Enable HTTPS support with NGINX

NOTE: The steps below assume that you are using a custom domain name and that you have already configured the custom domain name to point to your cloud server.

Bitnami images come with SSL support already pre-configured and with a dummy certificate in place. Although this dummy certificate is fine for testing and development purposes, you will usually want to use a valid SSL certificate for production use. You can either generate this on your own (explained here) or you can purchase one from a commercial certificate authority.

IMPORTANT: For security reasons, never post or disclose your server’s SSL private key in a public forum.

Once you obtain the certificate and certificate key files, you will need to update your server to use them. Follow these steps to activate SSL support:

• Use the table below to identify the correct locations for your certificate and configuration files.

  Variable	Value
  Current application URL	https://[custom-domain]/
  	Example: https://my-domain.com/ or https://my-domain.com/appname
  NGINX configuration file	installdir/nginx/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf
  Certificate file	installdir/nginx/conf/server.crt
  Certificate key file	installdir/nginx/conf/server.key

• Copy your SSL certificate and certificate key file to the specified locations.

• Once you have copied all the server certificate files, you may make them readable by the root user only with the following commands:

  $ sudo chown root:root installdir/nginx/conf/server*
  
  $ sudo chmod 600 installdir/nginx/conf/server*
  

• Open port 443 in the server firewall.

• Restart the NGINX server.

  $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart nginx
  

You should now be able to access your application using an HTTPS URL. In case of server startup errors, check the SSL certificate and key