Alibaba Cloud CDN supports HTTPS secure acceleration. You can upload a custom SSL certificate or select an SSL certificate from Certificate Management Service in the Alibaba Cloud CDN console. SSL certificates are required if you want to enable HTTPS to ensure the security of data transmission. This topic describes how to configure and renew an SSL certificate.

Prerequisites

  • An SSL certificate is prepared. If you want to purchase an SSL certificate, you can log on to the Certificate Management Service console to apply for a free certificate or purchase a certificate from a certificate authority (CA).
  • If you want to use a custom certificate, it must be in a valid format. For more information, see Certificate formats.

Background information

SSL certificates are classified into different types based on vetting and verification requirements. Different types provide different levels of security and are suitable for different websites. For more information, see Supported certificate types.

Only SSL certificates that are in PEM format are supported. If your SSL certificate is not in PEM format, you must convert it to PEM. For more information, see Convert certificate formats.
Note
  • The CRT file extension is short for certificate. The certificate may be in PEM or Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER) format. Before you convert the format of a certificate, check whether the certificate needs to be converted into other formats.
  • PEM is a text format. It starts with " -----BEGIN ***-----" and ends with "-----END ***-----". The content between these lines is encoded in Base64. Both the certificate and private key can be saved in this format. To distinguish a certificate from a private key, the extension of a private key file that is in PEM format is .key.

Step 1: Configure or renew an SSL certificate

HTTPS secure acceleration is a value-added service. After you enable HTTPS, you are charged based on the number of HTTPS requests. You cannot use CDN data transfer plans to offset the fees. For more information about the pricing of HTTPS secure acceleration, see Billing of HTTPS requests for static content.

  1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud CDN console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Domain Names.
  3. On the Domain Names page, find the domain name that you want to manage and click Manage in the Actions column.
  4. In the left-side management pane of the domain name, click HTTPS.
  5. In the HTTPS Certificate section, click Modify.
  6. In the Modify HTTPS Settings dialog box, turn on HTTPS Secure Acceleration.
    After you turn on HTTPS Secure Acceleration, the system displays a message, which prompts that you are charged for HTTPS requests. You can enable this feature based on your business requirements. For more information about the pricing of HTTPS secure acceleration, see Billing of HTTPS requests for static content.
  7. Set the parameters.
    Note
    • Alibaba Cloud CDN supports TLS encryption algorithms by default. For more information, see Default TLS encryption algorithms.
    • For more information about common issues that may arise when you configure SSL certificates, see FAQ about HTTPS.
    Certificate
    Parameter Description
    Certificate Source Certificate Source supports the following options. You can switch between the options.
    • SSL Certificates Service

      You can apply for certificates of various CAs and types in the Certificate Management Service console.

    • Custom Certificate (Certificate+Private Key)
      If you cannot find a certificate that meets your requirements from the certificate list, upload a custom certificate. You must enter the certificate name, the public key, and the private key of the certificate. The certificate is saved to Certificate Management Service. You can check the certificate on the SSL Certificates page.
      Note
      1. If the system prompts that the certificate already exists when you upload a custom certificate with a private key, change the certificate name and try again.
      2. If you do not want to expose your private key to environments other than Alibaba Cloud CDN, you can use the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) tool provided by Certificate Management Service to generate a CSR and a private key based on algorithms such as Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC), and ShangMi2 (SM2). You can also upload an existing CSR.
    Certificate Name
    You must specify a certificate name if Certificate Source is set to one of the following values:
    • SSL Certificates Service
    • Custom Certificate (Certificate+Private Key)
    Certificate (Public Key)

    You must set Certificate (Public Key) if you set Certificate Source to Custom Certificate (Certificate+Private Key). For more information, see the PEM Encoding Reference below the Certificate (Public Key) field.

    Private Key You must set Private Key if you set Certificate Source to Custom Certificate (Certificate+Private Key). For more information, see the PEM Encoding Reference below the Private Key field.
  8. Click OK.

Step 2: Check whether HTTPS takes effect

After an SSL certificate is uploaded, it takes effect within one minute. To verify that the SSL certificate takes effect, send HTTPS requests to access resources. If the URL is displayed with a lock icon in the address bar of the browser, HTTPS secure acceleration is working as expected. Check the result

Step 3: Disable HTTPS secure acceleration

If you no longer want to use HTTPS secure acceleration, you can disable it in the Alibaba Cloud CDN console. HTTPS secure acceleration is disabled immediately after you turn off the switch.

Related API operations

API operation Description
CreateCdnCertificateSigningRequest Creates a certificate signing request (CSR).
DescribeDomainCertificateInfo Queries the certificate information about an accelerated domain name.
SetDomainServerCertificate Enables or disables the certificate of a domain name, and modifies the certificate information.
SetCdnDomainCSRCertificate Configures an SSL certificate for a specified domain name.
DescribeCdnDomainByCertificate Queries accelerated domain names by SSL certificate.
DescribeCdnCertificateDetail Queries the detailed information about an SSL certificate.
DescribeCdnCertificateList Queries SSL certificates configured for accelerated domain names.
DescribeCertificateInfoByID Queries the information about a specified SSL certificate.
BatchSetCdnDomainServerCertificate Enables or disables the certificates of domain names, and modifies the certificate information.
DescribeCdnHttpsDomainList Queries the information about the SSL certificates within your Alibaba Cloud account.
DescribeUserCertificateExpireCount Queries the number of domain names whose SSL certificates are about to expire or have already expired.
SetCdnDomainSMCertificate Enables or disables a ShangMi (SM) certificate for a domain name.
DescribeCdnSMCertificateLis Queries the SM certificates of an accelerated domain name.
DescribeCdnSMCertificateDetail Queries the details about an SM certificate.