What steps are required to enable SSL on Apache2 with Ubuntu?

Question

I am developing a strategy game for web where there there will be a lot of client-server traffic for sending attacks, moves, etc. Right now I send messages from the client to the server via HTTP, and I want to try and setup SSL on my Ubuntu server which already has a LAMP stack installed and running.

Here are the guides I've followed:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/httpd.html (I used this to enable SSL)
• https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/certificates-and-security.html (I followed this one first to generate the private and public keys)

After I installed the keys, I tried hitting my page using the https:// prefix, but I got an error:

SSL connection error. Unable to make a secure connection to the server. This may be a problem with the server, or it may be requiring a client authentication certificate that you don't have. Error code: ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

After I received this error, I tried following: https://www.debian-administration.org/articles/349

This lead me around to modifying my 'ports.conf' file which now looks like:

NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    NameVirtualHost *:443
    Listen 443
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_gnutls.c>
    NameVirtualHost *:443
    Listen 443
</IfModule>

I restarted Apache successfully, and I can still hit my pages using HTTP, but not HTTPS (receiving the same error as before).

What step(s) am I missing?

Solution

The solution was located in digitalocean.com/community/articles/. I needed to perform the command: $ sudo a2ensite default-ssl

Comments

[PatomaS]

do you have any certificate installed, even a trial one created by yourself?

[PatomaS]

have you read Ubuntu - HTTPD - Apache2 Web Server? or Apache2 SSL in Ubuntu? Or any other tutorial/manual/wiki explaining the process?

[Tom Brossman]

Reading your question and the Ubuntu documentation I don't see the step where the ssl module is enabled. Possibly dumb question, but have you run sudo a2enmod ssl yet? No harm in running the command a second time to check. Also, I've found the DigitalOcean documentation for setting up SSL to be easier to follow and more complete.

[LunchMarble]

PatomaS: Yep, I created the certs and installed them, but I have not read your links yet. TomBrossman: I think I ran that command once before and it said it was already enabled, but I will check again. I am going to read each of the links provided and update my OP after I've tested them. Thanks for the responses!

[David Kooijman]

You saved me. After searching for hours this was the answer to my problem...