**Note:** When using a password-protected private key, the password must be provided through the environment variable `MINIO_CERT_PASSWD` using the following command:
```sh
export MINIO_CERT_PASSWD=<PASSWORD>
```
```
The default OpenSSL format for private encrypted keys is PKCS-8, but MinIO only supports PKCS-1. An RSA key that has been formatted with PKCS-8 can be converted to PKCS-1 using the following command:
**Note:** Replace `<domain.com>` with the development domain name.
Alternatively, use the command below to generate a self-signed wildcard certificate that is valid for all subdomains under `<domain.com>`. Wildcard certificates are useful for deploying distributed MinIO instances, where each instance runs on a subdomain under a single parent domain.
**Note:** PowerShell may need to be restarted for this change to take effect.
#### 3.4.2 Generate a private key:
#### 3.3.2 Generate a private key:
Run the following command to generate a private `.key` file:
```
@ -200,7 +181,7 @@ A response similar to this one should be displayed:
Generating a 3072 bit RSA private key...
```
#### 3.4.3 Generate a public certificate:
#### 3.3.3 Generate a public certificate:
Create a file called `cert.cnf` with the content below. This file contains all of the information necessary to generate a certificate using `certtool.exe`: