FAQ

A CSR (Certificate Signing Request) is an encrypted collection of text information. The CSR stores informationen about the domain name as well as information about the webserver that was used to create a CSR. Typically a CSR should be minimum 2048 bits to offer enough security. 

Example - this is how a typical CSR will look like:

-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- MIIDCjCCAnMCAQAwdTEZMBcGA1UEAxMQaG9zdC5kb21haW4ubmFtZTEVM BMGA1UECxMMT3JnYW5pemF0aW9uMRUwEwYDVQQKEwxPcmdhbml6YXRpb2 4xDTALBgNVBAcTBENpdHkxDjAMBgNVBAgTBVN0YXRlMQswCQYDVQQGEwJ VUzCBnzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOBjQAwgYkCgYEAyZ1dYomQ4jhSr6f G3GYxjS4B837+y3A6xIM9OVXV4ZnSIe9nOLHgdksQJpwaQeOZwWeqifte hrJ/s55PvPxok+Tqq0t7BfMkkUSuiYnFdUo1OpDPdw3cEaP9WWSrduouI Vnq2AWTDw2ykyxKg6neb2vYTZRvbot7M578Vvh6P8CAwEAAaCCAVMwGgY KKwYBBAGCNw0CAzEMFgo1LjAuMjE5NS4yMDUGCisGAQQBgjcCAQ4xJzAl MA4GA1UdDwEB/wQEAwIE8DATBgNVHSUEDDAKBggrBgEFBQcDATCB/QYKK wYBBAGCNw0CAjGB7jCB6wIBAR5aAE0AaQBjAHIAbwBzAG8AZgB0ACAAUg BTAEEAIABTAEMAaABhAG4AbgBlAGwAIABDAHIAeQBwAHQAbwBnAHIAYQB wAGgAaQBjACAAUAByAG8AdgBpAGQAZQByA4GJACB3C0g9psK0+V+N/Me1 JsG39vonCPQBdOwNp6zHJSPCU3FwQ0SgFpEQNy6HEn79I0CMrU93q9Hh1 TQtd2YU6lWHQunXrIcytmAFVjhibNX6Dp1e41Wjc2N4ilJyy1GFss686c dZt2GP6y04I74/OvkW2Wf9nezUrMrESM2PP4B1AAAAAAAAAAAwDQYJKoZ IhvcNAQEFBQADgYEAg4+QHTvkP5CG+WcGnrhKiMkJnMP6QEsds40obUDS dGtEupQz8C+4xoMd1aM68q9Ri6Va+JTeuhKHxLz9hT/KUJhNBy0sRfnx+ JkQdrKG69UanTwvLqXINh9xChw9ErIto/2kZI5kl2KYQdiOqTv6p0GEUP Rq/MD52Zy3bOzSRF0= -----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

This is how to create a CSR under GNU/Linux:
openssl genrsa -out www.demo.com.key 4096 -sha256 openssl req -new -key www.demo.com.key -out www.demo.com.csr cat www.demo.com.csr

The CSR will be created on the webserver on which the SSL certificate shall be installed. Here you will find detailed instructions how to create a CSR for various server systems. You will need a CSR in order to issue a SSL certificate!