Step 1 — Installing Certbot
- sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache
Obtaining an SSL Certificate
- sudo certbot --apache
make sure your virtual host configuration is properly done before Obtaining an SSL Certificate
Step 2 — Checking your Apache Virtual Host Configuration
- sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain.conf
Find the existing ServerName and ServerAlias lines. They should look like this:
...
ServerName your_domain
ServerAlias www.your_domain
If you already have your ServerName and ServerAlias set up like this, you can exit your text editor and move on to the next step. If you’re using nano, you can exit by typing CTRL+X, then Y and ENTER to confirm.
If your current virtual host configuration doesn’t match the example, update it accordingly. When you’re done, save the file and quit the editor. Then, run the following command to validate your changes:
- sudo apache2ctl configtest
Apache so that the changes take effect:
- sudo systemctl reload apache2
Obtaining an SSL Certificate
- sudo certbot --apache
This script will prompt you to answer a series of questions in order to configure your SSL certificate. First, it will ask you for a valid e-mail address. This email will be used for renewal notifications and security notices:
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Plugins selected: Authenticator apache, Installer apache
Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to
cancel): you@your_domain
After providing a valid e-mail address, hit ENTER to proceed to the next step. You will then be prompted to confirm if you agree to Let’s Encrypt terms of service. You can confirm by pressing A and then ENTER:
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Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
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(A)gree/(C)ancel: A
Next, you’ll be asked if you would like to share your email with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to receive news and other information. If you do not want to subscribe to their content, type N. Otherwise, type Y. Then, hit ENTER to proceed to the next step.
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Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work
encrypting the web, EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.
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(Y)es/(N)o: N
The next step will prompt you to inform Certbot of which domains you’d like to activate HTTPS for. The listed domain names are automatically obtained from your Apache virtual host configuration, that’s why it’s important to make sure you have the correct ServerName and ServerAlias settings configured in your virtual host. If you’d like to enable HTTPS for all listed domain names (recommended), you can leave the prompt blank and hit ENTER to proceed. Otherwise, select the domains you want to enable HTTPS for by listing each appropriate number, separated by commas and/ or spaces, then hit ENTER.
Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
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1: your_domain
2: www.your_domain
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Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel):
You’ll see output like this:
Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for your_domain
http-01 challenge for www.your_domain
Enabled Apache rewrite module
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
Created an SSL vhost at /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain-le-ssl.conf
Enabled Apache socache_shmcb module
Enabled Apache ssl module
Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain-le-ssl.conf
Enabling available site: /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain-le-ssl.conf
Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain-le-ssl.conf
Next, you’ll be prompted to select whether or not you want HTTP traffic redirected to HTTPS. In practice, that means when someone visits your website through unencrypted channels (HTTP), they will be automatically redirected to the HTTPS address of your website. Choose 2 to enable the redirection, or 1 if you want to keep both HTTP and HTTPS as separate methods of accessing your website.
Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
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1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
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Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
After this step, Certbot’s configuration is finished, and you will be presented with the final remarks about your new certificate, where to locate the generated files, and how to test your configuration using an external tool that analyzes your certificate’s authenticity:
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Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://your_domain and
https://www.your_domain
You should test your configuration at:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=your_domain
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.your_domain