Config Ssl On Nginx Centos 7


Config SSL On Nginx Centos 7

Overview

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a type of cryptographic protocol used for secure communications on the Internet, as well as for secure access to remote systems. This protocol is commonly used to protect web traffic, but is also used to provide secure connections for email, instant messaging, and other types of data transfers. In this tutorial, we will walk through the process of setting up an SSL certificate for the Nginx web server on a CentOS 7 based server.

Prerequisites

Before beginning this guide you should have a regular, user account with sudo privileges, a domain name pointed at your server, and Nginx installed on your server. You should also be familiar with the basics of SSL certificates and their role in securing connections.

Step 1 — Installing Certbot

Certbot is a client provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help secure the internet by automating the process of setting up SSL certificates. It’s available on many platforms and can be used to automate obtaining and renewing SSL certificates. We will use Certbot to set up an SSL certificate for our Nginx webserver on CentOS 7.

Step 2 — Downloading the Certificate Files

Before we start configuring SSL for our website, we will need to download the certificate files from our certificate authority. Contact your certificate authority and provide any additional information they request. Once the certificate is approved, save the three files (private key, certificate, and chain files) that you receive via email or other method.

Step 3 — Configuring Nginx

Now that we have our certificate files ready, we can begin configuring Nginx to use them. We will need to make changes in the existing Nginx configuration file for our domain. Open the configuration file with your preferred editor.

Step 4 — Enabling the SSL Module

Nginx needs to have its SSL module enabled before we can use the SSL certificate. To enable the SSL module, open the Nginx configuration file and uncomment the line http_ssl_module by removing the # in front of it. Then save and close the file.

Step 5 — Configuring the SSL Certificate

We now need to configure the SSL certificate in the Nginx configuration file. Begin by adding the following server block before the closing } character:

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have seen how to set up an SSL certificate for Nginx on a CentOS 7 server. We installed Certbot and downloaded our certificate files, configured Nginx to use the SSL files, and enabled the SSL module to enable SSL support. Now all web traffic is running securely over SSL. Thank you for reading this article. Please also read other articles on our blog for more tips and tricks related to web security.