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I have the following domains, all inside one single VPS (one IP address):

 www.example.com 
 classmates.com 
 john.classmates.com
 mary.classmates.com 
 blog.classmates.com

If I need https for the following domains:

 https://www.example.com
 https://classmates.com
 https://john.classmates.com
 https://mary.classmates.com

What's the minimum number of SSL certificates required?

2
  • There will be certificate warnings with older browsers that don't support SNI, most significantly any version of IE on Windows XP and the default browser of android 2.x. Commented Apr 23, 2013 at 17:41
  • As answered by John, you will require 2 certificate but, you will require 2 dedicated IPs one for each SSL certificate !. Shared ip will not work for 2 ssl.
    – PeggyP
    Commented Jun 28, 2013 at 5:26

2 Answers 2

5

It could be done with a single SSL certificate. Specifically, what you want to do is to provide 'Subject Alt Names' in the certificate.

Take a look at Google's certificate for example, which has the following Subject Alt Names. In other words, they have one certificate for all of those domains.

    DNS Name: *.google.com
    DNS Name: *.android.com
    DNS Name: *.appengine.google.com
    DNS Name: *.cloud.google.com
    DNS Name: *.google-analytics.com
    DNS Name: *.google.ca
    DNS Name: *.google.cl
    DNS Name: *.google.co.in
    DNS Name: *.google.co.jp
    DNS Name: *.google.co.uk
    DNS Name: *.google.com.ar
    DNS Name: *.google.com.au
    DNS Name: *.google.com.br
    DNS Name: *.google.com.co
    DNS Name: *.google.com.mx
    DNS Name: *.google.com.tr
    DNS Name: *.google.com.vn
    DNS Name: *.google.de
    DNS Name: *.google.es
    DNS Name: *.google.fr
    DNS Name: *.google.hu
    DNS Name: *.google.it
    DNS Name: *.google.nl
    DNS Name: *.google.pl
    DNS Name: *.google.pt
    DNS Name: *.googleapis.cn
    DNS Name: *.googlecommerce.com
    DNS Name: *.gstatic.com
    DNS Name: *.urchin.com
    DNS Name: *.url.google.com
    DNS Name: *.youtube-nocookie.com
    DNS Name: *.youtube.com
    DNS Name: *.ytimg.com
    DNS Name: android.com
    DNS Name: g.co
    DNS Name: goo.gl
    DNS Name: google-analytics.com
    DNS Name: google.com
    DNS Name: googlecommerce.com
    DNS Name: urchin.com
    DNS Name: youtu.be
    DNS Name: youtube.com

However, it becomes more difficult for signing authorities to be sure about common ownership of multiple domains.

It will likely be far more economical to buy several certificates. Check with your certificate signing authorities. There are actually many options available.

Be aware that the prices are dramatically different whether you want one domain, one domain with subs or several domains. So its really all about how much you want to spend vs. how much convenience from reduced certificate management you want.

Also, some signing authorities might charge more if those hosts reside on more than one IP address rather being hosted from the same IP.

1

Two:

  1. A "regular" SSL certificate for www.example.com
  2. A wildcard SSL certificate for classmates.com and all of its subdomains
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