Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]


AWS

Reviewer: Deepak Prasad

Hello learners, we have seen how we can use S3 buckets, Cloudfront and ACM to host a website on AWS in the previous article. In this article we are going to learn how we can deploy a website using Ec2 and let's encrypt.

Here are the brief steps we will follow to deploy a website with AWS EC2 and Let's encrypt:

  1. Create an EC2 instance
  2. Connect to the EC2 instance
  3. Install and Configure apache on the instance
  4. Buy domain from any domain provider
  5. Configure custom domain using route53
  6. Install Let's encrypt
  7. Upload files to the Website

So, with that in mind let's get started.

 

Overview on EC2 Instance

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is an AWS web service that provides computing power to businesses all over the world. AWS web interface gives complete control of the resources and lets user to choose their own operating system, number of CPU's , storage and memory. AWS EC2 also reduces the booting time to minutes and new instances can be easily scaled up and scaled down as the requirements change. EC2 with it's security groups and network ACL's also provides security features for the computing resources we deploy.

 

Overview on Route53

Amazon Route 53 is basically a highly available DNS Service that deals with resolving domain names and subdomains to Numeric IP addresses. Custom domains can be easily configured to Route53 and the users can also buy the domains directly from Route53 for their own use. The Price is reasonable and is depended on the number of Hosted Zones, Aliases, Traffic Flow to www and others.

 

Overview on Let’s Encrypt

Let’s Encrypt is a free certificate authority that’s being run by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRC) to promote web security by giving free SSL certificates. SSL certificates provided by Let’s Encrypt work the same way as paid certificates in terms of encryption and give you the same level of security.The SSL Certificates need to be renewed every 90 days and there is no warranty and business validations options available with Let’s encrypt like the paid certificates.

 

Hosting a Website on AWS EC2 Instance

Step 1: Create an EC2 Instance

1. Login to the AWS Management console and navigate to EC2 dashboard and click on Create Instance.

2. Configure the security group and allow the port 80 and 443 for HTTP and HTTPS.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

NOTE:
Make sure to only allow your required CIDR block for SSH and any sensitive ports for security purposes.

3. Now, leave the rest as default and click on Create. The EC2 Instance gets created successfully.

AWS EC2

 

Step 2: Connect the EC2 Instance

1. Select the created Instance and connect it through the SSH client.

2. The connection got established successfully.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

Step 3: Install and Configure Apache on the Instance

1. Update and upgrade the apt manager sources before installing Apache.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

2. Install Apache on the EC2 Instance.

sudo apt install -y apache2 apache2-utils

Reading package lists... Done
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The following additional packages will be installed:
apache2-bin apache2-data libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
libaprutil1-ldap libjansson4 liblua5.2-0 ssl-cert
Suggested packages:
apache2-doc apache2-suexec-pristine | apache2-suexec-custom www-browser
openssl-blacklist
The following NEW packages will be installed:
apache2 apache2-bin apache2-data apache2-utils libapr1 libaprutil1
libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap libjansson4 liblua5.2-0 ssl-cert
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Get:5 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 libjansson4 amd64 2.12-1build1 [28.9 kB]
Get:6 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 liblua5.2-0 amd64 5.2.4-1.1build3 [106 kB]
Get:7 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 apache2-bin amd64 2.4.41-4ubuntu3.8 [1181 kB]
Get:8 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 apache2-data all 2.4.41-4ubuntu3.8 [159 kB]
Get:9 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 apache2-utils amd64 2.4.41-4ubuntu3.8 [84.5 kB]
Get:10 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 apache2 amd64 2.4.41-4ubuntu3.8 [95.5 kB]
Get:11 http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 ssl-cert all 1.0.39 [17.0 kB]
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3. Check and enable the status of the Apache server.

sudo systemctl status apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

4.  Set the Apache user as the owner of document root as it is owned by the root user by default. And also check if the DNS is resolved.

sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/ -R
sudo apache2ctl -t

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

5. Now, reload the Apache server for the change to take effect.

sudo systemctl reload apache2

 

Step 4: Buy Domain from Freenom

1. First , go to www.freenom.com.

2. Enter the domain name you need in the availability bar but always remember to use TLD’s such as .ml, .tk and .ga since they are free of cost. Select the domain and click on Checkout. We have selected website-deploy.tk domain.

3. Provide the term for which you would like to use the domain. Since I am creating.

4. Enter your email address in the email address field and click on the link you receive in your email to verify the email address and create an account in freenom with your first name , last name and all the profile details.

5. After you have completed filling all the required details during the verification of email address, you will be given an Order Confirmation and you can from now login to your freenom account to view your domain you bought. You can navigate to the below link to see the domain you have bought.

 

Step 5: Configure Custom Domain using Route53

1. Go to Route53 in AWS and Click on Create Hosted Zone.

2. In the Hosted zone configuration section, Enter the domain name you have bought in the “Domain Name” and select the type as Public Hosted Zone since we want the traffic routed through the Internet.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

3. Two default DNS records will get created by default. Create an additional A-record with the IP address of the EC2 Instance.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

4. Now, click on the NS Record and copy all the 4 DNS Servers.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

5. Now go to Freenom and under the domain , click on Nameservers and paste the nameservers from the DNS record there.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

6. We have successfully configured the Custom Domain to Route53 and we now need an SSL Certificate to enable HTTPS for our website.

 

Step 6: Let's Encrypt Installation

1. Create CAA record for the domain name.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

2. Add the certbot apt repository by using the following command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

3. Update the apt package manager sources.

sudo apt update

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

4. Install Let's Encrypt client, certbot on Ubuntu.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache

ec2 and let's encrypt

 

5. Use Apache plugin to enable HTTPS.

sudo certbot --apache --agree-tos --redirect --uir --hsts --staple-ocsp --must-staple -d website-deploy.tk --email spi3er12@gmail.com
NOTE:
Remember to change the domain, subdomains and email in the above command.

6. Test the SSL Certificate.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

Now, that we are done with EC2 and Let's encrypt let's add the content to our website.

 

Step 7: Add Content to the Website

1. We can see that the apache default page is displayed every time we visit our website. So to upload our files we can add content in /var/www/html.

2. Use the following commands to change the index page.

cd /var/www/html
sudo Mv index.html index.html index.html.bak
sudo nano index.html

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

3. Add the following code to index.html.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]
4. Now, open your website with the registered domain name.

Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]

 

Summary

In this article, we have learnt how we can deploy our website with AWS EC2 and Let’s encrypt. Let’s encrypt is being used by many organisations over the world since its free and is easily implemented and renewed. If you are just starting into cloud, then please checkout other articles on our website. If you encounter any issues in the steps above , then please let us know in the comments.

 

Mahnoor Malik

Mahnoor Malik

She is a dedicated professional with deep expertise in data science, machine learning, and software development. With a strong foundation in academic and industry practice, she excels in crafting innovative backend applications and deploying them on cloud platforms like AWS, ensuring scalable, reliable, and secure solutions for the modern digital landscape.

Certifications & Credentials:

  • Machine Learning Specialization
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • AWS Academy Accredited Educator
  • AWS Academy Graduate
  • AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials

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3 thoughts on “Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let's Encrypt [Step-by-Step]”

  1. I have query: Suppose I have generated a public certificate using LetsEncrypt and uploaded it to the ACM so I can use and attach to an Application Load Balancer that forwards traffic to EC2 instances. As this certificate is generated “outside of AWS”, it does not support the “automatic renewal” feature. How would I be notified 30 days before this certificate expires so I can “manually” generate a new one?

    Reply
  2. I like this site. I have learnt several cloud deployment related know how from this site. I was following “Deploy website with AWS EC2 and Let’s Encrypt”, but it appeared to me that CCA record creation does not match letsencrypt configuration.
    As we know that ACM generated certficate cannot be used EC2 individual server, but load balancer or endpoints. The “letscencrypt” generated certificate can be used to AWS EC2 indiviaually.
    The problem is if I create CAA record in the AWS hosted zone then letsencrypt command prompts error, such CAA record prohibits to create a letsencrypt certificate.
    What I did in this case, I deleted CAA record from the hosted zone and reapplied the command as per your instructions and this time there was no error and the certificate was generated. The website with https works fine.

    Reply

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