Troubleshooter: Setting Up SSL Certificates for an NLB Cluster

I want to set up a Network Load Balancing (NLB) cluster for my front-end servers. What kind of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates will I need to use on those servers?

Any properly formed SSL certificate will work. If you want users to be able to use one machine name to connect to any server in the cluster, you'll need to create a certificate that has a common name (CN) that matches the NLB cluster name. Note that some third-party certificate issuers, such as VeriSign, have license agreements that prohibit you from installing the same certificate on multiple servers, so be sure to review your Certificate Authority's (CA's) license to determine how many certificates you'll need.