel
  • Rackspace Webmail Login
  • Cloud Office Control Panel
  • Support Home
  • How-To
  • Developer Documentation
  •  Blogs 
    • Expert Insights Tech Blog
    • Rackspace Blog
    • Solve: Thought Leadership

Support Network

End-to-End Multicloud Solutions.   Solving Together.™   Learn more at Rackspace.com

How–To Home

Cloud Servers

  • Introduction
  • FAQ
  • All Articles

Purchase or renew an SSL certificate

Last updated on:  2018-10-23

Authored by:  Stephanie Fillmon


After you generate a certificate signing request (CSR), you can purchase a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for your server. This article describes how to purchase a new SSL certificate or renew an existing certificate.

  • Purchase a certificate
  • Renew a certificate
  • MyRackspace users

Purchase a certificate

To purchase an SSL certificate, you must first choose a certificate authority (CA). There are many vendors to choose from, such as Symantec™, DigiCert®, or Thawte®. You can choose whichever vendor you want.

You’ll need your CSR and the fully qualified domain name to which the certificate applies, also called the common name.

The type of certificate that you purchase and the validity period vary by vendor, and you can choose whichever certificate suits your needs.

After you submit the CSR, the CA emails a validation request to the person who is listed as the administrative contact for the domain to ensure that you actually own the domain for which you want to purchase the certificate.

Thawte accepts only the following email addresses when sending the authorizing email for the SSL123 product:

  • admin@
  • administrator@
  • hostmaster@
  • webmaster@
  • postmaster@
  • Administrative contact listed in WHOIS, if found

After you have purchased and validated your certificate, you’re ready to install it.

Renew a certificate

Follow your vendor’s SSL certificate renewal process. You might need the following details:

  • Server type: For example, Apache® 2.4.
  • SSL type: For example, OpenSSL (some vendors label this modSSL).
  • CSR

After you have completed your renewal, you’re ready to install the new certificate.

MyRackspace users

If you are a Managed or Dedicated customer and use the MyRackspace Portal, you can purchase an SSL certificate from Rackspace. Contact your Support team or submit a ticket to start the certificate purchase process.

When it is time to renew your certificate, Rackspace will contact you before the end of the validity period.

Next steps

  • Install an SSL certificate

Share this information:

©2020 Rackspace US, Inc.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

See license specifics and DISCLAIMER

About Rackspace
  • About
  • Customer Stories
  • Events
  • Programs
Blogs
  • The Rackspace Blog
  • Expert Insights Tech Blog
  • Solve: Thought Leadership
  • News
  • Contact Information
  • Legal
  • Careers
Site Information
  • Style Guide for Technical Content
  • Trademarks
  • Privacy Statement
  • Website Terms
Support Network
  • Support Network Home
  • Rackspace How-To
  • API Documentation
  • Developer Center
  • ©2020 Rackspace US, Inc.