Using Let's Encrypt
Let's Encrypt is a certificate authority that provides free SSL certificates. The only downsides of Let's Encrypt are that they don't release a list of the IPs they issue certificates with so you cant have a firewall and the second downside is they don't support IP certificates.
Install Certbot
Downloading Certbot
To begin, we will install certbot, a simple script that automatically renews our certificates and allows much easier creation of them. The command below is for Ubuntu distributions, but you can always check Certbot's official site (opens in a new tab) for installation instructions. We have also included a command below to install certbot's Apache plugin so you won't have to stop your webserver.
apt update
apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginxCompleting the HTTP Challenge
- Make sure you have port 80 open on your firewall
- Request a certificate from Let's Encrypt, you should replace
example.comwith the domain you would like to generate a certificate for.
certbot certonly --nginx -d example.comAutomatically Renewing SSL/TLS certificates
- Install crontab:
apt install cron- Create a crontab rule for the automatic renewal:
(crontab -l ; echo "0 23 * * * certbot renew --quiet --deploy-hook \"systemctl restart nginx\"")| crontab -