Ubuntu 16.04: A Comprehensive Guide to Nginx and Letsencrypt
What is Nginx?
Nginx is a web server and an open-source reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, and other protocols. It is one of the most popular web servers available today. It was developed by Russian programmer Dmitry Sysoev and released in 2004. Nginx focuses on scalability, performance, and low resource utilization, making it an excellent choice for high-traffic websites and applications. In addition, it is lightweight and fast, handling as many as 10,000 simultaneous connections with ease.
Nginx is commonly used as a web server, but it can also be used as a Layer 7 load balancer. It can be used for various applications such as image resizing, streaming audio, and video, caching, and to proxy requests from clients to other servers. Moreover, Nginx supports modules for rewriting URLs, protocol conversion, and authentication.
What is Letsencrypt?
Let’s Encrypt is a free, open source certificate authority that provides free security certificates for websites. Its mission is to make it easier for website owners to secure their websites with HTTPS. Let’s Encrypt certificates are trusted by all major browsers, making them suitable for any website. Let’s Encrypt certificates are valid for 90 days, but they can be automatically renewed for free within the certificate’s lifespan.
Letsencrypt certificates are issued using Domain Validation (DV) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. This makes it possible to secure websites with encryption without the need to purchase a certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). Let’s Encrypt also provides an API which enables developers to automate the renewal process.
Why Use Nginx and Letsencrypt on Ubuntu 16.04?
Ubuntu 16.04 is a long-term support (LTS) version of the popular Linux distribution. It is the most widely used server operating system, and its built-in support for Nginx and Letsencrypt makes it an ideal platform for running websites and applications.
Nginx is a lightweight web server and reverse proxy that is highly optimized for performance and scalability. Its support for the latest versions of HTML and JavaScript makes it suitable for modern web applications. Nginx also offers robust security features such as password protection, SSL/TLS encryption, and XSS protection.
Let’s Encrypt is also easy to set up and use on Ubuntu 16.04. By setting up a Let’s Encrypt certificate, you can secure your website with HTTPS without the need to purchase a certificate from a CA. This makes it possible to deploy secure sites and applications on the web quickly and easily.
How to Install Nginx and Letsencrypt on Ubuntu 16.04?
Installing Nginx and Letsencrypt on Ubuntu 16.04 is straightforward. The first step is to install Nginx. The Nginx package is available in the Ubuntu repositories, so we can install it using the apt package manager. Run the command below to install Nginx.
$ sudo apt-get install nginx
Once the installation is complete, you can check the status of the Nginx service using the command below.
$ sudo systemctl status nginx
The next step is to install Let’s Encrypt. We can install Let’s Encrypt using the certbot utility. Certbot is a command line tool for automatically acquiring and managing SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt. To install certbot, run the command below.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install certbot
Once the installation is complete, we can use certbot to obtain a Let’s Encrypt certificate. To do this, we need to provide the domains that we want to secure with a certificate. We can do this using the command below.
$ sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com
Once the command is run, certbot will automatically obtain a certificate and configure Nginx with the SSL settings. It will also automatically renew the certificate before it expires.
Securing Sites with Nginx and Letsencrypt on Ubuntu 16.04
Now that Nginx and Letsencrypt are installed, we can secure our sites with HTTPS. To do this, we need to enable the SSL module in Nginx. This can be done by editing the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file and uncommenting the line below.
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
Once the SSL module is enabled, we can configure Nginx to use the Let’s Encrypt certificate. This can be done by creating a configuration file for the site we want to secure. The configuration file should be placed in the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled directory and should look like the example below.
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
location / {
root /var/www/example.com/public;
index index.html;
}
}
Once the configuration is saved, we can test the configuration and reload Nginx using the commands below.
$ sudo nginx -t
$ sudo systemctl reload nginx
Now our site is secured with the Let’s Encrypt certificate.
Conclusion
Nginx and Letsencrypt are excellent options for securing websites on Ubuntu 16.04. Nginx is a fast and lightweight web server that is optimized for performance and scalability. Letsencrypt is a free, open source certificate authority that provides free security certificates for websites. Setting up Nginx and Letsencrypt on Ubuntu 16.04 is straightforward and can be done in a few simple steps.
Thank you for reading this article. If you are interested in learning more about Nginx, Letsencrypt, and Ubuntu 16.04, please check out some of our other articles.
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