How to enable HTTPS on NGINX Web Server

You don’t know how to install Nginx and enable the HTTPS feature on an Ubuntu Linux computer to use a self-signed certificate? In this tutorial, we’ll configure the Nginx server to use HTTPS and create a self-signed certificate.

To enable the HTTPS in NGINX we need to install the Nginx server and the required packages. You must be in root privileges.

# apt-get update
# apt-get install nginx openssl

Let’s create a private key and the website certificate using the OpenSSL command.

# mkdir /etc/nginx/certificate
# cd /etc/nginx/certificate
# openssl req -new -newkey rsa:4096 -x509 -sha256 -days 365 -nodes -out nginx-certificate.crt -keyout nginx.key

Enter the requested information.

Generating a RSA private key
............++++
.......................................................++++
writing new private key to 'nginx.key'
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into 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 blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:PH
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Philippines
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Manila
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:AnyTechTutorials
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:400.400.400.400
Email Address []:

On the option named COMMON_NAME, you need to enter the IP address or hostname.

In our example, we used the IP address 400.400.400.400

Edit the Nginx configuration file for the default website.

# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

This is the file, before our configuration.

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        server_name _;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

This is the file, after our configuration.

server {
        listen 443 ssl default_server;
        listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
        ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certificate/nginx-certificate.crt;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certificate/nginx.key;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        server_name _;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

This is optional if you want to redirect HTTP users to the HTTPS version of your website.

In this case, use the following configuration.

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;
        server_name _;
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
        listen 443 ssl default_server;
        listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
        ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certificate/nginx-certificate.crt;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certificate/nginx.key;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        server_name _;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

Restart the Nginx service.

service nginx restart

Open your browser and access the HTTPS version of your website.

In our example, the following URL was entered in the Browser:

https://400.400.400.400

The Nginx server will display the HTTPS version of your website.