Tutorial on an ExpressJS app with a free SSL certificate using Certbot and Nginx
Tutorial on securing an ExpressJS app with a free SSL certificate using Certbot and Nginx, follow these steps:
Install Certbot and the Nginx plugin by running the following command:
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
Create a new configuration file for your domain in the /etc/nginx/sites-available directory by running the following command:
sudo touch /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
Open the example.com file in a text editor and add the following configuration. This sets up a proxy to redirect traffic from port 80 (the default HTTP port) to your Express app running on port 3000:
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
server_name example.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}
Make sure that your Express app is running on port 3000. You can do this by adding the following code to your app, if it’s not already there:
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.send('Hello, world!');
});
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Listening on port ${port}...`);
});
Use Certbot to create a free SSL certificate for your domain by running the following command:
certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com
Reload Nginx to apply the new configuration and enable HTTPS support by running the following command:
systemctl restart nginx
To automatically renew your SSL certificate before it expires, run the following command:
certbot renew
To test that the renewal process is working correctly, you can simulate a renewal by running the following command:
sudo certbot renew --dry-run
That’s it! Your Express app is now secured with a free SSL certificate and can be accessed securely over HTTPS.