# SSL Certificates

[LetsEncrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/getting-started/) is an easy, free way to have X.509 (SSL) Certificates on a web server. Rather than install the certificate files manually, they provide a handy utility that will download a cert, configure Apache, and install the certificate on an ongoing basis.
   1. Install Certbot.
   Run this command on the command line on the machine to install Certbot.
   `sudo zypper install certbot python-certbot-apache` (or the appropriate Linux package manager command)
   2. Choose how you'd like to run Certbot
      * Either get and install your certificates...
      Run this command to get a certificate and have Certbot edit your Apache configuration automatically to serve it, turning on HTTPS access in a single step.
      `sudo certbot --apache`
      * Or, just get a certificate
      If you're feeling more conservative and would like to make the changes to your Apache configuration by hand, run this command.
      `sudo certbot certonly --apache`
   3. Set up automatic renewal
   We recommend running the following line, which will add a cron job to the default crontab.
    echo "0 0,12 * * * root python -c 'import random; import time; time.sleep(random.random() * 3600)' \
    && certbot renew" | sudo tee -a /etc/crontab > /dev/null
   5. Confirm that Certbot worked  
   To confirm that your site is set up properly, visit *https://yourwebsite.com/* in your browser and look for the lock icon in the URL bar.  
If you want to check that you have the top-of-the-line installation, you can head to https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/.