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Support #843

LetsEncrypt Auto Renewal for Nginx on FreeBSD

Added by Daniel Curtis over 8 years ago. Updated about 8 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Daniel Curtis
Category:
Web Server
Target version:
FreeBSD 10
Start date:
08/21/2016
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
1.00 h
Spent time:
6.50 h

Description

This is a guide for setting up auto-renewal for a LetsEncrypt certificate used on an nginx site on FreeBSD 10.

Prepare the Environment

  • Make sure the system is up to date:
    pkg update && pkg upgrade

Nginx Config

  • Create a configuration directory to make managing individual server blocks easier
    mkdir /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d
  • Edit the main nginx config file:
    vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    • And strip down the config file and add the include statement at the end to make it easier to handle various server blocks:
      worker_processes  1;
error_log  /var/log/nginx-error.log;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile        on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    # Load config files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory
    include /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
}
  • Create the default site folder:
    mkdir -p /usr/local/www/sites/www.example.com
  • Setup the default site configuration:
    vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/www.example.com.conf
    • Then add or modify the configuration to look similar to the following:
      server {
    listen 80; 
#    listen 443 default ssl;
    server_name www.example.com;

    # Turn on ans set SSL key/cert
#    ssl on;
#    ssl_certificate /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/fullchain.pem;
#    ssl_certificate_key /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/privkey.pem;

    # Strong SSL configuration
#    ssl_ciphers 'AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH:!aNULL';
#    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
#    ssl_session_cache  builtin:1000  shared:SSL:10m;
#    ssl_stapling on;
#    ssl_stapling_verify on;
#    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
#    ssl_dhparam /usr/local/etc/nginx/dhparam.pem;
#    add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=63072000;
#    add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
#    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

    root /usr/local/www/sites/www.example.com;
    index index.html index.htm;
    autoindex on;

    location ~ /.well-known {
        allow all;
    }
}
  • Restart nginx to load the new website config:
    service nginx restart

LetsEncrypt

  • Install the LetsEncrypt certbot:
    pkg install py27-certbot
  • Create the letsencrypt config directory:
    mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/configs
  • Then create the initial letsencrypt domain config:
    vi /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/config/www.example.com.conf
    • And add the following:
      # the domain we want to get the cert for;
domains = www.example.com

# increase key size
rsa-key-size = 4096

# the current closed beta (as of 2015-Nov-07) is using this server
server = https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

# this address will receive renewal reminders, IIRC
email = bob@example.com

# turn off the ncurses UI, we want this to be run as a cronjob
text = True

# agree to the terms of service
agree-tos

# authenticate by placing a file in the webroot and then letting LE fetch it
authenticator = webroot
webroot-path = /usr/local/www/sites/www.example.com
  • Generate the first certificate:
    certbot certonly --config /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/config/www.example.com.conf

Automatic Renewal

  • Test automatic renewal for your certificates by running this command:
    certbot renew --dry-run
  • If that appears to be working correctly, you can arrange for automatic renewal by adding a cron or systemd job which runs the following:
    certbot renew --quiet
  • Edit the root cron table:
    crontab -e
    • And add the following to the end of the file:
      # LetEncrypt monthly renewal
30 2 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/certbot renew --quiet >> /var/log/le-renew.log

# Reload nginx after LetsEncrypt renewal
40 2 * * 1 /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nginx reload

Nginx SSL

  • Generate the dhparam file:
    openssl dhparam -out /usr/local/etc/nginx/dhparam.pem 4096
  • Edit the default site configuration:
    vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/www.example.com.conf
    • Uncomment the SSL configuration options to enable SSL:
      server {
    listen 80; 
    listen 443 default ssl;
    server_name www.example.com;

    # Turn on ans set SSL key/cert
    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /usr/local/etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/privkey.pem;

    # Strong SSL configuration
    ssl_ciphers 'AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH:!aNULL';
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_session_cache  builtin:1000  shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_dhparam /usr/local/etc/nginx/dhparam.pem;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=63072000;
    add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

    root /usr/local/www/sites/www.example.com;
    index index.html index.htm;
    autoindex on;

    location ~ /.well-known {
        allow all;
    }
}

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