Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up an EC2 Instance with Nginx and SSL

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up an EC2 Instance with Nginx and SSL.md

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up an EC2 Instance with Nginx and SSL

1. Create an EC2 Instance

• Launch an Amazon EC2 instance using your preferred AMI (Amazon Machine Image).

2. Configure Security Group

• Create a new security group.
• Allow access to ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) from all IP addresses.
• Allow SSH access only from your personal IP address for security.

3. Connect to Your EC2 Instance via SSH

• Use the SSH command to connect:

  ssh -i "your-key.pem" ec2-user@your-ec2-ip-address

4. Install Nginx on EC2

Execute the following commands to install Nginx:

sudo wget http://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
sudo apt-key add nginx_signing.key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
# Optionally, check the status of Nginx:
sudo systemctl status nginx.service

5. Install Certbot and Configure SSL

Install Certbot and generate SSL certificates:

sudo snap install core; sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
sudo certbot certonly --nginx
# Note the path where your SSL certificates are stored.

6. Configure Nginx to Use SSL

Set up your Nginx server block to use HTTPS:

1. Navigate to the Nginx configuration directory and create a new configuration file:

   cd /etc/nginx/conf.d
   sudo touch default.conf
   sudo nano default.conf

2. Edit the default.conf file to include the following:

   server {
       listen 443 ssl;
       server_name your-domain.com;
   
       ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/fullchain.pem; # Adjust path as necessary
       ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/privkey.pem; # Adjust path as necessary
   
       add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000";
   
       location / {
           proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:PORT; # Replace PORT with the port number of your application
           proxy_set_header Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
       }
   }

   • Replace your-domain.com with your actual domain name.
   • Replace PORT with the port number where your application is running.

Final Steps

• Restart Nginx to apply the changes:

  sudo systemctl restart nginx

• Ensure your firewall and security group settings allow traffic on port 443.