How to manage remote IIS on Windows Server 2019
In this recipe, we are going to open IIS Manager on the WIN2016IIS server and create a certificate request. We will also see how we can import a third-party SSL certificate.
Getting ready
To step through this recipe, we are going to create an SSL certificate request for a certificate provider. Also, we will see how we can import/install the certificate on IIS. You will need a running IIS 10.0 server and an administrator account, which will be used to make changes to IIS 10.0.
How to do it…
- Go to WIN2016IIS and log in to IIS 10.0 Server. Open Server Manager and go to the Tools menu.
- Open IIS Manager and click on the WIN2016IIS IIS server, as shown here:

- In the Features view, there is a Server Certificates option. Open the server certificate, as shown here:

- Go to the Actions pane. You can see that there is a Create Certificate Request option available. Click on Create Certificate Request, and the Request Certificate window will open. You have to fill in the details, as shown here:

- Here you can fill the Common name (website name), Organization, Organizational unit (department), Address, and Country code. Click on Next. You will get the Cryptographic Service Provider Properties window:

- Select the Bit length of encryption you need. In my case, I have selected 1024. Click on Next. Now you have to provide the local path and filename where you want to store the certificate request file:

- We are storing our certificate request file in the administrator.CALL\Documents\Certificate request folder and the filename is cert-request-mysite.txt. Click on Finish.
- Let’s open the cert-request-mysite.txt file:

- You can see we have the certificate request created in encrypted format. Now you can send the file to a certificate authority to buy an SSL certificate.
- Now let’s see how to import the certificate that we have purchased or generated.
- Open IIS Manager and click on the WIN2016IIS IIS server. Go to the Actions pane and click on Import Certificate:

- Now that you have the .pfx certificate, you can browse it and provide the password. You can also select the certificate store type: Personal or W eb Hosting. Click on OK.
- You can import the .cer type certificate; in the IIS server Actions pane, click on Complete Certificate Request, as shown here:

- Go to the local path of the certificate where you’ve stored it and give it a friendly name for identification purposes. Select the type– Personal or Web Hosting–and click on OK.
How it works…
In this recipe, we opened IIS Manager on WIN2016IIS and created a certificate request to buy a third-party certificate. We also reviewed how we can import the third-party SSL certificate.