Summary: As of the end of this month, Chrome 68 will start marking all non-SSL sites as non-secure. Additionally, it has been well reported that Google and Microsoft prefer SSL sites over non-SSL sites in their search results. So as a blogger and user of WordPress I decided it was high time to get it done. So I started my research a while ago to see what options are out there. I could use a traditional SSL Certificate Provider like DigiCert (they are THE BEST!) but I’m not really experienced with Linux and SSL and honestly scared a bit. So I decided to go for the LetsEncrypt route.Who is LetsEncrypt?Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit. It is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). You can read all about them on their website. Essentially, they exist to give websites (and other services) access to free SSL certs so everything is secure.What’s My Setup?Several years ago I moved my blog from a locally hosted server to Azure. I tried a few different Azure related services but honestly decided that a CentOS box worked best. It has the best performance, low maintenance and it just worked.Let’s Add A Cert!So the process for adding the certificate to your existing Apache deployment wasn’t too hard. There were a few bumps along the road so hopefully this will help people out. This assumes you have Apache and WordPress already installed.Step #1: Install the softwareBefore we can install certbot (which is the preferred client for LetsEncrypt) you just need to make sure you have a few things installed. First, enable the EPEL library:$ sudo yum install epel-releaseNow, we can add mod_ssl and the certbot to apache:$ sudo yum install httpd mod_ssl python-certbot-apacheStep #2: Request SSL Certificate from Let’s Encrypt.To request a certificate, we are going to use the sudo certbot –apache command. That command also includes a -d which is used to define the domain or domains you are going to use. The great thing about this is you can add as many domains as you want to your certificate. So for example, maybe you have the following:admin.domaina.com (WordPress Multi-Site Domain)masteringlync.comstolenwebsitefromlasko.comSo my command would be:$ sudo certbot --apache -dadmin.domaina.com -d masteringlync.com -d www.masteringlync.com -d stolenwebsitefromlasko.com -d www.stolenwebsitefromlasko.comNow here is the critical part for WordPress Multi-Site users. The above command is going to fail right now. What CertBot will do is check your Apache configuration and see if you have those domains defined in your virtual directories. However, if you have ever used WordPress Multi-Site previously you know you have N... You are listening to the topic about "WordPress Multisite + LetsEncrypt", if you want to read the full article, please visit https://geniuswp.com or the link in the description.
