Setting up the Webserver and enabling https connection

HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol over SSL(Secure Socket Layer).It encrypts and decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are returned by the Web server.

Steps for set up a web server and enabling https on it

1. Activate apache2 ssl module.

sudo a2enmod ssl

3.Apache ssl virtual host activation.

sudo a2ensite default-ssl

4.Restart the apache2 web server

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

5.Create a self-signed SSL certificate

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

The terminal look like this:

-----You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporatedinto your certificate request.What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blankFor some fields there will be a default value,If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:In
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:kerala
Locality Name (eg, city) []:kollam
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:amrita
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:csn
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:mtech
Email Address []:chindunair12@gmail.com

6.Set up the certificate

We need to set up the virtual hosts to display the new certificate.
6.1 Open up the SSL config file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

We need to make the following changes
Change the port on the virtual host to 443, the default SSL port:

<VirtualHost:*443>

Add a line with your server name right below the Server Admin email:

ServerName mtech:443

Add the following three lines to the virtual host configuration

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key

Save and exit out of the file.

7.Activate new virtual host

sudo a2ensite default

8.Restart your apache server

sudo service apache2 reload

9.Checking for https activation.

Open the web browser and type localhost. You will be connected through secure http connection.

ie, It displays ” https://localhost” in the browser url space.

The certificate is look like this: