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Import SSL Certificates

Last Updated On: 14 May 2026|
12 minutes read |

Every enterprise has the necessity to encrypt the data which traverses the internet. Enterprises have gone a step ahead over just using secured methods of communication to transmit corporate data, by acquiring specific third party certificates like SSL. These third party certificates ensures that the corporate data is encrypted in such a way, that only the recipient who owns the certificate can decrypt it. Device Control Plus Server supports using SSL certificates that comes in different file types such as PFX, CER, CRT. Adding these certificates will secure the communication between the Device Control Plus server, managed computers.

Note
This certificate is valid for a specified term. If the certificate expires, then the communication between the agent and the server will no longer be secure.
Note
The ongoing communication between the agents and the server won't be interfered with when you upload a third-party SSL certificate. Trusted third-party certificate providers have preinstalled root certificates on operating systems. These root certificates will be used by the agent machine to establish secure connection with the server once you import the third-party certificate. As a result, the existing communication will continue uninterrupted and be secured further using the third-party certificate.

Create CSR and Key Files

For Device Control Plus version 11.1.2242.01 and above,

  1. It is recommended to take a backup of your existing server.key and server.csr files before initiating this process. These files will be overwritten during this process.
    • Navigate to <Server_Installed_Directory>/nginx/conf for server.key file.
    • Navigate to <Server_Installed_Directory>/bin for server.csr file.(if any generated before)
  2. Navigate to <Server_Installed_Directory>/bin in command prompt with admin privileges and execute generateCSR.bat file.
  3. generateCSR.bat executes two operations:
    • Creating the .csr and .key files
    • Decrypting .key files
  4. Enter 1 to proceed with .csr and .key file generation.
  5. Enter the country code by referring to this document
    Note
    Re-run the batch file if you entered the wrong country code.
  • Enter the necessary details for generating the .csr file. [State, locality, organization, organizational unit, common name, subject alternative names(seperated by commas)]
  • You have successfully generated the server.csr and server.key file under <Server_Installed_Directory>/bin

    • For Device Control Plus version below 11.1.2242.01,

    1. Navigate to server installation directory and access \apache\bin, create a file named opensslsan.conf, and copy the following code into the file:
    2. Now, in the code, enter the two letter Country Code next to countryName. Check the two letter country code of your country here
    3. Next, enter the full name of your state or province next to stateOrProvinceName.
    4. Next to localityName, enter the name of your locality. Specify the name of your organization, next to organizationName.
    5. Enter the name of your website or domain beside commonName.
    6. Enter the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) of your website next to DNS entries.
    7. Execute the openssl command to generate server.csr and private.key.
    8. To verify the details, use openssl verification command.
    Note
    Do not delete private.key file under any circumstances.

    Submit the CSR to a Certificate Authority (CA) to Obtain a CA Signed Certificate

    1. Submit created server.csr to CAs. Check their documentation / website for details on submitting CSRs and this will involve a cost to be paid to the CA
    2. This process usually takes a few days time and you will be returned your signed SSL certificate and the CA's chain/intermediate certificate as .cer files
    3. Save these files and rename your signed SSL certificate file to server.crt
    Note
    • The validity of the certificate should be less than 397 days.
    • Only RSA keys are supported in Device Control Plus server.

    Upload the 3rd party Certificates to Device Control Plus

    1. Click Admin tab on the product console
    2. Under Security Settings, click Manage SSL Certificates
    3. Browse to upload the certificate that you have received from the vendor (CA).
    4. Click Save to import the certificate.
    Note
    You need to restart the Device Control Plus server service after importing the certificate for the web server to load the newly imported certificate.

    You have successfully imported the third party certificates to the Device Control Plus server. These certificates will be used only when "HTTPS" mode is enabled for communication.

    Click Admin tab and choose Server Settings, to enable https mode under General Settings. You can now see that the communication between the server and the agents is secure.

    Note
    Ensure that the pfx file or .cert file should match the NAT address specified in the Device Control Plus server. If Device Control Plus and Device Control Plus server are installed in the same computer, then the same pfx file will work. In the above listed case, if Device Control Plus server is moved to a different computer, then the pfx needs to be modified to specify the appropriate host name.