How to set up a Let's Encrypt certificate on DirectAdmin

Let's Encrypt is a free certificate authority developed by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) that is supported by all major browsers. DirectAdmin supports Let's Encrypt SSL certificates since v1.50.0. This article will walk you through the steps of installing a Let's Encrypt certificate for your DirectAdmin hostname and individual vhost domains. 

Before proceeding, please make sure that you have completed our DirectAdmin SNI tutorial. 

Enabling Let's Encrypt on Directadmin 

Connect to your server via SSH and use a file editor to open the DirectAdmin configuration file to enable Let's Encrypt:  

vi /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf 

Find the string "letsencrypt=0", to enable Let's Encrypt and append the line to the value below: 

letsencrypt=1 

Individual vhost domains: 

Go to “Domain Setup” in DirectAdmin and pick the domain you want to activate SSL for. Make sure Secure SSL is enabled, and under private HTML setup, choose to utilize a symbolic link from private HTML to public HTML. 

The Let's Encrypt certificate can now be generated via DirectAdmin: 

1. Find the correct user and domain that you would like to change. 
2. Under Account Manager, go to ‘SSL Certificates’. 
3. You'll notice the Let's Encrypt option for a free and automated certificate. Check the box next to Let's Encrypt and fill out the form below with all of your domain's information. 
4. When you're finished, click ‘Save’.
   

Restart DirectAdmin 

To make the modifications take effect, restart the DirectAdmin service using the systemctl command below:

systemctl restart directadmin

Following a restart of the Apache webserver, your Let's Encrypt SSL certificate will be deployed automatically. In a few minutes, your certificate should be ready.