Dynamic Content Delivery Network (DCDN) supports HTTPS secure acceleration. You can upload a custom SSL certificate or select an SSL certificate from Certificate Management Service in the DCDN console. If you want to enable HTTPS to ensure the security of data transmission, SSL certificates are required. 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 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 What is Certificate Management Service?.

Only SSL certificates that are in the Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) format are supported. If your SSL certificate is not in the PEM format, you need to convert the certificate to the PEM format. 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 DCDN data transfer plans to offset fees. For information about the pricing of HTTPS secure acceleration, see Billing of HTTPS and HTTP requests.

  1. Log on to the DCDN 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 Configure in the Actions column.
  4. In the left-side navigation pane of the domain name, click HTTPS Settings.
  5. In the SSL Certificate section, click Modify.
  6. In the HTTPS Settings dialog box, turn on SSL Acceleration.
    After you turn on SSL Acceleration, the system prompts that you will be charged for using HTTPS. You can choose to enable or disable HTTPS based on your business requirements. For more information about HTTPS pricing, see Billing of HTTPS and HTTP requests.
  7. Configure the parameters.
    HTTPS Settings
    ParameterDescription
    Certificate SourceCertificate Source has two options. You can switch between the two options based on your business requirements.
    • 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)If you set the Certificate Source parameter to Custom Certificate (Certificate + Private Key), you need to configure the Certificate (Public Key) and Private Key parameters. For more information, see PEM Encoding Reference below the Certificate (Public Key) and Private Key fields.
    Private Key
  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 require HTTPS secure acceleration, you can disable HTTPS secure acceleration in the DCDN console. HTTPS secure acceleration is immediately disabled after you turn off the switch.