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Here is how I added two subdomains (one pointing to a new UpCloud VM and the other pointing to an NGINX subsite) on Ubuntu 18.04

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UpCloud performance is great.

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Goal(s)

Setup 2x subdomains on https://fearby.com

– Sub Domain #1: https://test.fearby.com (pointing to a dedicated UpCloud VM in Singapore for testing).

– Sub Domain #2: https://audit.fearby.com (pointing to a sub-website on the NGINX/VM that runs https://fearby.com )

Let’s set up the first Sub Domain (dedicated VM) and SSL

Backup

Do back up your server first.

I created a second server ($5 month or $0.07c hour 1,024MB Memory, 25GB Disk, 1024 GB Month Data Transfer) at UpCloud. If you don’t already have an account at UpCloud use this link to signup and get $25 free credit ( https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793 ). Read my blog post on why UpCloud is awesome and how I moved my domain to UpCloud.

Once I spun up a second server I obtained the IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses of the new “test” VM from the UpCloud dashboard.

IPV4 IP: 94.237.65.54
IPV6 IP: 2a04:3543:1000:2310:24b7:7cff:fe92:468c

DNS

These DNS records were already in place with my DNS provider (Cloudflare).

A fearby.com 209.50.48.88
AAAA fearby.com 2605:7380:1000:1310:24b7:7cff:fe92:0d64

I added these DNS records for the subdomains.

I added a new A NAME record for the new shared NGINX subdomain (for https://audit.fearby.com), this subdomain will be a sub-website that is running off the same server as https://fearby.com

A audit 209.50.48.88
AAAA audit 2605:7380:1000:1310:24b7:7cff:fe92:0d64

I added another set of records for the new dedicated VM subdomain (for https://test.fearby.com)

A test 94.237.65.54
AAAA test 2a04:3543:1000:2310:24b7:7cff:fe92:468c

I waited for DNS to replicate around the globe by watching https://www.whatsmydns.net/

Setup a Firewall

On the new dedicated https://test.fearby.com VM, I installed the ufw firewall.

sudo apt-get install ufw

I configured the firewall to allow minimum ports (and added whitelisted IP for port 22 and added UpCloud DNS servers). I will lock this down some more later.

TIP: If your ISP does not offer a dedicated IP try a VPN. I use https://cyberghostvpn.com on OSX and Android.

Firewall rules.

sudo ufw status numbered

     To                         Action      From
     --                         ------      ----
[ 1] 22                         ALLOW IN    x.x.x.x
[ 2] 80                         ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 3] 443                        ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 4] 53                         ALLOW IN    93.237.127.9
[ 5] 53                         ALLOW IN    93.237.40.9
[ 6] 25                         DENY IN     Anywhere
[ 7] 80 (v6)                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)
[ 8] 443 (v6)                   ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)
[ 9] 53                         ALLOW IN    2a04:3540:53::1
[10] 53                         ALLOW IN    2a04:3544:53::1
[11] 22                         ALLOW IN    x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
[12] 25 (v6)                    DENY IN     Anywhere (v6)

I enabled the firewall.

sudo ufw enable

Install NGINX (on https://test.fearby.com)

On the new dedicated https://test.fearby.com VM I…

Created a new www root

mkdir /www-root

Set permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /www-root

Installed NGINX

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx

I created a placeholder webpage

sudo nano /www-root/index.html

Configured the root value in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Created a symbolic link of the nginx config

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Lets Encrypt SSL

I have previously setup Lets encrypt on Ubuntu 16.04 but not 18.04. Certbot had info on setting up Lets Encrypt for 14.x 16.x and 17.x but not 18.x

Full credit for the SSL steps goes to @Linuxize ( tips on setting up Lets Encrypt on Ubuntu 18.04 ). Check out https://linuxize.com/

I installed Lets Encrypt certbot

sudo apt update
sudo apt install certbot

I created a new Diffie–Hellman key

mkdir -p /etc/ssl/certs/
sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 2048

Map requests to http://test.fearby.com/.well-known/acme-challenge to /var/lib/letsencrypt/.well-known ( Read the linuxize post for detailed steps ).

mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt/.well-known
chgrp www-data /var/lib/letsencrypt
chmod g+s /var/lib/letsencrypt

Create a /etc/nginx/snippets/letsencrypt.conf on http://test.fearby.com and enforce the redirect.

location ^~ /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {
  allow all;
  root /var/lib/letsencrypt/;
  default_type "text/plain";
  try_files $uri =404;
}

Create a /etc/nginx/snippets/ssl.conf file on http://test.fearby.com

ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem;

ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
ssl_session_tickets off;

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

ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s;
resolver_timeout 30s;

add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubdomains; preload";
add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

Let’s get a certificate

sudo certbot certonly --agree-tos --email [email protected] --webroot -w /var/lib/letsencrypt/ -d test.fearby.com

Certificates have been created 🙂

ls -al /etc/letsencrypt/live/test.fearby.com/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user 4096 Jun 26 11:30 .
drwx------ 3 user user 4096 Jun 26 11:30 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  543 Jun 26 11:30 README
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user   39 Jun 26 11:30 cert.pem -> ../../archive/test.fearby.com/cert1.pem
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user   40 Jun 26 11:30 chain.pem -> ../../archive/test.fearby.com/chain1.pem
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user   44 Jun 26 11:30 fullchain.pem -> ../../archive/test.fearby.com/fullchain1.pem
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user   42 Jun 26 11:30 privkey.pem -> ../../archive/test.fearby.com/privkey1.pem

Now lets edit “/etc/nginx/sites-available/default” on https://test.fearby.com VM and add the cert paths.

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;

        listen 443 ssl http2;
        listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

        if ($scheme != "https") {
                return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
        }

        ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/test.fearby.com/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/test.fearby.com/privkey.pem;
        ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/test.fearby.com/chain.pem;

        include snippets/ssl.conf;

        #ssl_stapling on; # Requires nginx >= 1.3.7
        # add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains; preload";

        add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

        root /www-root/;

        include snippets/letsencrypt.conf;

        index index.html;

        server_name test.fearby.com;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

Reload NGINX

sudo systemctl reload nginx

sudo nginx -t
sudo nginx -s reload
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Now let’s setup the second subdomain (subsite off https://fearby.com) and SSL

I already have NGINX on https://fearby.com set up a second site.

DNS

We have already set up a DNS record for https://audit.fearby.com (above)

Firewall

Already configured at https://fearby.com

SSL

Because I had an existing Comodo certificate on https://fearby.com I am going to repeat the steps above to generate a new certificate but save the NGINX config to /etc/nginx/sites-available/audit.fearby.com (this activates the second site)

TIP: Follow the Linuxize guide here (for creating ssl.conf, letsencrypt.conf etc config files), Do a backup and restore if need be.

I created a new Diffie–Hellman key

mkdir -p /etc/ssl/certs/
sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 2048

Let’s get a certificate

sudo certbot certonly --agree-tos --email [email protected] --webroot -w /var/lib/letsencrypt/ -d audit.fearby.com

Configure NGINX

Map requests to http://audit.fearby.com/.well-known/acme-challenge to /var/lib/letsencrypt/.well-known ( Read the linuxize post for detailed steps ).

mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt/.well-known
chgrp www-data /var/lib/letsencrypt
chmod g+s /var/lib/letsencrypt

I created a new NGINX site ( /etc/nginx/sites-available/audit.fearby.com )

#proxy_cache_path /tmp/nginx-cache keys_zone=one:10m;#
server {
        root /www-audit-root;

        # Listen Ports
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;
        listen 443 ssl http2;
        listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

        # Default File
        index index.html index.php index.htm;

        # Server Name
        server_name audit.fearby.com;

        include snippets/letsencrypt.conf;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }

        ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/audit.fearby.com/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/audit.fearby.com/privkey.pem;
        ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/audit.fearby.com/chain.pem;

        ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/certs/auditdhparam.pem;

        ssl_session_timeout 1d;
        #ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
        ssl_session_tickets off;

        ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
        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-SHA38$

        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

        ssl_stapling on;
        ssl_stapling_verify on;

        #resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s;
        #resolver_timeout 30s;

        add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubdomains; preload";
        add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

        if ($scheme != "https") {
                return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
        }
}

I created a symbolic link of the config file

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/audit.fearby.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/audit.fearby.com

Reload NGINX

sudo systemctl reload nginx

sudo nginx -t
sudo nginx -s reload
sudo systemctl reload nginx

How to test the certificate renewal

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Automate the renewal in crontab (every 12 hours)

I set this crontab entry up on https://fearby.com and https://test.fearby.com

crontab -e
0 */12 * * * root test -x /usr/bin/certbot -a \! -d /run/systemd/system && perl -e 'sleep int(rand(3600))' && certbot -q renew --renew-hook "systemctl reload nginx"

Conclusion

Yes, I haVe 2 subdomains (1x dedicated VM and the other is a sub-website off an existing server) with SSL certificates.

Ping Results

ping -c 4 fearby.com
PING fearby.com (209.50.48.88): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=0 ttl=44 time=220.000 ms
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=1 ttl=44 time=290.602 ms
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=2 ttl=44 time=311.938 ms
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=3 ttl=44 time=330.841 ms

--- fearby.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 220.000/288.345/330.841/41.948 ms

ping -c 4 test.fearby.com
PING test.fearby.com (94.237.65.54): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 94.237.65.54: icmp_seq=0 ttl=44 time=333.590 ms
64 bytes from 94.237.65.54: icmp_seq=1 ttl=44 time=252.433 ms
64 bytes from 94.237.65.54: icmp_seq=2 ttl=44 time=271.153 ms
64 bytes from 94.237.65.54: icmp_seq=3 ttl=44 time=292.685 ms

--- test.fearby.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 252.433/287.465/333.590/30.200 ms

ping -c 4 audit.fearby.com
PING audit.fearby.com (209.50.48.88): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=0 ttl=44 time=281.662 ms
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=1 ttl=44 time=307.676 ms
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=2 ttl=44 time=227.985 ms
64 bytes from 209.50.48.88: icmp_seq=3 ttl=44 time=215.566 ms

--- audit.fearby.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 215.566/258.222/307.676/37.845 ms

Webpage Results

Troubleshooting

If you are having troubles generating the initial certificate check that you have not blocked port 80 and don’t have “Strict-Transport-Security” heavers enabled.

sudo certbot certonly --agree-tos --email [email protected] --webroot -w /var/lib/letsencrypt/ -d g
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for yoursubdomain.domain.com
Using the webroot path /var/lib/letsencrypt for all unmatched domains.
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
Failed authorization procedure. yoursubdomain.domain.com (http-01): urn:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficzLlmg_w6Tc: q%!(EXTRA string=<html>
<head><title>404 Not Found</title></head>
<body bgcolor="white">
<center><h1>404 Not Found</h1></center>
<hr><center>)

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - The following errors were reported by the server:

   Domain: yoursubdomain.domain.com
   Type:   unauthorized
   Detail: Invalid response from
   http://yoursubdomain.domain.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/_QA3jblEydx5mE8I8OdRsd2EdHIj4R-przLlmg_w6Tc:
   q%!(EXTRA string=<html>
   <head><title>404 Not Found</title></head>
   <body bgcolor="white">
   <center><h1>404 Not Found</h1></center>
   <hr><center>)

   To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was
   entered correctly and the DNS A record(s) for that domain
   contain(s) the right IP address.

I re-ran the certbot command but pointed to the real /www-root (not/var/lib/letsencrypt/)

Create a new

mkdir /www-root/.well-known/
mkdir /www-root/.well-known/acme-challenge/
sudo certbot certonly --agree-tos --email [email protected] --webroot -w /www-root -d yoursubdomain.domain.com

I hope this guide helps someone.

Please consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

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Revision History

v1.1 Troubleshooting

v1.0 Initial Post

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Adding two sub domains (one pointing to a new UpCloud VM and the other pointing to an NGINX subsite) on Ubuntu 18.04

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