How to Generate, View, and Remove an SSL CSR in cPanel

Category: Security & SSL  •  Est. reading time: 4 minutes

A CSR, or Certificate Signing Request, is a block of encoded text you hand to a certificate authority when you buy a paid SSL certificate. It carries your domain and organization details and is tied to a private key on your server. You only need a CSR for a purchased certificate. Free AutoSSL handles all of this for you. This guide covers all three tasks: creating a CSR, viewing it, and removing one you no longer need.

 Generate a CSR

1. Log in to cPanel and open SSL/TLS in the Security section.
2. Click Certificate Signing Requests (CSR).
3. Fill in your domain and organization details: domain, company, city, state, country, and email. Accuracy matters here, since the authority checks it.
4. Click Generate. cPanel creates the CSR and its matching private key.

View or Retrieve a CSR

1. On the same Certificate Signing Requests page, scroll to the list of existing CSRs.
2. Click the one you want, and copy the full block of text, including the BEGIN and END lines. That is what you paste into your certificate provider’s order form.

Remove a CSR

1. In the CSR list, find the one you no longer need.
2. Click Delete and confirm.

Keep the private key with its CSR. A CSR and the private key generated alongside it are a pair. If you delete the key, a certificate issued from that CSR will not install. When in doubt, leave them be.

Buying a paid certificate and want it done without the head-scratching? We handle the whole CSR-to-install process. Reach us at support@allydrez.com or 1-321-209-2004.