nginx
Install nginx:
sudo apt-get install nginx
sudo apt-get enable --now nginx
Put a website somewhere:
mkdir /var/www/html/mysite/
Put an index file there:
vim /var/www/html/mysite/index.html
Make the owner www-data
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/mysite/
Make a configuration file for nginx:
vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite.conf
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/html/mysite;
index index.html index.htm;
server_name mysite.tk;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
Make the site available:
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Test it’s working:
nginx -t
Troubleshooting
If it’s not working, the error message ends with the line number of the problem in the .conf file. If the error message says ‘4’, the error message is probably around line 4.
Check:
- Missing semicolons
- Very long website names
- Fixing this requires uncommenting
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
in /etc/nginx.conf - If that doesn’t work, try changing ‘64’ in that line to ‘128’.
- Fixing this requires uncommenting
DNS
Buy some DNS online, then check it’s working.
Once it’s working, use certbot:
apt install certbot
You may need to install an nginx python module:
apt install python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d *mysite.tk* --non-interactive --agree-tos -m *webmaster@email.tld*
When you are asked about redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS, say yes (option “2”).
Renewal
Remember to renew the certificate every few months.
Multiple Sites
You can do this with any number of websites at the same time.