4. Installing HTTPS support for WordPress instance

In this article, we are performing the final touches on installing the WordPress website – Installing HTTPS support for WordPress instance. We have already set up operating system environment, installed and configured all the required services on the server, and installed the WordPress instance.

Login to the server

MacBook-Pro-ID:~ ivan$ ssh [email protected] -i bluegrid.io-edu

There are several ways to obtain the HTTPS certificate, and I’ll cover the fastest one so we can ensure the security of the HTTP traffic on the website – letsencrypt.

Install certbot:

bg-user@bluegrid:~$ sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache

Since the SSL is installed for the specific domain we will perform this howto assuming we have a domain bluedomain.com and www.bluedomain.com. 

The first step is to add this domain into the vhost file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:

ServerName bluegrid.xyz 
ServerAlias www.bluegrid.xyz

Restart Apache service:

bg-user@bluegrid:~$ sudo service apache2 restart

Initiate the certbot certificates obtain process:

bg-user@bluegrid:~$ sudo certbot --apache

Note: make sure that your domain is pointed to your server IP address! When the process is over the success looks like this:

Notes: 

1. Certbot created SSL config file /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf for both domains. 
   To confirm that the installation is a success you can run a simple curl command against both domains:
   
2. Now you must add a domain to your WordPress settings:
   

Finally

The website is now operational and can be used. However, to prevent malicious actions and unauthorized intrusions we need to make sure that WordPress installation is secure.