1. Set up your alternative CA. ]# mkdir -p /usr/local/ca/ca0 ]# cd /usr/local/ca/ca0 ]# mkdir certs crl new_certs private ]# touch index.txt && echo 01 > serial 2. Need to get a working ca.cnf and store it in /usr/local/ca/ca0/ ]# openssl req -config /usr/local/ca/ca0/ca.cnf -new -x509 -days 3650 -key ca_keyfile.pem -out ca_cert.pem 5. Create a server cert. When asked for the common name use a FQDN. cd back out to /usr/local/ca/ca0 ]# mkdir somedir ]# cd somedir ]# openssl req -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout foo_key.pem -keyform PEM -out foo_req.pem -outform PEM ]# export OPENSSL_CONF=/usr/local/ca/ca0/ca.cnf ]# openssl ca -in foo_req.pem -out foo.pem ]# unset OPENSSL_CONF That should be it. in apache's conf, the server cert is foo.pem and the keyfile is foo_key.pem