setting up free ssl certificate for apache on ubuntu server

In order to setup a free certificate on apache server using Ubuntu 10.04 you need to follow the following steps.

Step 1 : Install ‘apache’ if you dont have any by following the given command i.e.
sudo apt-get install apache2

Step 2 : install ‘ssl3′ by following the command
sudo apt-get install ssl3

Step 3 : install ‘libssl-dev’ by following the command
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev or sudo apt-get install openssl openssl-develu

Step 4 : Enable the SSL module by
sudo a2enmod ssl

Step 5 : Make a directory for ssl
mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl
cd /etc/apache2/ssl
mkdir private
mkdir certs Note:(if the ssl, certs, private folders already exist there no need to create extra)

Step 6 : Create your own privete key
sudo openssl genrsa -out ~/ssl foldername/key name size
e.g. sudo openssl genrsa -out ~/domain.com.ssl/domain.com.key 2048

Step 7 : Create csr
sudo openssl req -new -key ~/domain.com.ssl/domain.com.key - out  ~/domain.com.ssl/ domain.com.csr

Step 8 : Move the keys to /etc/ssl/certs
mv domain.com.crt /etc/ssl/certs/ mv domain.com.key /etc/ss/private/
Note:(if you have the bundle-file key from CA then mv sf_bundle.crt /etc/ssl/certs)

Step 9 : Configure your ssl
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
cp default default-ssl
vi default-ssl

do the following changes:

<IfModule>
<VirtualHost _default_:443>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot "/var/www/sitefolder"
ServerName xyz.com:443
<Directory />
.  . . . no change
</Directory>
#SSL Engine Switch: #Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host.

SSLEngine on
#SSLCertificateFile directive is needed.

SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/domain.com.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/domain.com.key

#Note:(if you have the CV bundle.cert then uncomment the line and correct the path to sf_bundle.crt)
#Server Certificate Chain:
#SSLCertificateFile
/etc/ssl/certs/sf_bundle.crt
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

Step 10 : Check for port 443 on server:
sudo vi /etc/apache2/port.conf
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>  Listen 443  </IfModule>
<IfModule mod_gnutls.c>    Listen 443  </IfModule>

Step 11 : Force fully Redirect the http traffic to https, in case you want the site be only accessible through https

vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/virtual-host-80(xyz.com)
<VirtualHost *:80>

# Admin email, Server Name (domain name) and any aliases
ServerAdmin webmaster@xyz.com
ServerName  xyz.com
Redirect / https://xyz.com  ServerAlias xyz.com
# Index file and Document Root (where the public files are located)
DirectoryIndex index.php
DocumentRoot /var/www/sitefolder
<Directory /var/www/sitefolder/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride all
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>

# Custom log file locations
LogLevel warn
ErrorLog  /var/log/apache2/xyz_error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/xyz_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Step 12 : restart you apache2 server
/etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Step 13 : Voila ! you are done now check your site
https://sitename

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