Bazaarvoice uses SSL certification to keep your Sampling portal secure. We changed how we process SSL certification in late 2018, which could require you to renew your SSL certificate. If you haven’t renewed your SSL certificate since then, you need to do it now.

Use the following instructions to learn how to install or renew an SSL certificate. Check with Bazaarvoice Support if you’re unsure whether you need to renew.

What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a security protocol that makes websites secure, adding the ‘s’ to https: at the beginning of a URL. It is essential to your Sampling portal. For example, a member, vendor, or administrator visiting your Sampling portal while the SSL is expired or not installed correctly will see a privacy error warning them that the connection is not secure.

What is a CNAME record?

A Canonical Name (CNAME) record is created on a Domain Name System (DNS) host. Your Sampling portal is hosted by Bazaarvoice on our platform, but you own the CNAME record that points to that platform. You created a CNAME record with a “pretty” URL that covers up our “ugly” URL when your Sampling solution was set up.

The “ugly” URL looks like this:

[clientID]-sampling.nexus.bazaarvoice.com

This site is never seen by Sampling portal members because of the CNAME record. It works in a similar way to a website redirect, except that someone visiting the site will never see the second domain, only the CNAME.

A CNAME could be something like:

pretty.sampling.com

Because you are the owner of the CNAME record, you must authorize the SSL certificate that Bazaarvoice installs.

Note: The new process will auto-renew the certificate, so you only have to do it once (as long as your DNS records do not change).

Renew your existing SSL certificate

Bazaarvoice will work with your technical team to renew your existing SSL certificate in our auto-renewing installation process. To get started, contact:

  1. Bazaarvoice Support for assistance.
  2. A technical contact on your team who is familiar with your DNS, CNAME records, and any security that might block this process.

Install a new SSL certificate

Follow these steps to install a new SSL certificate.

  1. Get in touch with Bazaarvoice Support . They will notify an Implementation Engineer, who will generate the SSL certificate on your behalf and send you the information for creating the CNAME record.
  2. Create a CNAME record on your DNS. You need someone with a good technical knowledge of your own system to perform this step correctly.
  3. The Implementation Engineer will confirm the CNAME record has been created successfully, and then install the SSL certificate.

Common questions

Bazaarvoice uses AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to generate auto-renewing, public SSL certificates for Sampling portals.

For information about how to add or modify Domain Name System (DNS) records, check with your DNS provider.

After you create the DNS record to validate the SSL certificate generated on your behalf, it typically takes 30 minutes for the record to propagate and for the ACM to issue the certificate.

No, these certificates are auto-renewing, so you will not have to contact Bazaarvoice for a renewal.