The certificate information you enter becomes part of the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) that you submit to a Certificate Authority (CA), and eventually appears in the certificate you receive back from your CA. You can specify Subject Alternative Name certificates (SANs) in this tab. For example, you could specify multiple domains in a single SSL certificate and that one certificate will work with all the domains you specified. Your CA may require that you include SANs in the CSR. If you need to use non-Roman characters in any field in your certificate, you must work with your CA after you submit your CSR to modify your request.

How to

To enter certificate information:

1. Enter the Common Name (CN) you want to use for the certificate in the Common Name field (required field).

   🚧

   Common Name Change

   The Common Name cannot be changed once the certificate request is submitted. The company that owns the domain name must be a legally incorporated entity and be active and in good standing. For more information on the CN, see What is a certificate authority?.

   📘

   Save as Draft button

   After you enter a validation type and a common name, the Save as Draft button appears active. At any time during the process of obtaining a certificate, you can click the Save as Draft button to save the information you entered as a certificate draft. For more information, see Save a draft.

2. If this is a SAN certificate or a wildcard SAN certificate, you can enter alternate domain names that you want to secure using this certificate in the SANs list. Place your cursor in the box and enter each SAN.

   You can specify up to 99 SANs. The CN on your certificate is automatically added as the one hundredth SAN. Consider adding the base domain (e.g. example.com) if securing a website (e.g. www.example.com).

   👍

   When creating a new certificate, continue to the next step. When editing an existing certificate, optionally edit any fields in this section and continue to step 13.

3. For managed OV and EV certificates, select from the menu either (required field):

   • Create New to create a new organization.

   • An existing organization (displayed as organization name, ID, and the number of certificate orders the organization is associated with) to auto-populate fields with the organization data. Selecting an existing organization is the recommended option wherever available as this allows you to avoid the revalidation process at the CA. If you use this option, continue to step 13.

   👍

   Cloning organization

   Alternatively, you can create a new organization by selecting an organization in the menu and pressing the Clone button next to the menu to edit fields of the selected organization. If you choose to edit any of the fields of the cloned organization, a new organization will be created for you at the CA using the edited data. It will not result in a change of data for the organization originally selected, but creation of a new organization and consequently, in revalidation. Using this option is appropriate in cases such as adding a new business unit, company mergers or splits, etc. The CA will run its validation process again when the organization changes on a certificate.

4. To view detailed information for each organization click on the icon next to the menu.

   This shows a listing of all organizations with their validation status at CA, number of certificate orders that use the organization, address, and contact information.

5. Enter the name as it appears in all legal documents and as it appears in the legal entity filing (required field).

   The company name you enter in this field is the company to which the CA issues the certificate. If this is an OV or EV certificate, the CA issues the certificate to the company name listed in the WhoIs directory. This may mean that the exact company name you enter here will not be the company name on your certificate. For example, if you enter Acme in this field, but Acme appears in the WhoIs directory as Acme, Inc., then Acme Inc. is the company name that appears on your certificate.

6. Enter the Unit or Department where you work in the Unit or Department field (not applicable for DigiCert).

7. Enter the address of your company in the Address line 1 field (required field).

8. Enter your country in the Country field (required field).

9. Enter your city in the City or Municipality field (required field).

   If you use an OV or EV certificate, this information must match the registration data for your company because the CA will check this information.

10. Enter or select your state or province in the State or Province field (required field).

    If you use an OV or EV certificate, this information must match the registration data for your company because the CA will check this information.

11. Enter your zip code in the Zip or postal code field (required field).

12. Enter your main business telephone number in the Main business phone number field (required field).

    If you use an OV or EV certificate, this phone number is one that allows the CA to reach an operator at your company or a company directory that allows the CA to verify that the administrator you list in the Contact Information tab works at the company. It also allows the CA to contact the administrator indirectly. Do not enter a cell phone number for the administrator in this field. With this number, the CA must be able to verify that the administrator works at the company you specify in this tab. A cell phone number, while it allows the CA to contact the administrator, does not allow them to verify a company connection to the administrator.

13. Click Next. If you click Cancel, you return to the CPS landing page.
    The Enter Company Information section opens.

Next steps

Continue to Enter company information.