How To Install and Configure Apache SSL on CentOS 7

1. How To Install and Configure Apache SSL on CentOS 7
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Table of Contents
Overview.......................................................................................................................................................1
Applies To......................................................................................................................................................1
Pre-Requisites ...............................................................................................................................................1
HTTPD – Package Install............................................................................................................................1
HTTPD – Service Enable ............................................................................................................................1
HTTPD – Service Status .............................................................................................................................2
Start Service ..............................................................................................................................................2
Configure Firewall.....................................................................................................................................2
Launch Website.........................................................................................................................................3
Install and Configure SSL for Apache ............................................................................................................3
Install Mod_SSL.........................................................................................................................................3
Create Certificate (CSR).............................................................................................................................3
Certificate Request................................................................................................................................4
Configure Apache SSL ...................................................................................................................................5
Generate Private Key and Certificate Files ...............................................................................................5
Validate Private Key and Certificate Files .................................................................................................6
Edit SSL Configuration...............................................................................................................................6
Set DocumentRoot....................................................................................................................................6
Set ServerName ........................................................................................................................................6
Set SSLCertificateFile.................................................................................................................................7
Set SSLCertificateKeyFile...........................................................................................................................7
Validate SSL Configuration........................................................................................................................7

2. How To Install and Configure Apache SSL on CentOS 7
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Configure Firewall.........................................................................................................................................8
Start Service – HTTPD ...................................................................................................................................8
HTTPD Service Management ....................................................................................................................8
Launch SSL Website ..................................................................................................................................9
General Troubleshooting............................................................................................................................10
Configuration Test...................................................................................................................................10
Testing httpd Configuration – Syntax .................................................................................................10
Testing httpd Configuration – Debug Mode.......................................................................................10
Verify Logs...............................................................................................................................................10

3. How To Install and Configure Apache SSL on CentOS 7
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Overview
This purpose of this document is to install and configure Apache2 and configure SSL Certificate on CentOS
7 or RHEL 7.
Applies To
RHEL 7, CentOS 7
Pre-Requisites
 mod_ssl, install when you want to configure SSL
HTTPD – Package Install
Download and install Package httpd package on the server, install run the command;
yum install -y httpd
HTTPD – Service Enable
Next step is to enable httpd service to automatically start service at OS boot time.
systemctl enable httpd.service

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HTTPD – Service Status
Next step is to check the status of httpd service, to know the status of service, run the command;
systemctl status httpd.service
Start Service
Next step is to start httpd service, to start run the command;
systemctl start httpd.service
Configure Firewall
Next step is to configure firewall, if the firewall is started. HTTPD service daemon runs on port default port
80, which is not opened as a standard, in order open the port run the command and reload firewall.
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --reload

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Launch Website
After configuring the firewall, launch the website from the browser.
Install and Configure SSL for Apache
In order to configure apache (httpd) webserver with SSL Certificate; you have to install package and
configure it accordingly. In this guide we will install self-sign SSL Certificate.
Install Mod_SSL
Next step is to configure SSL Certificate on the server. To install the mod_ssl package, run the command;
yum install mod_ssl -y
Create Certificate (CSR)
Before you create the certificate, SSL store folder has to be created, as shown below.

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Certificate Request
After mod_ssl package installation, you need to generate a new certificate file for the webserver.
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/httpd/ssl/vcptest-apache.key -out
/etc/httpd/ssl/vcptest-apache.crt
Attribute Purpose
req Certificate Request
-x509 PKCS#10 X.509 Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Management
-nodes This tells OpenSSL to skip the option to secure our certificate with a passphrase.
-days Certificate validity in days
-newkey If we want to generate a new certificate and a new key at the same time.
-keyout Where to store the generated private key file that would be created.
-out Where to store the generated Certificate file that would be created.
Note: We need Apache (httpd daemon) to be able to read the file, without user intervention, when the
server starts up. If passphrase is set, it would prevent this from happening, since we would have
to enter passphrase for every httpd daemon restart.

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Organization Information
When you request for a new certificate below information has to be included, below is an example.
Option Purpose Example
Common Name The fully qualified domain name for your
web server. This must be an exact match.
If you intend to secure the URL
https://vcptest.effonetech.com,
then your CSR’s common name
must be vcptest.effonetech.com.
Organization Name Do not abbreviate your organization
name. (Legal Name)
effonetech.com
Organizational Unit Section of the organization IT
City or Locality City where organization is legally located Bengaluru
State or Province The state or province where organization
is legally located. Abbreviation should not
be used.
Karnataka
Country The two-letter abbreviation of country IN
Configure Apache SSL
Generate Private Key and Certificate Files
To generate the new private key and certificate run the command;
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/httpd/ssl/vcptest-apache.key -out
/etc/httpd/ssl/vcptest-apache.crt
Out Filename Purpose
vcptest-apache.key Private Key File (-keyout)
vcptest-apache.crt Certificate File (-out)

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Validate Private Key and Certificate Files
To ensure the private key and the certificate is generated in the designate directory list and check files.
Edit SSL Configuration
After the Certificate and private key file are generated, next step is to edit the SSL configuration file of the
webserver;
ls /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
Set DocumentRoot
Find and set the DocumentRoot attribute value to “/var/www/html” folder, which is also the default.
Set ServerName
Find and set the ServerName attribute value to “<DomainName>:443”, typically webserver’s FQDN and
bind port is default 443.

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Set SSLCertificateFile
Find and set the SSLCertificateFile attribute value to “/etc/httpd/ssl/vcptest-apache.crt”.
Set SSLCertificateKeyFile
Find and set the SSLCertificateKeyFile attribute value to “/etc/httpd/ssl/vcptest-apache.key”.
Validate SSL Configuration
After making the necessary changes to the SSL configuration file, validate them by running the command;
cat /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf | grep ^DocumentRoot
cat /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf | grep ^ServerName
cat /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf | grep ^SSLCertificateFile
cat /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf | grep ^SSLCertificateKeyFile

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Configure Firewall
Once the configuration of httpd service is completed, next step is to configure firewall, wherein we will
open https service port and reload the firewall rules.
After configuring the firewall, when the firewall rules are listed “https” service should be listed as shown
below.
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-service
Start Service – HTTPD
After configuring the firewall and reloading it, next step is to restart the service. To restart the run the
command; Other service httpd service management commands are also listed below.
systemctl restart httpd or systemctl stop httpd; systemctl start httpd
HTTPD Service Management
Service Control Task Purpose
systemctl status httpd Display the current status of httpd service
systemctl start httpd Start httpd service
systemctl stop httpd Stop httpd service
systemctl disable httpd Disable httpd service in multi-user target
systemctl enable httpd Enable httpd service in multi-user target
systemctl restart httpd Restart httpd service

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Launch SSL Website
After reloading the firewall and restarting the service and service status is shown as “Running”; Launch
the webserver in browser.

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General Troubleshooting
Configuration Test
One more the first and foremost troubleshooting method for httpd webserver is to check the
configuration file, which can be done with “apachectl -t” command.
Testing httpd Configuration – Syntax
To validate configuration for syntax errors run the command;
apachectl -t
Testing httpd Configuration – Debug Mode
To validate configuration for syntax errors in debug mode run the command, you change the debug level
according to table mentioned below.
apachectl -t -e <Debug Log Level>
Test apache configuration and enable debug mode with “Info”
Debug Log Level Purpose
debug Run test in debug mode and show all the messages related to the httpd service
warn Run test and show only warning messages related to the httpd service
crit Run test and show critical messages related to the httpd service
error Run test and show error messages related to the httpd service
info Run test and show informative messages related to the httpd service
Verify Logs
Second troubleshooting method is checking the different log files, that are located in the folder
“/var/log/httpd/”.
Log File Name Purpose
access_log All access related logs are stored into this file
error_log All errors related logs are stored into this file
ssl_access_log All SSL Access related logs are stored into this file
ssl_error_log All SSL access related error logs are stored into this file
ssl_request_log All SSL access related each request log are stored into this file