How to deploy HTTPS certificates? Detailed operation steps and precautions

with the improvement of cyber security awareness, HTTPS encryption has become the basic requirement of website operation, and HTTPS certificate is the core carrier to realize this encryption. Although many website managers know its importance, they have repeatedly hit the wall in the deployment process, either the wrong certificate type is selected, or the server configuration is wrong. This article will disassemble the detailed steps one by one from the pre-preparation, deployment operation and post-maintenance of HTTPS certificates, and point out the key precautions to help zero-based users to successfully complete the deployment, so that the website can achieve secure encrypted access.

, how to choose the appropriate HTTPS certificate?

deployment of HTTPS certificate, the first step is to choose the right type of certificate for their own website, different types of HTTPS certificate adaptation scenarios and security levels are different, the wrong choice will directly affect the deployment effect and website security.

1, according to the domain name coverage selection

single domain HTTPS certificate can only cover one main domain name, suitable for personal blogs, small single-site enterprises; multi-domain HTTPS certificate can cover multiple independent domain names at the same time, suitable for enterprises with multiple brand sites; wild-card HTTPS certificate can cover the main domain name and all second-level domain names, suitable for platforms with large quantum sites, such as e-commerce, portals.

2, according to the verification level selection

DV-level HTTPS certificate only verifies the ownership of the domain name, the application process is simple and fast, suitable for personal sites; OV-level HTTPS certificate needs to verify the real identity of the enterprise, which can improve user trust and is suitable for small and medium-sized enterprise sites; EV-level HTTPS certificate verification is the most stringent, and the browser address bar will display the enterprise name, which is suitable for financial, e-commerce and other platforms with extremely high security requirements.

What are the core steps of HTTPS certificate application?

select the HTTPS certificate, it is necessary to complete the formal application process to obtain a valid certificate. The verification work in this link directly determines whether the certificate can be issued smoothly.

1, Submit certificate application materials

on the official website of the certificate authority or Cloud as a Service provider platform, fill in the domain name information, enterprise or personal identity information, and generate and submit the CSR file, that is, the certificate signature request file, which contains the core information such as domain name and public key, which is the key basis for generating HTTPS certificates.

2, complete the domain name and identity verification

DV-level HTTPS certificate only needs to complete the domain name verification, usually by adding DNS resolution records or uploading the verification file to the root directory of the website; OV and EV-level HTTPS certificate In addition to domain name verification, it is also necessary to submit the enterprise business license, legal person ID card and other materials, and the issuing authority manually reviews the authenticity of the identity.

Third, the mainstream server HTTPS certificate deployment operation

obtain the HTTPS certificate file, the corresponding configuration operation needs to be completed according to the server type used by the website. There are certain differences in the deployment steps of different servers.

1, Nginx server deployment process

upload the downloaded HTTPS certificate file, including the PEM format certificate file and the KEY format private key file, to the specified directory of the Nginx server, such as/usr/local/nginx/conf/ssl; then modify the Nginx configuration file, add the 443 port listening rule, configure the certificate and private key file path, and set the HTTP request to automatically jump to HTTPS; finally restart the Nginx service to make the configuration take effect.

2, Apache server deployment process

upload the HTTPS certificate file to the cert directory of the Apache server, open the htpd.conf configuration file, open the mod_ssl.so and mod_rewrite.so modules; then modify the htpd-ssl.conf file, configure port 443, specify the certificate file and private key file path; Finally restart the Apache service to complete the HTTPS certificate deployment.

Verification and maintenance of HTTPS certificates after deployment

complete the deployment of HTTPS certificates, not once and for all, but also need to verify the deployment effect, and do daily maintenance to avoid certificate failure or abnormal configuration affecting the operation of the website.

1, deployment effect verification

open the browser to visit the website, check whether the address bar shows the lock icon, click the icon to view the valid period of the HTTPS certificate, the authority and other information; you can also use online detection tools, such as SSL Labs SSL Server Test, to detect whether the certificate configuration compliance, encryption strength is up to standard, if the certificate is not trusted, low encryption level and other issues, need to re-check the configuration.

2, daily maintenance points

need to record the valid period of the HTTPS certificate, complete the certificate renewal application 30 days in advance to avoid the certificate expiration causing the website to be unable to access normally; regularly check the server configuration to ensure that the HTTPS jump rule is normal, and troubleshoot the mixed content problem in the website, that is, there are HTTP and HTTPS resources in the page at the same time.

To sum up, the deployment of HTTPS certificates is an interlocking process, from selecting the appropriate HTTPS certificate, completing the formal application, to completing the configuration according to the server type, and then to the later verification and maintenance, each step needs to strictly follow the operating specifications. As long as you master these core steps and precautions, you can successfully complete the deployment of HTTPS certificates, build a secure and encrypted access environment for the website, not only improve user trust, but also get higher weight recognition from search engines.