Installing SSL certificates in Amazon Web Services

I recently had to install an SSL certificate on a couple of load balancers in Amazon Web Services (AWS). The certificate was a RapidSSL wildcard certificate. To create the certificate, I needed to first generate a Certificate Signing Request. The request result was the content of a pem file (the private key that needs to be kept secret), and the request itself. Once I had entered that request on the purchase site and had been authorized to create certificates for my domain, I was send a file package with three files in it:

• ServerCertificate.cer
• CACertificate-1.cer
• CACertificate-2.cer

Now I wanted to add the SSL certificate to AWS, but I got confused about what to enter where in the AWS Console. The dialog to add a certificate looks like this:

First, copy the content of the pem file into the Private Key field:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
...A bunch of encoded information...
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Then copy the content of the ServerCertificate.cer file into the Public Key Certificate field:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...A bunch of encoded information...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Finally, copy the content of the CACertificate-1.cer and CACertificate-2.cer files—in that order—into the Certificate Chain field:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...A bunch of encoded information from CACertificate-1.cer...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...A bunch of encoded information from CACertificate-2.cer...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

And that is it! Save, apply, and you are good to go.