This Step by step guide will help you install Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate on your CentOS 6 and 6.x virtual server.
While the tutorial is meant for installing LetsEncrypt on CentOS 6, it can also be used on Centos7 without guarantee.
What Is Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate?
LetsEncrypt is a free and trusted secure certificate authority from letsencrypt.org. Let’s Encrypt is a non-profit certificate authority run by Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).
Let’s Encrypt provides X. 509 certificates for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption free of charge.
Validity of the SSL
While users can indefinitely use the Certificate through regular renewal, the certificate is always issued for 90 days, during which renewal can take place at any time.
How To Install Let’s Encrypt
These step by step guidelines will help you to install the Let’s Encrypt Certificate on your Dedicated or Virtual server running CentOS 6.
Install and start Apache Web Server
1) Make sure that Apache Web Server is already installed in your server. The following command line installs the server.
$ yum install httpd
2) Install the SSL/TLS module.
$ yum -y install mod_ssl
3) Start the Apache server.
$ service httpd start [On RHEL/CentOS 6]
$ systemctl start httpd.service [On RHEL/CentOS 7]
Install the Certificate
4) To install Let’s Encrypt Client, the simplest method is to clone GitHub repository in your filesystem. To install git on your system you must enable Epel repositories first. Use below command for this.
$ yum install epel-release
5) Install the git client using the command below.
$ yum install git
6) Now you have installed all the required dependencies. Next, go to /usr/local/ directory and start pulling the Let’s Encrypt client from its official GitHub repository by using the following command
$ cd /usr/local/
$ git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt
7) To obtain the SSL Certificate, we need to run Let’s Encrypt script command. For this go to Let’s Encrypt installation directory from /usr/local/letsencrypt and run the letsencrypt-auto command by providing –apache option and the -d flag for every subdomain that needs a certificate.
$ cd /usr/local/letsencrypt
$ ./letsencrypt-auto –apache -d your_domain.tld
8) After completing the process, a new window will be displayed and here you can provide an email address that will be used by Let’s Encrypt to recover your lost key or for urgent notices.
9) The next window will display the terms of service of the license. Select agree and please hit the Enter key.
10) On the next window Let’s Encrypt will prompt you to select a virtual host. It will not find any virtual host available, so select the ssl.conf file to be automatically modified by Let’s Encrypt client and press Enter to continue.
11) Next, you will see two methods, one is the easy method and the other is the secure method. Choose the easy method for HTTP requests and hit the Enter key to move forward.
12) After completing all these processes, a congratulation message will be displayed on the screen. Now press the Enter key to release the prompt.
How To Know Your SSL Certificate Installed well.
You have successfully issued an SSL/TLS certificate for your domain. Now you can start browsing your website using HTTPS protocol.
13) You can test the SSL/TLS certificate of your domain by visiting the below link.
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html
