How to Enable HTTPS with Certbot (Let’s Encrypt)

What this is

Certbot is the official client to obtain and renew free TLS certificates from Let’s Encrypt.

What it is for

• Encrypt traffic (HTTPS)
• Improve security and trust
• Enable modern browser requirements

Prerequisites (do not skip)

• A domain name pointing to your server public IP (A/AAAA records)
• Ports 80 and 443 open in firewall
• Nginx or Apache installed and serving the domain

Step-by-step

Step 1) Open firewall ports (if not already)

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

Step 2) Install Certbot

Ubuntu/Debian (snap method):

sudo snap install core
sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

RHEL-based:

sudo dnf install -y certbot

Step 3) Obtain and install certificate (choose your web server)

Nginx:

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Apache:

sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

Expected output: Certbot asks for email, ToS, then configures HTTPS. It ends with success messages and certificate paths.

Step 4) Test automatic renewal

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Expected output: Congratulations, all renewals succeeded.

Warnings & notes

• If DNS is not pointing correctly, validation will fail.
• Do not block port 80: Let’s Encrypt uses HTTP validation for most simple setups.

Final verification

curl -I https://example.com

Conclusion

You enabled HTTPS with a free Let’s Encrypt certificate and verified renewal. Keep ports and DNS correct to avoid renewal failures.