How to Generate CSR on CompleteFTP

This tutorial explains how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on CompleteFTP. A CSR is a block of encoded text that you submit to a Certificate Authority (CA) when applying for an SSL/TLS certificate. It contains your public key and identifying information about your server and organization.

You have two options:

• Use our CSR Generator to create the CSR automatically.
• Follow the steps below to generate the CSR directly in the CompleteFTP Manager.

Generate a CSR in CompleteFTP

Step 1: Open the Server Certificate dialog

1. Open the CompleteFTP Manager.
2. In the Site/Sites panel on the left, click FTP/FTPS settings.
3. Expand FTP/FTPS > Advanced FTP/FTPS Settings > Security Settings.
4. Click the Server Certificate (also used in HTTPS) field, then click the ellipsis button (…) on the right to open the Server Certificate dialog.

Step 2: Start the CSR generation

1. In the Server Certificate window, click the Generate a certificate signing request (CSR) link (near the bottom of the dialog).
2. A confirmation window appears. Click OK to continue.

Step 3: Fill in the CSR details

In the CSR form, enter the following information:

• Server Name/address: the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) you want to secure, for example yoursite.com or ftp.yoursite.com. For a wildcard certificate, use the format *.yoursite.com.
• Organization: the full legal name of your company or organization, for example Your Company LLC.
• Department: the Organizational Unit (OU) field. The CA/Browser Forum deprecated this field in 2022, so leave it blank or enter NA if the form requires a value.
• City/Town: the city where your organization is legally registered, for example Miami.
• State/Province: the full state or province name (do not abbreviate), for example Florida.
• Country: the two-letter ISO country code, for example US.

Double-check every field before proceeding. Incorrect details can cause the CA to reject your request or delay issuance.

Step 4: Set the private key password and save your files

1. Click OK to submit the form.
2. In the Enter private key password window, create a strong password, confirm it, and click OK. CompleteFTP generates the CSR and private key pair.
3. Save the private key file to a secure location on your server. Do not lose this file. You will need the private key and its password later when you install the issued certificate.
4. Save the CSR file when prompted.
5. In the Certificate Signing Request Generated confirmation window, click OK.

Note: CompleteFTP saves the private key in PEM format. Earlier versions of CompleteFTP used PVK format instead. For best practices on storing your key, see our guide on private key storage.

Step 5: Submit the CSR to your Certificate Authority

Open the saved CSR file in a text editor such as Notepad. Copy the entire contents, including the header and footer lines:

-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
(base64-encoded data)
-----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

Paste the CSR text into your SSL vendor’s order form. When the form asks you to select your server software, choose OTHER (CompleteFTP is not usually listed as a separate option). To verify that your CSR is correctly formatted before submitting, use our CSR Decoder.

Once the CA validates your request and issues the certificate, proceed with the CompleteFTP SSL installation.