Import PFX SSL Cert into IIS

Posted At : August 28, 2008 10:51 AM | Posted By : Mark W. Breneman
Related Categories: Server Notes

If you just imported all of your IIS site via the export / import site method. You will have several sites that reference a SSL certs that do not exist on your system yet. To import the ssl certs you can get started by, simply importing the .PFX file into IIS by getting the site properties clicking on the directory security tab, click view cert (IIS Cert Wizard), then remove existing "dead" cert, then go back into the view cert / IIS Cert Wizard, select import a cert from a .pfx file, Enter password and you are done.

Here is a second way:

In order to view the Certificates store on the local computer, perform the following steps:

1.	Click Start, and then click Run.
2.	Type "MMC.EXE" (without the quotation marks) and click OK.
3.	Click Console in the new MMC you created, and then click Add/Remove Snap-in.
4.	In the new window, click Add.
5.	Highlight the Certificates snap-in, and then click Add.
6.	Choose the Computer option and click Next.
7.	Select Local Computer on the next screen, and then click OK.
8.	Click Close , and then click OK.
9.	You have now added the Certificates snap-in, which will allow you to work with any certificates in your computer's certificate store. You may want to save this MMC for later use.

Now that you have access to the Certificates snap-in, you can import the server certificate into you computer's certificate store by following these steps:

1.	Open the Certificates (Local Computer) snap-in and navigate to Personal, and then Certificates. Note: Certificates may not be listed. If it is not, that is because there are no certificates installed.
2.	Right-click Certificates (or Personal if that option does not exist.)
3.	Choose All Tasks, and then click Import.
4.	When the wizard starts, click Next. Browse to the PFX file you created containing your server certificate and private key. Click Next.
5.	Enter the password you gave the PFX file when you created it. Be sure the Mark the key as exportable option is selected if you want to be able to export the key pair again from this computer. As an added security measure, you may want to leave this option unchecked to ensure that no one can make a backup of your private key.
6.	Click Next, and then choose the Certificate Store you want to save the certificate to. You should select Personal because it is a Web server certificate. If you included the certificates in the certification hierarchy, it will also be added to this store.
7.	Click Next. You should see a summary of screen showing what the wizard is about to do. If this information is correct, click Finish.
8.	You will now see the server certificate for your Web server in the list of Personal Certificates. It will be denoted by the common name of the server (found in the subject section of the certificate).

Now that you have the certificate backup imported into the certificate store, you can enable Internet Information Services 5.0 to use that certificate (and the corresponding private key). To do this, perform the following steps: