SSL overview...

[SH Development]

Can someone help me understand the overall picture of SSL certificates in this scenario?

I have a working dovecot/postfix/mysql server.  It has a certificate.

I now want to create a second, essentially duplicate configured server for use with replication.


What is the relationship between the certificate and the hostname, or the DNS entry since the certs are created using the server’s domain name?

mail.serverA.mydomain has a certificate that was created using mail.serverA.mydomain.  The server's hostname is mail.serverA.mydomain.

Now enter the new server.  It would probably be:

mailserverB.mydomain and a certificate created using mail.serverB.mydomain. The server’s hostname would be mail.serverB.mydomain.

My questions:

1. Can I use the same certificate on both servers since they are serving email for the same domain?
2. Does the hostname have to be the same as the domain name, and thus the name used to create the cert?

Sorry if I’m muddled about this.  It was never really an issue until I wanted to add a secondary server into the mix.

Ethon B.