You’ve just built a pretty website but don’t know how to get it online? Setting up your website can be a daunting task. There are so many options and services available, and it’s hard to know where to start. But don’t lose hope! aaPanel is the perfect solution for you!
In this guide, you will learn how to get your first site running securely over HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates for free!
Read on and get ready to get your website online!
Prerequisites
This tutorial will be a hands-on demonstration. If you’d like to follow along, be sure you have the following:
- A Linux system – This demo uses Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but any Debian distributions will work.
- A non-root user with sudo privileges.
- A domain pointing to your server.
Downloading and Installing aaPanel
By default, aaPanel is not installed on your Ubuntu machine, so the first step is downloading and installing aaPanel with the wget command.
1. Run the apt update command to update your package index. This command ensures that you only install the correct packages and get the software you need.
sudo apt update -y
2. Next, run the wget command below to download the install-ubuntu_6.0_en.sh file from the aaPanel website (http://www.aapanel.com/script/). The -O flag tells the wget command to save and name the downloaded file as install.sh (shell script).
Once the download is complete, the command automatically executes the shell script (sudo bash install.sh) to install aaPanel.
You will get the latest stable version, which is 6.8.19 as of this writing. You should always check the official website for the latest version. Or click on the update at the top-right to update your panel to the latest version, as shown below.
wget -O install.sh http://www.aapanel.com/script/install-ubuntu_6.0_en.sh && sudo bash install.shDuring the installation process, you’ll get the prompt below. Enter Y and press Enter to accept the prompt and continue the installation.
When the installation completes, you will get the following output. Note the URL access page, username, and password generated for you. You’ll use these login credentials when managing your website on aaPanel.
At this point, your aaPanel instance is running.
3. Run the ss command below to show a list of open ports (-antpl) and check if your aaPanel is listening on port 8888.
ss -antpl | grep 8888
4. Finally, run the below ufw command to check the status of your system’s firewall and verify if your firewall is allowing port 8888.
sudo ufw statusAs you can see below, port 8888 is allowed to any incoming traffic from Anywhere.
If port 8888 is not yet open, run this command to create a rule on the firewall to open port 8888 for incoming traffic:
sudo ufw allow 8888/tcp
If you put your server behind a firewall, the firewall may not allow traffic to port 8888. You will need to open this port on your firewall to use your aaPanel. Luckily, the installation script (install.sh) automatically opens port 8888 for you.
Building the LEMP Stack
Now that you have aaPanel installed, it’s time to build the LEMP stack for your server. LEMP Stack is a collection of free, open-source software (FOSS) that you can use to run dynamic web pages, like a blog or website.
aaPanel runs on top of your Ubuntu Linux operating system and uses NGINX as a webserver to serve its panels to users. Since your website might be serving many users, you’ll need a web server that can handle a large volume of simultaneous connections to a single server. NGINX is one of the best web servers that will do the trick.
1. Open your favorite browser, navigate to the URL of the aaPanel panel you noted in the “Downloading and Installing aaPanel” section (step two), and log in. This action redirects your browser to the aaPanel Linux login panel, as shown below.
Google Chrome is the recommended browser to use and disable adblocking while setting up the server. Google Chrome has a great network inspector. You can use it to see what is happening between your client and your server.
2. On the next page, select the LNMP(Recommended) option on the left to use for your website, and click on One Click.
You will get the following output while building the LEMP stack.
After building the LEMP stack, view the PHP extensions you’ll need for your website with the following:
- Click on the App Store menu on the left panel to view the App Store.
- Click on Installed to see installed applications.
- Look for PHP-7.4, then click Settings on the right-hand side to view additional extensions to install.
Lastly, click on Install extensions in the Manage pop-up window, and click Install on the right of the extension you need for your website.
PHP extensions provide you with files that add features to the PHP language. They also provide you with a way to add new functions or change existing functions in PHP without modifying PHP core files.
Securing a Website with Let’s Encrypt
By now, you already have a web server running, but it doesn’t do anything yet until you provision a website. So you’ll create a website and secure it with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority (CA) that issues, maintains, and automatically renews your certificates at no cost.
Let’s Encrypt also uses the strongest industry-standard encryption to secure your website connections. Let’s Encrypt certificates are trusted by all major modern browsers and search engines. As a result, your website is less likely to not get errors like the one below.
To create and secure a website with Let’s Encrypt:
1. On your aaPanel dashboard, click on the Website menu on the left panel, then click on Add site to add your first website.
2. Enter the website details in the form below and click on Submit to create your website.
If everything goes correctly, you will get a Successfully created site message, as shown below. You will now see your website in the list of websites on your aaPanel dashboard (step two).
3. Click on the website’s hyperlink to access the website’s settings, where you’ll set up SSL for your website.
4. Now, click on SSL on the left panel on the Site modification pop-up window to configure Let’s Encrypt SSL for your website.
Check the Select all option and click Apply to secure your newly-created website with Let’s Encrypt SSL.
You’ll get an output similar to the one below if everything goes correctly.
5. Navigate your website’s URL on a new browser tab to see if your website is working as intended.
You’ll get the same page like the one below, confirming that your site is running.
6. Finally, click on the pad lock on the top-left. You will get the following output. This output confirms that your Let’s Encrypt works as intended and your connection is secure.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you’ve learned how to install aaPanel and build the LEMP Stack for your server. You’ve also touched on securing server connections with Let’s Encrypt’s SSL certificate for free — a pretty good deal.
With aaPanel’s one-click installation process, you get to choose from over 100 different applications and services, including WordPress, Shopify, and Tumblr. And at this point, you can now navigate through the aaPanel dashboard to manage and secure your website.
Now how would you kick this newfound knowledge up a notch? Perhaps set up a CMS, like WordPress, and run your first blog?
