Setting up SSL with Nginx and Unicorn

steps

# SSL self signed localhost for rails start to finish, no red warnings. 

# 1) Create your private key (any password will do, we remove it below)

$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.orig.key 2048


# 2) Remove the password

$ openssl rsa -in server.orig.key -out server.key


# 3) Generate the csr (Certificate signing request) (Details are important!)

$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

# IMPORTANT
# Use localhost.ssl as the common name for development
# Use domain name as common name for production

Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:
...
Common Name: localhost.ssl 
...


# 4) Generate self signed ssl certificate 

$ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

## Development
# 6) Boot thin (for development)

$ thin start --ssl --ssl-verify --ssl-key-file server.key --ssl-cert-file server.crt

## Production
# Store all files in /etc/nginx/ssl
# Duplicate nginx server block (not upstream @unicorn)
# ADD the following lines to the server block in their proper places:
server {
  listen 443; # Instead of Listen 80

  ssl on;
  ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/sslchain.crt; # or /etc/ssl/example.com.crt
  ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/example.com.key;

  location @unicorn {
    proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-Proto https;
  }
}