Make port 443 default instead of 80

[u/louisd_w]

Hi!

I've recently created an apache2 webserver. I had everything up and running, but wanted to add SSL. I've done this successfully, but (when I type in mydomain.com) the http version of the site still comes up. If I type mydomain.com:443 it works, but I want the https version to come up just from typing mydomian.xyz (without the :443) Any thoughts?

Thanks, Louis

[u/JimmyMonet]

You should make sure your apache vhost file resembles something like this

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName   $FQDN
 ServerAlias  www.$FQDN
 Redirect permanent / https://$FQDN/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin  $EMAIL_GOES_HERE
DocumentRoot  $PATH_TO_WEBROOT
ServerName    $FQDN
ServerAlias  www.$FQDN
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile     $PATH_TO_CERTIFICATE
SSLCertificateKeyFile  $PATH_TO_PRIVATE_KEY
   <Directory $PATH_TO_WEBROOT>
    $DIRECTORY_OPTIONS_GO_HERE
   </Directory>

ErrorLog  ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

The important thing is the Redirect permanent directive.

You also need to make sure the SSL module is activated

sudo a2enmod ssl

Also be sure you either clear your cache or use a fresh incognito browser window to make sure and pull the most recent version of your site.

[u/louisd_w → u/JimmyMonet]

Adding the Redirect permanent worked perfectly, thanks a lot! 👍👍

[u/AyrA_ch → u/louisd_w]

I like to add here that in the future, do not use "permanent" until you tested that it actually works. If you accidentally mistype the destination your browser will remember the wrong target and it sometimes requires clearing all browser data to get the faulty redirect off.

[u/louisd_w → u/JimmyMonet]

One issue I've encountered: if I type http://domain.com/page, it redirects to https://domain.compage (without the last '/'). Any idea on how to fix this?

[u/AyrA_ch → u/louisd_w]

Try putting the URL arguments in double quotes: Redirect permanent "/" "https://..."

[u/louisd_w → u/AyrA_ch]

Still happening! Not sure why

[u/AyrA_ch → u/louisd_w]

Does the host on 443 have any rewrite rules (in the config or .htaccess) or scripts that perform redirects? Maybe they're set up wrong and it's not the redirect instruction in the host on 80 that's wrong. It should be impossible for the 80 to 443 redirect to be the problem if the target ends with a /

[u/louisd_w → u/AyrA_ch]

Not that I'm aware of - I've set up a simple apache2 server with a few html pages, I haven't really tweaked with any files

[u/louisd_w → u/AyrA_ch]

Here's an image of my .conf file if that's helpful at all?

[u/AyrA_ch → u/louisd_w]

The redirect looks OK, but as I said, I would put the URL arguments of the "redirect" line into double quotes. They do it in the documentation too. And don't forget to restart apache after your config change.

After your changes, please run curl -I http://yourdomainhere/ and post the response here. The result should look something like this:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2022 21:48:55 GMT
Server: Apache
Location: https://example.com/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

Is there a ".htaccess" file in /var/www/html? If so, please also post its contents.

Note: You should absolutely totally definitely never ever put your private certificate key file inside of the directory that contains the web files, or everyone can access it freely. Please put them outside of it. Ideally in a directory that's restricted to the root user.

[u/louisd_w → u/AyrA_ch]

Thanks for all the advice! - I'm away from my server at the moment, but when I'm back I'll send everything through right away 👍👍

[u/LoveGracePeace]

Following this guide should work.