Creating a secure site in Ubuntu / apache seems like a daunting task, so I thought there must me an easier way – and there is by installing Letsencrypt on the server.
Installing Letsencrypt (aka cerbot)
Step 1 – add the repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
Then update
sudo apt-get update
and install
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apach
Step 2 – Creating the Certificate for a domain
sudo certbot --apache -d example.com
or for multiple simply
sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com
the terminal will then present you with a step by step guide. The certificates can be viewed here /etc/letsencrypt/live
You can verify your site using the following link (replacing the example with your own)
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=example.com&latest
You should now able to conect to you site using HTTPS
Step 3 -Auto Renew
You will need to auto renew the certificate every 90 days by simply running the following command. You can then set up a cron job to do this automatically.
sudo certbot renew