Apache – configure domain with Let’s Encrypt SSL

If you want to configure new domain at your Ubuntu server, here are the steps you neet to follow.

Create new Virtual Host configuration

First create a configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.conf

Then put following configuration to the configuration file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin [email protected]
     ServerName yourdomain.com
     ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com

     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/yourdomain/public

     <Directory /var/www/html/yourdomain/public>
         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride All
         Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log 
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined 
 </VirtualHost>

Once it’s done, let’s enable new configuration:

sudo a2ensite yourdomain.conf && sudo systemctl reload apache2 

Protect it with Let’s Encrypt free certificate

If you have not installed it before, you have to install it with following command:

sudo apt install python3-certbot-apache

Now we can generate a certificate for our domain:

sudo certbot --apache --agree-tos --redirect -m [email protected] -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

That’s it. Command above will do all the stuff. It will generate certificate, install it in your apache, modify apache configuration so all the traffic will be redirected to secure connection. Nothing to do more.

The only downside to the solution is the certificate vilidity period – only 90 days. So around certificate expiration time you have to renew it with following command:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

And that’s it. Enjoy secured website 🙂