SSL is a great way to safeguard website data.

In free control panels like ISPConfig, enabling SSL ensure website confidentiality.

However, users may experience problems when trying to enable SSL via  ISPConfig. It may be due to the server firewall or wrong domain SSL setting in the panel.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to enable SSL in ISPConfig as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Support Engineers enable SSL in ISPConfig and fix related errors.

Pre-requirements to enable SSL in ISPConfig

Let’s now check on what all we require to enable SSL for a domain in ISPConfig.

1. A generated CSR for the website. That’s basically a certificate request.

2. Uploaded private key. This will be provided by SSL provider.

3. Need the files “example_com.crt” and “example_com.ca-bundle” from the SSL provider.

Once the Certificate Authority issues the SSL certificate, we can install it on the server.

Similalrly, for customers looking for free SSL certificates, ISPConfig support both LetsEncrypt and Certbot too.

Here, the panel will determine the presence of  LetsEncrypt or Certbot via its plugin. It stores the certificate details in /etc/letsencrypt folder of the server. Therefore, our Dedicated Engineers always make sure to backup that folder before making any SSL certificate changes.

How we enable SSL in ISPConfig

At this point, we’ll see how our Support Engineers enable SSL in ISPConfig panel.

1. Initially, we log into your ISPConfig control panel.

2. Then, we go to Sites >> select the domain and tick the box for SSL for domain as well as for Auto-Subdomain. Otherwise, SSL will not work for www.domain.com.

3. And, we select SSL > paste the Private key in the field of SSL key(the private key you obtained at the time of CSR generation).

4. Next, we paste the content of your CSR in the field of SSL Request, example_com.cer in SSL Certificate field and CACertificate.cer in SSL Bundle field,

5. At last, we select SSL Action as Save Certificate from the drop-down list and we click on the Save button.

Now, the website will be accessible using the https:// link.

How we fixed the common SSL errors

From our experience in managing servers, we’ve seen customers facing problems while enabling SSL in ISPConfig. Let’s take a closer look at how our Support Engineers fixed these problems.

1. SSL not enabled

Recently, one of our customers reported a problem with his SSL on the websites. He installed the SSL certificate on his domain. Also, when he tried to access the website, it was showing contents from a wrong folder.

On checking, our Support Engineers found that he didn’t enable SSL option under Sites > SSL. We fixed the issue by enabling SSL for the domain.

2. Problems with firewall

Similarly, another customer had installed Letsencrypt on his domain. But, it didn’t work and SSL option stayed as disabled state after enabling SSL on his domain.

Firewall setting definitely affect the working of SSL on the ISPConfig server. Sometimes, the error may happen due problem with NAT firewall. Also, the website become inaccessible when the server is placed behind a NAT firewall.

Then, our Support Engineers suggested that customers to modify the server firewall and unblock the IP of Letsencrypt server.

[Having trouble while enabling SSL in ISPconfig? We’ll fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, free hosting control panels like ISPconfig make it simpler to enable SSL. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers enabled SSL in ISPconfig and fixed related errors.