How to issue SSL on DirectAdmin Server for the domain

Category : DirectAdmin

In this guide, we will explain how to issue SSL on Directadmin server. The main purpose of SSL is to ensure privacy, authentication, and data integrity for your website. BaseZap provides free SSL for every domain hosted with us and it is automatically issued within 24 hours after the domain is added to the server. If you do not see your SSL or want to issue it earlier, read below.

Requirements

  • Domain Name
  • DirectAdmin Access with Let’s Encrypt SSL option enabled

Steps

  1. Check your domain’s SSL Status
  2. Confirm your DNS is pointing to the correct server
  3. Issue the SSL Certificate
  4. Additional Troubleshoot Steps

Check SSL Status

The first step before we issue SSL on DirectAdmin server is to check whether your domain has a valid SSL issued on the server or not. You can follow the instructions from the link to verify the SSL status.

How to check SSL status for your domain

If you find any errors in the SSL test or SSL has not been issued then you can proceed further to issue a valid SSL on your domain and If results show that the domain has a Valid SSL, you will just need to force HTTPS on your website which is shared in this guide below under the Additional Troubleshoot Steps section.

Check DNS Status

Domain should be pointing to BaseZap Server before SSL could be issued. The following things should be taken care of before issuing the SSL.

  1. Use correct Nameservers as provided
  2. If using an external nameserver, then use correct IP in A and CNAME DNS Records
  3. The server cannot issue SSL for the domains using Cloudflare, Sucuri, etc as they are proxy networks.

You can verify the DNS is correctly pointing to the Web Server by using few free DNS verification tools from below. These tools will check DNS from different locations of the world.

You will get the following results on checking NS i.e. Nameservers for your domain. You can Select Aor CNAMEto check A and CNAME records if using external nameservers.
dns check

Note: Kindly make sure DNS Propagation is finished for the domain before proceeding further or issuing an SSL certificate can fail and lead to rate limit by our API Servers.

If your Domain’s DNS reflects correctly then you can proceed further with the guide or check the Nameserver/DNS records and wait for DNS to finish its propagation.

Issuing SSL using Automatic SSL Feature

  1. Login to DirectAdmin Panel using your credentials.
  2. Select the domain for which you want to issue an SSL followed by searching for SSL Certificates Status in the search bar.
    check status and issue ssl
  3. It will list down few SSL addition and issuing options. From the tabs select ‘Free & automatic certificate from Let’s Encrypt’ tab which should show options like the below image.
    check status and issue ssl
  4. Select the main domain and subdomain for which SSL is required followed by clicking Save button
  5. SSL issuing process can take about 1 min to finish and display a success message if everything goes right.
  6. Using this feature will also configure your domain to renew its SSL automatically when it is going to expire. The server will handle the renewals automatically at its end.

After SSL is issued you can head above to the guide with Check SSL Status section where we discussed checking the SSL Status. It should show that SSL has been issued correctly. If you find any issues then you can reach our technical support team anytime. Do make sure the DNS Propagation is finished and AutoSSL has not failed due to unfinished DNS Propagation.

Some users might face issues and get insecure connection errors on their browsers. They will find below given additional troubleshooting steps helpful for fixing the error.

Additional Troubleshoot Steps

How to Force HTTPS on the website

After SSL is issued it is important to redirect all the traffic on the website to HTTPS version of the website so that every content served from the website is secured over SSL. This can be achieved by forcing HTTPS on the website using htaccess. We have a few guides which can help you to force HTTPS on the website.

Force HTTPS on the Websites using .htaccess

Force HTTPS on the Websites using .htaccess

Force HTTPS for WordPress websites by .htaccess

Force HTTPS for WordPress websites by .htaccess

Mixed Content issue website

In some cases, even with a valid SSL and Force HTTPS, the browser shows up the connection is not secure. This could be due to mixed content your website is serving. In non-technical terms, it means that website code or database has URLs in HTTP instead of HTTPS due to which browser is showing connection is insecure.
mixed content
To check mixed content details on your domain and specific URL you can use the following test tool.

This tool will test the page and check Force HTTPS is implemented on the website and list down the mixed content along with URLs and details.

If your website is using WordPress CMS then you can follow the guidelines and steps below to fix the mixed content issue using a free plugin.

Make SSL Secure by removing Mixed Content on your WordPress

Make SSL Secure by removing Mixed Content on your WordPress

In some cases, the plugin SSL Insecure Content Fixer does not help to fix the mixed content. Then you would require your website developers to help to check website code and database by replacing all HTTP URLs with HTTPS URL which will eventually fix the Mixed Content issue and the browser will show the connection is secure. Unfortunately, the server cannot fix the mixed content itself as it is a web development error.

Domains with Cloudflare Configured

If your domain is configured with the Cloudflare then you would require to adjust settings in Cloudflare Account under DNS Tab. You need to select Fullin SSL Tab. Find the Image for reference below.
issue ssl and check status

With this detailed guide, we have finished with how to issue SSL on Directadmin Server. Feel free to reach us out if you need kind of assistance with any technical queries. Shoot us an email at technical@basezap.com, and our professional experts will get in touch with you.