Before you begin

Prerequisites :

• Must have the certificates provided by the Certificate Authority
• Must have the Private Key

Setup and Configure

1. Bundle the Certificate files received from CA

cat <ssl_certificate_from_ca> <intermediate_certificate_from_ca> >> <filename_bundled_ssl_certificate>

2. Upload the SSL Certificate Bundle and Private Key to the Server

scp <bundled_ssl_certificate> <user>@<host>:/home/ubuntu/
scp <private_key> <user>@<host>:/home/ubuntu/

3. SSH to the Server

$ ssh-add <private_key>;
$ ssh <user>@<host>;

4. Move the SSL Certificates to /etc/ssl

sudo mv /home/ubuntu/<bundled_ssl_certificate> /etc/ssl
sudo mv /home/ubuntu/<private_key> /etc/ssl

5. Change file permissions

sudo chmod 644 /etc/ssl/<bundled_ssl_certificate>
sudo chmod 644 /etc/ssl/<private_key>

6. Configure the Nginx configuration for your domain that will be using the SSL Certificates

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

  server {
    ...

    # Enter the following in the server block

    # ---------------
    # SSL
    # ---------------
    listen 443 ssl;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/<bundled_ssl_certificate>;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/<private_key>;

    # ----------------
    # Redirect to HTTPS
    # ----------------
    if ($scheme = 'http') {
      return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }

    ...
  }