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Let's Encrypt: Free SSL Certificates

Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority for generating SSL certificates for your ISLE environment.

Time required: approximately 30 minutes.

Prerequisites

  • An internet accessible ISLE server with a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
  • The FQDN set in your .env file's BASE_DOMAIN is the FQDN we're requesting for SSL certificates.

Steps

Note: You do not need to stop your stack to complete these steps.

  1. Open a terminal on your personal computer and ssh to the server or VM that is hosting your ISLE environment.
  2. Change to the "ISLE" directory that contains the "docker-compose.yml": cd /opt/ISLE
  3. Change to the "config/proxy" directory: cd config/proxy
  4. Create a blank file called "acme.json": touch acme.json
  5. Modify the permissions of "acme.json" to be user read-write ONLY: chmod 600 acme.json
  6. Use a text editor (emacs, nano, vi, etc.) to open "traefik.toml" (note: this file is in your "config/proxy" folder)

  7. Locate the following lines

    [[entryPoints.https.tls.certificates]]  
certFile = "/certs/isle.localdomain.cert"  
keyFile = "/certs/isle.localdomain.key"

  8. Comment the three lines out by adding a # to the beginning of the line:

    # [[entryPoints.https.tls.certificates]]  
# certFile = "/certs/isle.localdomain.cert"  
# keyFile = "/certs/isle.localdomain.key"

  9. On a new line add the following, substituting in your email address:

    [acme]  
email = "your-email@my-institution.org/edu"  
storage = "acme.json"  
entryPoint = "https"  
onHostRule = true  
onDemand = false  
  [acme.httpChallenge]  
  entryPoint = "http"

  10. Save and close the file.

  11. Change back to the directory with your "docker-compose.yml" in terminal.

  12. Use a text editor to open "docker-compose.yml".

  13. Locate the section for "traefik" and under the "volumes" area for "traefik" add:

    - ./config/proxy/acme.json:/acme.json  ## Automated cert storage.

  14. Save and close the file.

  15. Reload your ISLE environment by running docker-compose up -d.

  16. Visit your website and inspect your certificates.

Additional Resources