Yes, some SSL providers (mostly the overpriced ones) like to "license" their certs on a per-server basis. If you read the contract language, this is how it's written. However, this is strictly a contractual issue, not a technical one. It's just a way to squeeze more money out of people who don't know any better.

Speaking strictly from a technical standpoint, there is nothing at all stopping you from using the same cert/keys on as many servers as you'd like. There are SSL providers out there that are reasonable about the whole thing and sell you a cert, not a single-device-license.

- Pete


On 12/27/2012 2:47 PM, Blake Pfankuch wrote:
Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something a 
vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this area...

I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed per 
physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
servers.

This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?

Thanks
Blake


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