Frequently Asked Questions

FileMaker Server installation includes a default SSL certificate that must be used for testing only. On a production environment, you should register for a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and purchase a custom 3rd-party SSL certificate (available from most of the largest Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) vendors).

As a summary, following is the entire process of installing a custom SSL Certificate (please verify each of the following steps):

After the certificates are correctly installed (step 1-4 here below), access your FileMaker server using the “Fully Qualified Host (Domain) Name” (FQHN) that you defined while creating the certification request (the /CN parameter, step 2 here below).
To connect to the FileMaker Server, clients must use the defined FQHN, NOT the IP address.

Here is a very useful video (in French but with English subtitles) to generate private key, generate certificate request, and indicates the install of all necessary files for SSL with FileMaker Server 17 (also valid for 18, 19, 20 and 21).

Note: we recommend to see the entire video, to know the entire process of installing a custom SSL Certificate, and the use of FileMaker Server after all the files certificates are installed.

Following is a summary of the steps to use custom SSL Certificate:

• Step1: generate a private key (Private_KEY)
• Step2: using that private key, generate a Certificate Request (name it for exemple “serverRequest.pem”) and send this request to the Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) of your choice (this request is used to buy a Certificate from a CAA, for example Godaddy)
• Step3: the CAA sends back two files, one called “Certificate” and the second “IntermediateCertificate” (the name depends on the CAA))
• Step4: import the “Private_KEY” (of step 1), “Certificate_CER” (of step 3) and “IntermediateCertificate_CSR” (of step 3) to FileMaker Server: via “Admin console > Configuration > SSL Certificate > Import Custom Certificate”

Note: If you are on Windows, the command to generate the private key and the Certificate Request must look as following:

fmsadmin.exe certificate create “/CN=YOURINFO/O=YOURINFO/C=YOURINFO/ST=YOURINFO/L=YOURINFO” –keyfilepass YOURPASSWORD

Replace YOURINFO with your informations, as indicated in the above video.

Note: To verify the generated “Certificate Request” (step 2):

• After the Certificate Request is generated, and before sending it to the CAA, you can verify the information in it by pasting the content of the file “serverRequest.pem” into https://www.thesslstore.com/checkcsr.aspx or any other site of your choice.
• Verify all displayed informations are corresponding to what you need (eg of displayed information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=884&v=zrhdiB8bR1U)

Again, to access FileMaker server use the Fully Qualified Host (Domain) Name “FQHN”, NOT the IP address.