GoDaddy was recommended as a place to get SSL certificates so off I went through the strange process of having to register an account only to find I had to then register a second account in order to get an SSL certificate. There was a reasonable explanation of how to get a certificate and once applied for and verified it arrived in good time. However, that’s where the problems started as they sent me two certificates which I wasn’t expecting. The first was the certificate I had applied for but the second described itself as an intermediate certificate and the only help I could find on the GoDaddy website was that both certificates had to be installed. The installation of the first certificate went as expected but the second one simply refused to play ball and to my horror momentarily hung Exchange Server 2007 (imagine the colour fading from my cheeks) whilst it produced a Watson dump.

The only solution at this point (after a fair bit of Googling) was to contact the support desk.

My first support request detailed the problem I was having - basically Exchange Server 2007 was producing a Watson error and dumping a file after following the GoDaddy instructions to install the certificate. My first email is here - which I believe clearly describes the problem I am experiencing.

I installed the first certificate ok but I am having difficulty important the intermediate certificate into Exchange 2007. I get the following message:

[PS] C:\>import-exchangecertificate -path "c:\gd_intermediate.crt"

Thumbprint                                Services   Subject

———-                                ——–   ——-

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  …..      SERIALNUMBER=XXXXXXXX, …

[PS] C:\>enable-exchangecertificate -thumbprint XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -service:"SMTP,IIS"

WARNING: An unexpected error has occurred and a Watson dump is being generated:

The certificate with thumbprint XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX was found but is not valid for usage with Exchange Server (reason: PrivateKeyMissing).

Enable-ExchangeCertificate : The certificate with thumbprint XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX was found but is not valid for usage with Exchange Server (reason: PrivateKeyMissing).

At line:1 char:27

+ enable-exchangecertificate  <<<< -thumbprint XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -service:"SMTP,IIS"

[PS] C:\>

The reply I got where it seemed to me that the support desk had only read a bit of my email told me that they don’t support problems with certificates on multiple servers - Uh!? Multiple servers - where did that come from?So, I followed the email up trying to clarify the situation. Here it is:

This is the same server (not multiple servers). you sent me two certificates – a domain certificate and an intermediary certificate. the domain certificate installed and enabled fine onto exchange 2007 but the intermediary certificate generated the error below [snip!]

I didn’t receive a reply to this email so a few days later I asked them for an update, to which I was told:

Dear Secure Certificate Customer,
Unfortunately, we cannot assist you with the information provided. If you are running into installation problems, please reply with an explanation of the process you are going through, as well as the problems and exact error messages produced. We would like to whether or not you rekeyed your certificate again. With this information, we will be able to assist you further.

Which I had already explained twice in previous emails. So there we have it - I have spent my money - am stuck with an unworking certificate, My Exchange Server is complaining with Watson errors - and can I get help from GoDaddy? It seems highly unlikely.