Put free, auto-renewing HTTPS in front of any web app with Nginx and Certbot in 30 minutes.
Cloud & DevOpsPDF · 6 pages· v1.0
4.6Everything you need to put production-grade HTTPS in front of a web application using Nginx as a reverse proxy and Let's Encrypt certificates issued by Certbot. This is for anyone running an app on a port like 3000 or 8080 who needs a real domain with a trusted TLS certificate, automatic renewal, and a strong, modern configuration. You'll point a domain at your server, install Nginx, create a reverse-proxy server block, obtain a certificate with Certbot, and confirm that renewal is automated so you never get a midnight expiry incident. The guide includes a solid baseline TLS configuration (modern protocols, HSTS, sensible proxy headers including WebSocket upgrade support) and shows how to redirect HTTP to HTTPS cleanly. It also covers the DNS and firewall prerequisites people get wrong, and how to debug the most common Certbot validation failures. After this guide you'll be able to give any backend service a clean HTTPS front door with a certificate that renews itself, and you'll understand each directive well enough to adapt it for multiple sites on one server. Works on Ubuntu/Debian; the concepts apply to any Nginx install.
No. Let's Encrypt certificates are free and the guide automates renewal. You only need a domain name.
Yes. Let's Encrypt issues certificates for domain names, not bare IP addresses. The guide covers the DNS A-record setup.
Yes. Certbot installs a systemd timer; the guide shows how to verify it and run a dry-run renewal.
Yes. Each site gets its own server block and certificate. The pattern in the guide repeats per domain.
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