Securing your Bitnami WordPress on Amazon Lightsail with SSL

Follow this set of instructions for securing your Bitnami WordPress on Amazon Lightsail with SSL:

Secure Your Bitnami WordPress on Amazon Lightsail with Let’s Encrypt

Step 1: Access Your Instance via SSH

• From the Amazon Lightsail console, find your WordPress instance.
• Click on “Connect” and then “Connect using SSH” to get a command prompt in your browser.

Step 2: Start the SSL Setup Process

• At the SSH prompt, initiate the SSL certificate setup with:

  sudo /opt/bitnami/bncert-tool

Step 3: Configure Your SSL Settings

• Domain Entry: When prompted, enter the domain name you wish to secure, like yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com.
• Redirection Settings:
• HTTP to HTTPS: Choose to enable this to ensure all traffic uses secure connections. Enter Y.
• Non-www to www: If you want all traffic to use the www subdomain, enable this by entering Y.
• www to Non-www: If you prefer the apex domain, enable this instead. Since you’ve enabled non-www to www, you’d enter N here.
• Confirm Setup: Review the changes the tool proposes. Confirm by entering Y.
• Email: Provide an email address for SSL certificate notifications.
• Agreement: Agree to Let’s Encrypt’s terms by typing Y.

Step 4: Confirm SSL Certificate Installation

• After setup, check if your site shows a lock icon in the browser address bar, indicating HTTPS is active.
• Verify that Bitnami services are running:

  sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh status

Step 5: Check HTTPS Functionality

• Open your website in a browser to make sure both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com are using HTTPS.

Step 6: Manual SSL Certificate Renewal (If Needed)

• Although automatic, for manual control, you can renew your SSL certificate using:

  sudo /opt/bitnami/letsencrypt/lego --tls --email="youremail@example.com" --domains="yourdomain.com" --domains="www.yourdomain.com" --path="/opt/bitnami/letsencrypt" renew

Validation:
Your Bitnami WordPress on Lightsail is now secured with Let’s Encrypt’s SSL. Remember to occasionally verify that the SSL certificate renews automatically or intervene manually if needed.