Unable to run https on site on DO Ubuntu 18.04 with nginx and gunicorn

Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. https://crt.sh/?q=example.com), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help.
My domain is: N/A
I ran this command: N/A
It produced this output: N/A
My web server is (include version): Ubuntu 18.04
The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Nginx, Gunicorn
My hosting provider, if applicable, is: DigitalOcean
I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don’t know): yes
I’m using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): no (terminal)
The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you’re using Certbot): certbot 0.31.0

I followed DigitalOcean tutorial (here) to setup Let’s Encrypt on my new published trial website and https does not work. Normally, my website with http works fine, yet when I follow the tutorial and try to connect my site, it does not load on browser. If I try with curl, I get response: curl: (7) Failed to connect to mysite.com port 443: Connection refused.

My nginx/sites-available/mysite.com file:

server {
    server_name mysite.com www.mysite.com;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location /static/ {
        root /root/project/app/;
    }

    location / {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
    }

    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mysite.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mysite.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}
server {
    if ($host = www.mysite.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


    if ($host = mysite.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


    listen 80;
    server_name mysite.com www.mysite.com;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot
}

Could you please guide me on what I am supposed to do in order to make my website operate with https?

Thanks in advance and let me know if you need any further info.

Hi @CodeLearner

please share your domain name.

Sure, visitmypost.com

http works, https has only timeouts ( https://check-your-website.server-daten.de/?q=visitmypost.com ):

Domainname Http-Status redirect Sec. G
http://visitmypost.com/
68.183.136.214 301 https://visitmypost.com/ 0.207 A
http://www.visitmypost.com/
68.183.136.214 301 https://www.visitmypost.com/ 0.207 A
https://visitmypost.com/
68.183.136.214 -14 10.027 T
Timeout - The operation has timed out
https://www.visitmypost.com/
68.183.136.214 -14 10.027 T
Timeout - The operation has timed out

What happens if you remove that entry?

What says

nginx -S

I removed those lines and reloaded nginx, yet the same error.
nginx -S responds as nginx: invalid option: “S” and nginx -s responds as nginx: option “-s” requires parameter. Could you please explain more?

Sorry, it’s the T - option:

nginx -T

Apachectl want’s the -S.

ok, it is a long piece of info. I believe it combines both files in my nginx/sites-available/ folder, which are visitmypost.com and default files.

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
# configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
	worker_connections 768;
	# multi_accept on;
}

http {

	##
	# Basic Settings
	##

	sendfile on;
	tcp_nopush on;
	tcp_nodelay on;
	keepalive_timeout 65;
	types_hash_max_size 2048;
	# server_tokens off;

	# server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
	# server_name_in_redirect off;

	include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
	default_type application/octet-stream;

	##
	# SSL Settings
	##

	ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
	ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

	##
	# Logging Settings
	##

	access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
	error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

	##
	# Gzip Settings
	##

	gzip on;

	# gzip_vary on;
	# gzip_proxied any;
	# gzip_comp_level 6;
	# gzip_buffers 16 8k;
	# gzip_http_version 1.1;
	# gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

	##
	# Virtual Host Configs
	##

	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#	# See sample authentication script at:
#	# http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# 
#	# auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#	# pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#	# imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# 
#	server {
#		listen     localhost:110;
#		protocol   pop3;
#		proxy      on;
#	}
# 
#	server {
#		listen     localhost:143;
#		protocol   imap;
#		proxy      on;
#	}
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types:

types {
    text/html                             html htm shtml;
    text/css                              css;
    text/xml                              xml;
    image/gif                             gif;
    image/jpeg                            jpeg jpg;
    application/javascript                js;
    application/atom+xml                  atom;
    application/rss+xml                   rss;

    text/mathml                           mml;
    text/plain                            txt;
    text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor      jad;
    text/vnd.wap.wml                      wml;
    text/x-component                      htc;

    image/png                             png;
    image/tiff                            tif tiff;
    image/vnd.wap.wbmp                    wbmp;
    image/x-icon                          ico;
    image/x-jng                           jng;
    image/x-ms-bmp                        bmp;
    image/svg+xml                         svg svgz;
    image/webp                            webp;

    application/font-woff                 woff;
    application/java-archive              jar war ear;
    application/json                      json;
    application/mac-binhex40              hqx;
    application/msword                    doc;
    application/pdf                       pdf;
    application/postscript                ps eps ai;
    application/rtf                       rtf;
    application/vnd.apple.mpegurl         m3u8;
    application/vnd.ms-excel              xls;
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject         eot;
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint         ppt;
    application/vnd.wap.wmlc              wmlc;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml  kml;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kmz      kmz;
    application/x-7z-compressed           7z;
    application/x-cocoa                   cco;
    application/x-java-archive-diff       jardiff;
    application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp;
    application/x-makeself                run;
    application/x-perl                    pl pm;
    application/x-pilot                   prc pdb;
    application/x-rar-compressed          rar;
    application/x-redhat-package-manager  rpm;
    application/x-sea                     sea;
    application/x-shockwave-flash         swf;
    application/x-stuffit                 sit;
    application/x-tcl                     tcl tk;
    application/x-x509-ca-cert            der pem crt;
    application/x-xpinstall               xpi;
    application/xhtml+xml                 xhtml;
    application/xspf+xml                  xspf;
    application/zip                       zip;

    application/octet-stream              bin exe dll;
    application/octet-stream              deb;
    application/octet-stream              dmg;
    application/octet-stream              iso img;
    application/octet-stream              msi msp msm;

    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document    docx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet          xlsx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation  pptx;

    audio/midi                            mid midi kar;
    audio/mpeg                            mp3;
    audio/ogg                             ogg;
    audio/x-m4a                           m4a;
    audio/x-realaudio                     ra;

    video/3gpp                            3gpp 3gp;
    video/mp2t                            ts;
    video/mp4                             mp4;
    video/mpeg                            mpeg mpg;
    video/quicktime                       mov;
    video/webm                            webm;
    video/x-flv                           flv;
    video/x-m4v                           m4v;
    video/x-mng                           mng;
    video/x-ms-asf                        asx asf;
    video/x-ms-wmv                        wmv;
    video/x-msvideo                       avi;
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:
##
# You should look at the following URL's in order to grasp a solid understanding
# of Nginx configuration files in order to fully unleash the power of Nginx.
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/config_pitfalls/
# https://wiki.debian.org/Nginx/DirectoryStructure
#
# In most cases, administrators will remove this file from sites-enabled/ and
# leave it as reference inside of sites-available where it will continue to be
# updated by the nginx packaging team.
#
# This file will automatically load configuration files provided by other
# applications, such as Drupal or Wordpress. These applications will be made
# available underneath a path with that package name, such as /drupal8.
#
# Please see /usr/share/doc/nginx-doc/examples/ for more detailed examples.
##

# Default server configuration
#
server {
	listen 80 default_server;
	listen [::]:80 default_server;

	# SSL configuration
	#
	# listen 443 ssl default_server;
	# listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
	#
	# Note: You should disable gzip for SSL traffic.
	# See: https://bugs.debian.org/773332
	#
	# Read up on ssl_ciphers to ensure a secure configuration.
	# See: https://bugs.debian.org/765782
	#
	# Self signed certs generated by the ssl-cert package
	# Don't use them in a production server!
	#
	# include snippets/snakeoil.conf;

	root /var/www/html;

	# Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
	index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

	server_name _;

	location / {
		# First attempt to serve request as file, then
		# as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
		try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
	}

	# pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server
	#
	#location ~ \.php$ {
	#	include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
	#
	#	# With php-fpm (or other unix sockets):
	#	fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
	#	# With php-cgi (or other tcp sockets):
	#	fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
	#}

	# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
	# concurs with nginx's one
	#
	#location ~ /\.ht {
	#	deny all;
	#}
}


# Virtual Host configuration for example.com
#
# You can move that to a different file under sites-available/ and symlink that
# to sites-enabled/ to enable it.
#
#server {
#	listen 80;
#	listen [::]:80;
#
#	server_name example.com;
#
#	root /var/www/example.com;
#	index index.html;
#
#	location / {
#		try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#	}
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/visitmypost.com:
server {
    server_name visitmypost.com www.visitmypost.com;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location /static/ {
        root /root/Project/app/;
    }

    listen 443 ssl http2; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/visitmypost.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/visitmypost.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot


}
server {
    if ($host = www.visitmypost.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


    if ($host = visitmypost.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


    listen 80;
    server_name visitmypost.com www.visitmypost.com;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot

}

# configuration file /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf:
# This file contains important security parameters. If you modify this file
# manually, Certbot will be unable to automatically provide future security
# updates. Instead, Certbot will print and log an error message with a path to
# the up-to-date file that you will need to refer to when manually updating
# this file.

ssl_session_cache shared:le_nginx_SSL:1m;
ssl_session_timeout 1440m;

ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!DSS";

External, my tool sees a timeout.

Your vHost doesn't have a root directive. And there is no index. Check the

# Virtual Host configuration for example.com

Could you please clarify? It am struggling to understand.

Normally, I created a new file in sites-available and added these and other parts come from the default file:

server {
    server_name visitmypost.com www.visitmypost.com;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location /static/ {
        root /root/Project/app/;
    }

    listen 443 ssl http2; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/visitmypost.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/visitmypost.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot


}
server {
    if ($host = www.visitmypost.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


    if ($host = visitmypost.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


    listen 80;
    server_name visitmypost.com www.visitmypost.com;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot

}

I am missing rows like

But does your https works internal? If yes, it may be a firewall problem, so you can use https internal, but I can't see it. Or doesn't it work internal? Then your configuration must have an error.

The main schema is simple:

server {
    listen              443 ssl;
    server_name         www.example.com;
    ssl_certificate     www.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key www.example.com.key;
    ssl_protocols       TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers         HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
    ...
}

I have followed letsencrypt on ubuntu tutorial and it worked fine for me. just take a look for it.

When I install certbot and enable lets-encrypt, website and none of the extensions work.
I am not sure how to check firewall, but it normally enables both nginx full and 443/tcp. I’ll check firewall details further.

Thanks, I have been doing everything with root user, so that might be the issue. I’ll give this a try and let you know.

thank you very much for your sharing. Indeed, I had not realized I should have done it not with root user, but another user with sudo privilages. That, solved my problem.

Thank you everyone for the help and support.