RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew for Docker and NGINX

V7.1.0

NGINX can use SSL/TLS certificates saved to a volume by RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew for Docker. In this way, you can enable SSL/TLS for a web application hosted with docker using NGINX.

Before you can use RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew for Docker, you must have already created your certificate(s) in the RCL SSL Portal using the Azure DNS or Azure DNS SAN option. The certificate(s) that you would like to install must be specified in your configuration of RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew for Docker.

Prerequisites

Follow the instructions in the link below to learn how to configure, install and test RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew for Docker.

Configure NGINX to use SSL/TLS

You can download the files used in this sample from GitHub: NGINX with SSL/TLS Docker

Firstly, we will create a configuration file for NGINX to accept SSL/TLS connections on port 443.

  • Create a folder named nginx

  • In the nginx folder, create a configuration file named nginx.conf

  • In the nginx.conf file add the following configuration

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;

  location / {
        root /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index index.html index.htm;
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
  }
}

server {
    listen              443 ssl;
    server_name         example.com;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/rcl/example-com/fullChainCertificate.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/rcl/example-com/privateKey.key;

    location / {
      root /usr/share/nginx/html;
      index index.html index.htm;
      try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }
}

  • This is a minimalist configuration file, you can amend it with additional configuration to meet your requirements

  • Replace example.com with your domain name. Create a SSL/TLS certificate for your custom domain in the RCL SSL Portal using the Azure DNS or Azure DNS SAN option. You must configure RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew to use this certificate for your custom domain name.

  • RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew will auto generate folder names to store certificate files. In this case, for the domain example.com, the full chain certificate and private key files are stored in a folder named example-com following a folder naming convention. For your domain, follow the Folder Naming Convention described in the link to set the folder name for your domain

Create a Docker Compose file

  • Create a file named compose.yaml

  • Add the following code to the file

version: '3'
services:
  rclssldnsautorenew:
    image: rclssl/dns-autorenew:7.1.0
    environment:
      - RCLSDK__ClientId=your-client-id
      - RCLSDK__ClientSecret=your-client-secret
      - RCLSDK__TenantId=your-tenant-id
      - RCLSDK__SubscriptionId=your-subscription-id
      - CertificateBot__SaveCertificatePath=/etc/ssl/rcl
      - CertificateBot__IncludeCertificatesArray=example.com
    volumes:
      - rclssl-certs:/etc/ssl/rcl
  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
    restart: always
    volumes: 
      - ./nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
      - rclssl-certs:/etc/ssl/rcl
    depends_on:
      - rclssldnsautorenew
volumes:
  rclssl-certs:
    driver: local

  • Firstly, the RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew container is deployed. It will save SSL/TLS certificates from the RCL SSL Portal to a docker volume shared with NGINX

  • Then, the NGINX container is deployed, it uses the nginx.conf file we created to accept SSL/TLS connections

  • NGINX uses the SSL/TLS certificate files stored on the docker volume that were saved by RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew

  • You should add you own Configuration Values eg, client-id, etc. for RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew

  • Replace example.com with you own domain name

Deploy the Containers

  • Open a terminal window in your folder

  • Run the following command to deploy the containers

docker compose -f compose.yaml up -d

  • View the Log Files to see if there are any errors in the RCL SSL DNS AutoRenew container

  • Ensure the SSL/TLS is successfully installed in NGINX by viewing your website in a browser and checking the SSL/TLS certificate

image