Generate CSR = Not Secure?

[Ed Pastore <EPastore@xxxxxxxx>]

I've had a secure server for one year now, and it's time to renew my
certificate with Verisign. The Verisign instructions tell me the first step
is to generate a CSR.

The WebTen instructions
<http://www.tenon.com/products/webten/WebTenUserGuide/9_SSL.html#pgfId-10191
> say this:
"A temporary, self-signed certificate (for use while your CSR is being
processed by the certificate authority) is created and saved.... This file
should be replaced by the real certificate when one is returned from the
Certificate Authority."

This implies that my server might no longer be secure until I get the new
certificate from Verisign. Am I missing something? Is there a trick to
generating the CSR without destroying the current certificate? Or does the
new CSR just reside next to my current certificate? I'm reluctant to do this
before I'm sure it'll work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!