This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Certbot drafts a command for a name you type. It does not request a certificate and it does not connect. The name has to be one you control. example.com is documentation, not the live name.
Pick Nginx or Apache for this hour, not both. The private key stays on that host. It does not go in the ticket. HTTP and DNS challenges are the certbot page. This page only places TLS on the server you named.
Do not request a certificate for a name you do not hold. Do not reload the server during the reading.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Write the DNS name you control.
- Pick Nginx or Apache.
- Draft the command.
- Remove example.com if it is not your name.
- Do not request the certificate during the reading.
- Keep the private key out of the note.
Mistakes that outlive the command
SSL on Nginx and Apache goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A name you do not hold.
- example.com left as the live name.
- The private key in the ticket.
- Both servers changed in one hour.
- A reload during the reading.
Decisions to write down
One decision for SSL on Nginx and Apache: The name is yours. One server. The key stays on the host. No request was made during the reading. And example.com is not the live name unless you actually control it, which you do not use as a sample here.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The name is written. The server is written. No private key is in the note. No request was sent. And no reload was done. If one of those fails, stop.
# A name you control.
# example.com is documentation.
# Private key stays on the host.
# Do not request a certificate during the reading.Before you leave the host
SSL on Nginx and Apache ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.
- Pillar: Web Server Administration Guide
- How-To: Let's Encrypt and Certbot Guide
- Explainer: Nginx Location Blocks Explained
- Explainer: .htaccess and mod_rewrite Explained
Companion: Security: Troubleshooting Certificate Errors.