NGINX SSL Installation

Installing a Wildcard Certificate on Nginx in 5 Simple Steps

Once the CA has shared the certificate files with you, it’s time to install them on your server! The steps below detail the installation process. We also will take a look at the configurations that need to be tweaked in order to get HTTPS up and running.

1. Connect to the Server

Connect to your Nginx server (from which you generated the CSR) via FTP or SSH using a privileged account.

2. Copy All of the Certificate Files

Copy all the files in the certificate package that was shared by the CA and place them in the appropriate directories. It’s recommended to store them under the “/etc/ssl” directory on your server.

3. Combine the Primary and Intermediate Certificates

For the next step, run the following command to concatenate your primary and intermediate certificates:

         cat your_domain_name.crt intermediate.crt >> bundle.crt

4. Edit the Nginx Virtual Hosts File

Next, edit your virtual host files to reroute connections through port 443 by adding the code snippet given below in bold:

server {

listen   443;

ssl    on;
ssl_certificate    /etc/ssl/your_domain_name.pem; (or bundle.crt)
ssl_certificate_key    /etc/ssl/your_domain_name.key;

server_name your.domain.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/nginx.vhost.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/nginx.vhost.error.log;
location / {
root   /home/www/public_html/your.domain.com/public/;
index  index.html;
}
}

5. Restart Nginx.

Restart your server using the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart