How to install Let's Encrypt with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04

How to Install Let’s Encrypt with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04

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In this tutorial we are going to show you, with step-by-step instructions on how to install Let’s Encrypt with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04. Let’s Encrypt is an open SSL Certificate Authority (CA) that offers free domain-validated (DV) certificates for your websites. SSL Certificates are used to establish a secure encrypted connection between a web server and a user’s web browser. The SSL certificates that have been issued by Let’s Encrypt are valid for 90 days and are trusted by most web browsers today.

1. Requirements

In order to start with the installation procedure, you need to have Apache or Nginx installed on your server. If there is no web server installed on your virtual server, please follow this tutorial to install Apache.
Also, you need a registered domain name with its A record pointing to your server’s IP address.  For the purposes of this tutorial, we will use ‘yourdomain.com’.

2. Install CertBot

Run the following commands:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache

3. Install Let’s Encrypt SSL

Install Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on your domain (do not forget to replace ‘yourdomain.com’ with your actual domain):

sudo certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Plugins selected: Authenticator apache, Installer apache
Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to
cancel): [email protected] 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about EFF and
our work to encrypt the web, protect its users and defend digital rights.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Y)es/(N)o: N

Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
tls-sni-01 challenge for linuxhostsupport.com
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
Created an SSL vhost at /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
Deploying Certificate for yourdomain.com to VirtualHost /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
Enabling available site: /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf

4. Redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
Redirecting vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf to ssl vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://yourdomain.com

5. Renew the SSL certificate with a cron job

Create a cron job so the SSL certificate is renewed automatically. Run:

crontab -e

and add the following line:

0 0 1 * * /usr/bin/letsencrypt renew >> /var/log/letsencrypt-renew.log

Save and close that file and restart cron service for the changes to take effect:

service cron restart

Open https://yourdomain.com in your favorite web browser, and check whether Let’s Encrypt SSL is installed properly:

Install-Lets-Encrypt-on-Ubuntu-16.04

That is it. Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate has been successfully installed on your website.

Of course you don’t have to Install Let’s Encrypt with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04, if you use one of our Linux Server Support services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to  install Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on Ubuntu 16.04 for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.

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10 thoughts on “How to Install Let’s Encrypt with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04

  1. I have tried multiple other instructions that did not work, however, this worked perfectly!!! THANK YOU!

  2. Thanks a lot as I have tried a lot other options but this steps mentioned is article worked perfect for me..!! Thanks a lot again.!

  3. I follow every step and still i got this error. Checked DNS, IP, everything is alright

    – The following errors were reported by the server:

    Type: connection
    Detail: Fetching
    http:///.well-known/acme-challenge/NYDvWGX2wFdb4q2vsFC2Kyq-J1pViG5I9cC2NaKoqv0:
    Timeout during connect (likely firewall problem)

    To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was
    entered correctly and the DNS A/AAAA record(s) for that domain
    contain(s) the right IP address. Additionally, please check that
    your computer has a publicly routable IP address and that no
    firewalls are preventing the server from communicating with the
    client. If you’re using the webroot plugin, you should also verify
    that you are serving files from the webroot path you provided.

  4. You have to use DNS challenge rather than http or https validation. I had the same problem and was able to resolve by using DNS challenge.

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