Get SSL running on Apache in CentOS

I was playing with a new virtual server that had CentOS installed on it recently, and wanted to get SSL working for Apache. Since I was only setting up a development server I really didn't need to purchase a certificate and decided to use a self-signed certificate. Here is what I did:

First I needed to get 'make' and 'mod_ssl' running to allow for this. (I use sudo, but you could log-in as su)

sudo yum install make
sudo yum install mod_ssl

Next I did the following steps:

• Go to /etc/pki/tls/certs
• Run the command sudo make mycert.pem
• Enter the information you are prompted for about country, state, city, host name etc., your certificate and key has been created
• Now edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf and update the following items:
  • SSLCACertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/mycert.pem
  • SSLCACertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/mycert.pem
• I was forced to create a symbolic link for the SSLCACertificateKeyFile as follows: (I think this was supposed to happen automagically.)
  • I went to /etc/pki/tls and created the symbolic link using the next line.
  • sudo ln -s certs/mycert.pem mycert.pem
• Restart Apache: /etc/init.d/httpd restart

There, now you have a self-signed certificate for your apache virtualhosts.