Obtaining a Server Certificate for a school
Local authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia in England, Wales and Scotland, are able to request SSL Server Certificates* on behalf of schools, including .sch.uk and other domain names, through the online Certificate Service portal.
* Includes the QuoVadis Business/Organsiation Validated certificate.
Instructions for English, Welsh and Scottish local authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia only
To request a SSL server certificate on behalf of a school, please follow the steps below:
NB: The name and school number in the DNS whois record held at Nominet must match exactly that of the eduBase (or equivalent) record for the certificate request to be accepted.
(1) The local authority or Regional Broadband Consortia (RBC) must be subscribing to the Janet Certificate Service, instructions can be found here.
(2) Once the local authority is signed up to the service, before you can request (and obtain) a SSL server certificate, on behalf of a school (or for the local authority itself), you must first purchase a bundle of certificate credits (ranging from 1-250 credits). This is all done through the JCS web app, located in the App Centre here on this website.
(3) With certificate credits in hand, you can request certificates for a school by going to the 'Request Certificate' tab, tick the box which says 'For a School' and submit a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) in the usual manner.
(4) Once you select the school, you will then be given the option of who to send the email to, which seeks authorisation from the school that they agree for you to request the SSL server certificate on their behalf. The choice of the email address is restricted to the domain listed in Common Name field the CSR.
NB: You have the ability to add further names, listed as Subject Alternative Names (SANs) in the CSR, but all such domains must also be registered to that same school, otherwise the request will be rejected.
(5) In order to successfully process a certificate request on behalf of a school, the owner of the domain (the school) must give consent for the local authority or RBC to obtain a certificate on their behalf.
The school authorisation email will contain explanatory information and a link for the school to click on, to give their consent. The email will also state the email address of the certificate requester, as well as how to contact Janet if they are unsure of what to do.
To view a copy of the email being sent to the school asking for authorisation, see here
(6) Once the school provides the necessary permission (step 5, above) QuoVadis will issue an Organisation Validated certificate, usually with minutes, maximum 24 hours.
Nominet's whois: http://www.nominet.org.uk/other/whois/
EduBase records: http://www.education.gov.uk/edubase/
SEED records: School Details
If you have any questions regarding this facility please contact the AIM Support and Certificate Service Desk by sending an email to certificate@jisc.ac.uk.
Comments
Option 3 "here" redirect redirects to the old website with a holding page requesting that you come back to the site. Seems a little odd.
Hi Peter, apologies for the out of date link, the web page has now been updated. It now reflects that migration of the Janet Certificate Service to a new JCS web app on this site, accessible from the 'App Centre' tab on the top right. To access it you will need to log in with your new Janet Community credentials, or if you have linked your federated credentials to that account, with your 'Institutional log-in'.
From the app you will be able to purchase certificate credits, request and obtain certificates in the usual manner.
My account is registered for schools as I can see the option to select for schools but it is still requesting I have credits.
Are the certificates free for schools or has this changed? If it's free, I assume I am doing something wrong.
Hi Peter, from the 3 June, the JCS service is a charged-for service, which includes certificates for schools. You will need to purchase a bundle of certificate credits before you can request a certificate, all can be done online through the new JCS web app (https://community.ja.net/apps/janet-certificate-service)
Hi Simon,
Thanks for the update.
I have filled in the form to submit a SSL cert on behalf of the school. When getting to the school information page, it asks for the school name. There is no lookup field like before and when trying to enter the school name, nothing seems to validate. I have tried the DfES and also copy/pasted the name from Nominet with no luck
Can you please advise if I am doing something wrong? Or do I just submit the request with out ticking it's for a school.
Thanks for your time.
Pete