Certbot Centos 7 Nginx Staging: An Easy Step By Step Guide
What Is Certbot?
Certbot is a free, open-source software
tool that allows you to easily obtain digital certificates from the Let’s Encrypt Certificate Authority (CA), which validates and issues SSL/TLS certificates. With Certbot, you can rapidly establish a secure connection that is both trusted by web browsers and search engines and meets web security best practices.
The Certbot tool can be used for obtaining and installing HTTPS/TLS certificates for web servers running on CentOS 7 servers. This guide will explain how to set up a staging environment for running Certbot on a CentOS 7 server running the Nginx web server.
Why Staging is Important
Running a staging environment is an important part of the development cycle. It allows you to test out changes and configuration changes before deploying them to the production environment. By having a staging environment you can test out Certbot and its associated settings to ensure that it works correctly, without adversely affecting the production environment.
A staging environment can also be very useful when troubleshooting and debugging any issues that may arise with Certbot. This can save you time and effort when it comes to implementing changes and fixes in a production environment.
Prerequisites for Setting up a Staging Environment
Before you can get started, you need to ensure that you have all the necessary prerequisites, such as:
- A CentOS 7 server running with the Nginx web server installed.
- A domain name that has been registered and properly configured.
- A non-root sudo user configured on the server.
For this guide, we will assume that you have all of the necessary prerequisites in place.
Installing Certbot on a CentOS 7 Server with Nginx
Before installing Certbot, it is important to ensure that your system is up-to-date. You can do this by running the following command:
sudo yum update
Once the system update is complete, you can install Certbot by running:
sudo yum install certbot python2-certbot-nginx
Once the Certbot installation is complete, you can start the Nginx web server by running:
sudo systemctl start nginx
You can also enable Nginx to start on system boot by running:
sudo systemctl enable nginx
Creating a Staging Certbot Environment
Once you have installed Certbot and Nginx, you can now configure Certbot to issue staging certificates. This can be done by running the following command:
sudo certbot certonly --test-cert --staging
This command will create a self-signed certificate for Nginx and will output the location of the certificate and private key files. You can then use these files to test out the Certbot functionality without affecting the production environment.
Configuring the Staging Environment with Nginx
Now that you have created a staging environment with Certbot, you need to configure Nginx to use the staging certificate. This can be done by editing the Nginx configuration file and adding the following lines:
ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/nginx-selfsigned.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/nginx-selfsigned.key;
Once you have saved the changes, you can then restart Nginx by running the following command:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Testing the Staging Certbot Environment
Once you have configured Nginx to use the staging certificate, you can test out the Certbot environment by accessing the website from the browser. You should see the staging certificate being used on the website, which indicates that the staging environment has been successfully configured.
FAQs
What is a staging environment?
A staging environment is an isolated test environment that allows you to test out changes to web servers and applications without affecting the production environment.
How do I install Certbot on CentOS 7?
To install Certbot on a CentOS 7 server, you first need to ensure that your system is up-to-date by running the command sudo yum update
. Once the update is complete, you can then install Certbot by running the command sudo yum install certbot python2-certbot-nginx
.
How do I create a staging environment with Certbot?
To create a staging environment with Certbot, you first need to install Certbot and Nginx. Once they are installed, you can then create the staging environment by running the command sudo certbot certonly --test-cert --staging
. You can then configure Nginx to use the staging certificate, and then test out the environment by accessing the website from the browser.
Conclusion
Certbot is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used to quickly and easily set up secure web servers. This guide explains how to set up a staging environment for running Certbot on a CentOS 7 server running the Nginx web server. By setting up a staging environment, you can test and debug any issues that arise with Certbot and its associated settings, without adversely affecting the production environment.
Thank you for reading this article. Please read more of our other articles to learn more about Certbot and how to use it in different server environments.
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