Put Your Website on a Real Domain with HTTPS

What you will build

A real website at your own address, served securely, with a certificate that renews without you.

Starting point: you only need a Vultr account. This challenge is self-contained, so you can do it without having done any other.

The plan

1. Deploy an Ubuntu 24.04 instance and install Nginx
2. Create a page with your own content
3. Add an A record pointing your domain or subdomain to the server's IP
4. Wait for DNS to update and confirm with dig
5. Request a certificate with Certbot
6. Test automatic renewal with a dry run

dig +short www.example.com
sudo certbot --nginx -d www.example.com
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Do not have a domain? A subdomain of one you already own works too.

Stretch goals

• Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
• Add an AAAA record for IPv6
• Check your site with an SSL test tool