How to Set Up Your SSL Certificate on Lighttpd in 10 Minutes

Let's check out this step-by-step SSL installation guide on Lighttpd server.

Step 1: First, you must download the intermediate certificate provided by the CA. You should have received it via email.

Step 2: Once you download the intermedia certificate, copy its contents and paste it into a text editor (i.e. notepad).

Save the file as intermediate.crt.

Step 3: Now, download the x.509 SSL certificate sent by your CA. Save the file as SSL.crt.

It will look something like this:

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–

(SSL Certificate)

—–END CERTIFICATE—–

Step 4: Now, you will need to browse and locate the SSL.crt and .key files that you downloaded. Enter the following command to copy them to your website SSL directory.

# cp ssl.crt /etc/lighttpd/ssl/yourdomain.com

# cp yourdomain.key /etc/lighttpd/ssl/yourdomain.com

Step 5: Once you have entered the aforementioned commands, it’s time to create a .pem file. This can be done by concatenating .key and .crt files. Enter the command below to concatenate and set up the permissions.

# cat yourdomain.key ssl.crt > yourdomain.pem

# chmod 0600 yourdomain.pem

# chown lighttpd:lighttpd /etc/lighttpd/ssl/yourdomain.com -R

Step 6: Open the Lighttpd configuration file using the command below:

# vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Step 7: Now, you can add the following commands to the configuration section.

$SERVER[“socket”] == “yourdomain.com:443” {

ssl.engine = “enable”

ssl.pemfile = “/etc/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/yourdomain.pem”

ssl.ca-file = “/etc/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/intermediate.crt”

server.name = “yourdomain.com”

server.document-root = “/home/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/https”

server.errorlog = “/var/log/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/serror.log”

accesslog.filename = “/var/log/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/saccess.log”

}

where

ssl.engine = “enable” : Enable lighttpd SSL support

ssl.pemfile = “/etc/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/yourdomain.pem”

ssl.ca-file = “/etc/lighttpd/yourdomain.com/intermediate.crt”

Save and close the file once you’re done.

Step 8: Lastly, you can restart the Lighttpd server using the following command:

# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart