nginx (static or reverse proxy) & acme.sh (DNS) configuration

README.md

1) Create the following directory structure

/etc
├── nginx
│   ├── sites-enabled
│   │   └── domain.tld.port.conf # template attached
│   └── ssl
│       ├── .conf # file attached as `ssl.conf`
│       ├── dhparam.pem # generated
│       ├── fullchain.crt # generated
│       └── crt.key # generated

2) Get your DigitalOcean (or other acme.sh supported DNS provider) API key

List of supported DNS providers

// add to .bashrc
export DO_API_KEY="e63f24889...the.rest.of.your.key"

3) Generate dhparam (this will take some time)

openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparam.pem 2048

4) Fetch and install your certs

In the following, use *.DOMAIN.TLD to issue and install wildcard cert. Repeat -d for multiple domains.

# You might want to use your DNS provider's acme.sh plugin in place of dns_dgon, which is for DigitalOcean
acme.sh --issue --dns dns_dgon -d <DOMAIN.TLD>

sudo acme.sh --install-cert -d <DOMAIN.TLD> --key-file /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.key --fullchain-file /etc/nginx/ssl/fullchain.crt

5) Verify config and reload nginx config

sudo nginx -t
# nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
# nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

sudo nginx -s reload

domain.tld.port.conf

# /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/<domain.tld.port>.conf

# ------ if this is a proxy server ------ #

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

	server_name <DOMAIN.TLD>;
	location / {
		proxy_pass http://localhost:<PORT>;
		proxy_http_version 1.1;
		proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
		proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
		proxy_set_header Host $host;
		proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
	}

	include /etc/nginx/ssl/.conf;
}

# ------ if this is a static server ------ #

server {
	listen 80;
	listen [::]:80;
	root <PATH/TO/WEBROOT>;
	index index.html index.htm;

	server_name <DOMAIN.TLD>;
	location / {
		try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
	}

	include /etc/nginx/ssl/.conf;
}

# ------ #

ssl.conf

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

http2_push_preload on;

ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/fullchain.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.key;

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

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384";

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

# Security headers
## Recommended 2 years HSTS policy
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 Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self';";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
add_header Referrer-Policy "origin";

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