wordpress and let’s encrypt

Here’s how to install Let’s Encrypt for SSL-certificates on Ubuntu1804 assuming you have apache (lamp) and wordpress running already and you own the domain you are using, of course.

add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
apt install python-certbot-apache
certbot –apache -d berndkuhlen.de -d www.berndkuhlen.de
certbot renew –dry-run

make sure to have a certbot cronjob to keep your certificate fresh.

Here’s how mine looks like:

0 0 * * * /usr/bin/certbot renew >/home/ubuntu/certbot.txt 
2>/home/ubuntu/certbot.err

Here’s my conf (all configured automatically)

renew_before_expiry = 30 days
 version = 0.31.0
 archive_dir = /etc/letsencrypt/archive/berndkuhlen.de
 cert = /etc/letsencrypt/live/berndkuhlen.de/cert.pem
 privkey = /etc/letsencrypt/live/berndkuhlen.de/privkey.pem
 chain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/berndkuhlen.de/chain.pem
 fullchain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/berndkuhlen.de/fullchain.pem
 Options used in the renewal process
 [renewalparams]
 account = SOMEACCOUNTID
 authenticator = apache
 installer = apache
 server = https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

I was surprised to see that certbot automatically updated my apache conf to include the new certificate and to listen on port 443.