/etc/letsencrypt is almost empty ofter installing certbot

[Fundebug]

I installed certbot on ubuntu 16.04

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y certbot

certbot version is 0.25.0

certbot --version
certbot 0.25.0

I find that /etc/letsencrypt is almost empty:

ls /etc/letsencrypt/
cli.ini

I think that I need to create config file like “/etc/letsencrypt/configs/fundebug.com.conf” to apply certification, what should I do since /etc/letsencrypt is almost empty?

[_az]

Those files are created by Certbot after you actually set a certificate up.

e.g.

certbot --nginx -d fundebug.com -d www.fundebug.com

[Fundebug]

To get certification using your command, is it correct that I need to :

1. run nginx with fundebug.com and www.fundebug.com configured
2. dns point to this server

[_az]

Well, (2) is needed for sure, but if you’re missing (1), it’s not strictly necessary - Certbot can be the web server for you:

certbot certonly --standalone -d fundebug.com -d www.fundebug.com

If neither (2) nor (1) are fulfilled, you could also issue the certificate via manual fulfillment of the validation instructions:

certbot certonly -a manual -d fundebug.com -d www.fundebug.com

[Osiris]

@Fundebug

• run nginx with fundebug.com and www.fundebug.com configured

You're not forced to using nginx, you can use Apache too or any other webserver or service which uses TLS for that matter.

Although @_az is correct you could use the standalone or manual plugins too, I think it's easier to install the webserver you would like to use, configure the website first and then use certbot to configure HTTPS with the webserver plugin (nginx or apache).

If you aren't going to use Apache or nginx, but another webserver, I would recommend the webroot plugin. Otherwise, you could use manual or standalone, but I would use any of the other authentication plugins first.