The Life and Times of Michael Shadle

1. Generate the CSR:

   openssl genrsa 2048 > yourhost.com.key
   openssl req -new -key yourhost.com.key > yourhost.com.csr
   

2. Enter in whatever you want - you NEED the "Common Name" everything else is not really required for it to work.

   Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US
   State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:.
   Locality Name (eg, city) []:.
   Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Something Here
   Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:.
   Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []:yourhost.com
   Email Address []:.
   
   Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
   to be sent with your certificate request
   A challenge password []:
   An optional company name []:
   

3. Paste the CSR into Go Daddy, get back the .crt file
4. Combine the cert + Go Daddy chain:

   cat yourhost.com.crt gd_bundle.crt > yourhost.com.pem

5. Lastly, in nginx.conf:

   ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/yourhost.com.pem;
   ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/yourhost.com.key;
   

Additionally I have these SSL tweaks which seems to maintain a better SSL experience, passes McAfee Secure's SSL checks, etc.:

ssl on;
ssl_protocols SSLv3 TLSv1;
ssl_ciphers ALL:-ADH:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:-LOW:-SSLv2:-EXP;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;