1. Install CertBot
To install Certbot, simply run the following commands:
apt-get install software-properties-common python-software-properties
add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
apt-get update
apt-get install python-certbot-apache
2. Install Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate
To install a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on your domain, execute the following command (make sure you replace ‘yourdomain.com’ with your actual domain name):
certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com
You will then be asked for an email address and to read and accept the Terms of Services. This is how the output should look like during the installation:
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): admin@yourdomain.com
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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-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 EFF and
our work to encrypt the web, protect its users and defend digital rights.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Y)es/(N)o: Y
Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
tls-sni-01 challenge for yourdomian.com
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
Created an SSL vhost at /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
Deploying Certificate for yourdomain.com to VirtualHost /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
Enabling available site: /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
3. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
Additionally, you can also make a choice if you would like to redirect all the HTTP traffic to HTTPS:
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
Redirecting vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf to ssl vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://yourdomain.com
4. Automatic renewal
You can also create a cron job in order to set up an automatic SSL renewal. To do this first run:crontab -e
and then add the following:/usr/bin/letsencrypt renew >> /var/log/letsencrypt-renew.log
Save the file and close it. Restart the cron service so the changes can take effect:service cron restart
That’s it.
