Install Apache webserver, create Self-Signed SSL certificate and Enable basic Authentication

Apache is the  mostly used Web Server on the Internet today. This blog covers its installation, configuration, enable SSL, Generate Self-Signed SSL certificate and enable Basic Authentication

Step 1:

Install Apache webserver,

OS : Centos 7

First update the operating system with the latest updates.

# yum update

Install Apache,

# yum install httpd mod_ssl -y

mod_ssl is required to enable SSL in httpd.



Step 2:

Generate Self-Signed SSL certificate and enable SSL,

Below command to generate self signed ssl certificate.

# mkdir /etc/httpd/ssl && openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/httpd/ssl/helmprivaterepo.key -out /etc/httpd/ssl/helmprivatrepo.crt && ls -lrth /etc/httpd/ssl

Next configure the certificates in ssl.conf file.

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

Update below two lines with the newly created ssl certificate location.

SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/ssl/helmprivaterepo.crt

SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/ssl/helmprivaterepo.key

Step 3:

Enable Basic authentication in Apache,

First generate a username and password by,

# htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/.htpasswd admin



Configure httpd for basic authentication,

# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

add the below lines at the end,

<Directory "/var/www/html">
      AuthType Basic
      AuthName "Restricted Content"
      AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/.htpasswd
      Require valid-user
</Directory>

Now start the httpd service and verify webserver status and Basic Authentication.

# systemctl start httpd

# systemctl status httpd

# systemctl enable httpd

Go to browser and check the authentication is working or not.

URL : https://hostname_or_domainname



Thats all, we have successfully installed Apache webserver in Centos and generated Self-Signed SSL certificate and enabled SSL, Basic Authentication.