Let's Encrypt automatically redirect to HTTPS not working

Question

I have set up Let's Encrypt on my small Ubuntu server, and am using it on all non-IDN sites thereon. It has the option to automatically redirect HTTP sites to HTTPS. I selected that option.

The Let's Encrypt daemon added three lines to each domain conf, and created a new domain-le-ssl.conf for each domain.

Here's timothy.green.name.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.

    ServerName timothy.green.name
    ServerAdmin webmaster@timothy.green.name
    DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/timothy.green.name/web

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =timothy.green.name
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,QSA,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

I created this file, but the Let's Encrypt daemon added the rewrite rules at the end. It also created the new file timothy.green.name-le-ssl.conf, which reads as follows:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.

    ServerName timothy.green.name
    ServerAdmin webmaster@timothy.green.name
    DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/timothy.green.name/web

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =timothy.green.name
# Some rewrite rules in this file were were disabled on your HTTPS site,
# because they have the potential to create redirection loops.
# RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,QSA,R=permanent]
SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/myh2g2.com/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/myh2g2.com/privkey.pem
Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet
</IfModule>

This all looks right. And mod_rewrite is in place:

$ a2enmod rewrite
Module rewrite already enabled

And yet, while https://timothy.green.name works fine, http://timothy.green.name gives me an Apache default site. What could be going wrong here? I'll reiterate that I didn't add these rewrite rules myself: the Let's Encrypt daemon did it. So I'm assuming that the syntax is correct.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 29 '17 at 14:28

1

You only should redirect requests from HTTP to HTTPS, so you need to delete the rewrite config out of the *:443 virtual host config file.

The port 80 virtualhost config should look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =domain1.com [OR]
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =domain2.com [OR]
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =domain3.xxx [OR]
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =maindomain.yyy
  RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,QSA,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

Make sure you already enabled vhost config in Apache. In Debian or Ubuntu, you can use the command a2ensite "YOUR_VIRTUAL_HOST_FILE_NAME".

edited May 29 '17 at 14:28

TRiG

1,181
3
13
30

answered Nov 22 '16 at 18:24

Zuko

126
3

The HTTPS site is working fine. It's the HTTP site I'm having trouble with. – TRiG Nov 22 '16 at 18:27
2

did u check your http conf enable in /etc/apache2/sites-enable or u can use cmd : `a2ensite timothy.green.name.conf ` – Zuko Nov 22 '16 at 18:31
And that fixed it, yes. Thanks. Maybe [edit] that comment into the answer text, and I'll accept the answer. – TRiG Nov 22 '16 at 18:42

Let's Encrypt automatically redirect to HTTPS not working

1 Answers1