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Sat, 14 Mar 2009

/Admin/Apache/HTTPS-SSL: Turn on SSL in Apache

Turn on the SSL module:

cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/
ln -s ../mods-available/ssl.conf .
ln -s ../mods-available/ssl.load .
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In Debian, /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ports.conf should already have logic to listen on the default port 443 if the SSL module is loaded.

Now create a self-signed certificate (tinyca is a nice simple GUI that will do the job....) Just enter minimal information, and export the newly generated cert and key to files, being careful to set the expiration date nice and long, and export the key WITHOUT a password (otherwise you will have to provide a password every time apache is restarted).

Copy the exported certificate files to your server, into directory /etc/apache2/ssl. Now create an SSL block in the Apache Virtual Host where you would like SSL. The *:80 block will respond to normal http requests, and the *:443 block will respond to https (SSL) requests:

I am not sure why the 443 block requires a NameVirtualHost line and the 80 block does not. Interestingly enough, this[2] says "Name-based virtual hosting cannot be used with SSL secure servers because of the nature of the SSL protocol", which might have something to do with it? But despite this[3] I currently HAVE got name-based virtual hosting working on SSL, unless there is something I do not understand here.

Here is a useful reference[1], in addition to the installed apache docs.

[1] http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/349
[2] http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/name-based.html
[3] http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/ssl/ssl_faq.html#vhosts

posted at: 01:01 | path: /Admin/Apache/HTTPS-SSL | permanent link to this entry

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Sat, 14 Mar 2009