renew Let's Encrypt SSL certificate

1. what is Let's Encrypt?

Let's Encrypt is a free, automated certificate authority that provides SSL/TLS certificates. These certificates expire every 90 days and need to be renewed to keep your site secure.

2. login to your server

First, SSH into your dedicated web server:

ssh root@your.server.ip.address

Replace "your.server.ip.address" with your actual server IP address. You'll need root access or sudo privileges.

3. verify certbot is installed

Make sure certbot is installed on your system:

certbot --version # check if certbot is installed

If not installed, you can install it:

apt-get install certbot # for Ubuntu/Debian yum install certbot # for CentOS/RHEL

4. stop nginx

Temporarily stop nginx to free up port 80/443 for certificate renewal:

systemctl stop nginx # stops the nginx service

This is necessary because certbot needs to bind to port 80 to verify domain ownership.

5. renew the certificate

Run the renewal command:

certbot renew # renews all certificates

For a dry run (test without actually renewing):

certbot renew --dry-run # test renewal process

6. start nginx again

Once renewal is complete, restart nginx:

systemctl start nginx # starts nginx back up

Verify nginx is running:

systemctl status nginx # check nginx status

7. complete workflow

Here's the complete process in order:

ssh root@your.server.ip.address systemctl stop nginx certbot renew systemctl start nginx