Free SSL Certificates

[Wise]

First of all, let's say you want to get a certificate for example.com. To run the installation, you must have root access to your example.com web server.

To Generate and Install Let's Encrypt Free SSL Certificate (https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt), you must first download and run the Let's Encrypt client application.


To install Let's Encrypt Free SSL certificate follow these Steps:

Step 1: Login to your 'example.com' web server using SSH with root access.


Step 2: To install the Git version control system, type the following command:

apt-get install git

Step 3: Then download and install the latest version of Let's Encrypt Client application, type the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt
cd letsencrypt
./letsencrypt-auto

Step 4: Once the installation starts, press Enter to accept the agreement.


Step 5: Then press Enter to specify the server name manually in the text box (for example,Example Domain (http://www.example.com/)) and then press Enter.


Step 6: Next, enter your email address, where you can receive messages from Let's Encrypt and to recover lost keys, and then press Enter.


Step 7: Review the 'Terms of Service,' and then press Enter to generate and install the SSL certificate.

Once the installation completes, you'll receive a 'Congratulation' message.


How to Configure Nginx/Apache for Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate


By default, Nginx or Apache web servers are not configured to how to use your new certificates.

For example, in case of Nginx: To use the installed SSL certificate, you need to edit Nginx configuration file. Type the following command to open Nginx configuration file:

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/www.example.com
Within that file, add the following lines.

http{
server{
…
listen 443 ssl;
server_name www.example.com; (http://www.example.com%3B/)
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/.wwwexample.com/privkey.pem;
…
}
}
Save the file, and just restart your Nginx web server, using the following command:

sudo nginx -s reload
That's it! Check complete documentation (https://letsencrypt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/) here.



Congratulation you have successfully installed SSL certificate for your example.com domain.