We’ll show you, How to install Let’s Encrypt SSL using cPanel. Let’s Encrypt is a completely free and automated, new certificate authority developed by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) and recognized by all major browsers. They make it a breeze to set up TLS certificates for your web server. And for free! Let’s Encrypt is supported by major players like Mozilla, Akamai, Cisco, the EFF and managed by the Linux Foundation. Let’s Encrypt provides free, automatic and secure certificates. The website owners can easily obtain security certificates within minutes, enabling a safer web experience for all.In today’s tutorial we are going to learn how to install a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate using cPanel.

Requirements:

• SSH root access to WHM
• cPanel/WHM or CloudLinux

Upgrade cPanel/WHM version

First we need to make sure that cPanel/WHM has the correct version required for the Let’s Encrypt plugin to be installed, login to your cPanel/WHM server using this command:

# ssh root@cpanel-server

Check your cPanel/WHM version:

# /usr/local/cpanel/cpanel -V
68.0 (build 26)

If the version is lower than 58.0.17 then update cPanel/WHM using the following command:

# /scripts/upcp
[2018-01-21 08:18:24 -0600]    - Processing command `/usr/local/cpanel/bin/refresh_plugin_cache`
[2018-01-21 08:18:24 -0600]   94% complete
[2018-01-21 08:18:24 -0600]   95% complete
=> Log closed Sun Jan 21 08:18:24 2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=> Log opened from cPanel Update (upcp) - Slave (18996) at Sun Jan 21 08:18:24 2018
[2018-01-21 08:18:24 -0600]   Pre Maintenance completed successfully
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]   95% complete
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]   Running Standardized hooks
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]   100% complete
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]     cPanel update completed
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]   A log of this update is available at /var/cpanel/updatelogs/update.1516544075.log
[2018-01-21 08:18:26 -0600]   Removing upcp pidfile

Wait for the script to update cPanel/WHM then if there are any errors during the update make sure to resolve them before you move on to the next step.

Install Let’s Encrypt plugin

Fortunately installing the Let’s Encrypt plugin on cPanel/WHM is easy because it only takes one command to install:

# /scripts/install_lets_encrypt_autossl_provider
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package cpanel-letsencrypt.noarch 0:2.16-8.1 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution


Total download size: 34 k
Installed size: 97 k
Downloading packages:
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
  Installing : cpanel-letsencrypt-2.16-8.1.noarch                           1/1

  Verifying  : cpanel-letsencrypt-2.16-8.1.noarch                           1/1

Complete!

Proceed to the next step if you get something like the output above.

Configuring AutoSSL

For this step you will have to login to WHM with your root account, open the following URL in your browser:

https://cpanel-server:2087

Now go to WHM >> Home >> SSL/TLS >> Manage AutoSSL, select Let’s Encrypt from AutoSSL Providers, accept the terms of service and check the ‘Create a new registration with the provider’ checkbox then click Save.

You will see a little loading icon over the AutoSSL Providers menu and afterwards WHM should display a message that it has successfully registered with Let’s Encrypt.

Depending on your preferences you can click the ‘Run AutoSSL For All Users’ button and AutoSSL will automatically replace the SSL certificates for all users on your server.

If you don’t want to replace the SSL certificates for all the users on your server(especially if you have users that have EV or OV SSL certificates) you can click on the ‘Manage Users’ tab and set the Disable AutoSSL setting for the users that have EV or OV SSL certificates.

If there are more users with EV or OV SSL certificates than users that will use Let’s Encrypt certificates, go to WHM >> Home >> Feature Manager select ‘disabled’ from the ‘Manage feature list’ drop down menu.

Then click Edit, check AutoSSL and click Save.

Now AutoSSL is disabled by default and you can enable AutoSSL only for the users that need to use Let’s Encrypt certificates. That’s it now you should have successfully installed Let’s Encrypt using cPanel/WHM.

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