I should preface this by saying I have zero practical knowledge of SSL, and this particular setup seems especially complex. I have a situation as follows: I'm running 3 websites for a client, a copy of each on 2 Linux boxes. The client is running a hardware load balancer between their firewall and the 2 boxes to distribute the traffic between the 2 boxes. Currently, the websites are all on HTTP only, each site has its own IP address on each box and it available on a public url like a.mysite.com, b.mysite.com and c.mysite.com
The client has asked me to switch everything to run under HTTPS and also to try to configure the following setup: create a new domain (under https) https://main.mysite.com with https://main.mysite.com/a/ mappng to a.mysite.com, https://main.mysite.com/b/ mappng to b.mysite.com etc
The primary goal is to switch all 3 sites to HTTPS. The unified under 1 domain thing is a "nice to have". The client has this belief that certificates are expensive, are they?
First of all, I know nothing about buying certificates, setting up SSL etc, so any links to a beginners guide to HTTPS would be greatly appreciated. A rough idea of cert prices would be nice too.
Second, because the webserver software needs a recompile to run under SSL, I'm interested in solutions to this that allow me not to change the webserver software. Would this be a reverse proxy?
Third, is the "unified under 1 domain thing" even possible?
Fourth, how many SSL certs do I need in this case?
cheers!
