Hi @vichoko,
The free version generates a valid Let’s Encrypt certificate, which is valid for 90 days.
Depending on your host it will automatically regenerate and then install the updated certificate.
If your host does not support this, you have to install the new certificate manually.
If you need any help with installing the certificate let us know and we can certainly help.
Hey @rogierlankhorst !
Thanks for the response. Actually, I used the GCP’s WordPress solution to mount, so I guess it’s similar to an on-premise WordPress installation.
The automatic flow created this temporary certificate. You can take a look here.
The detailed infra is Apache2 2.4.56 , MySQL-Client 8.0.32 , MySQL-Community-Client 8.0.32 , MySQL-Community-Server 8.0.32 , MySQL-Server 8.0.32 , PHP 8.1.17 , WP-CLI 2.7.1 , WordPress 6.2 , phpMyAdmin 5.0.2 mounted on a VM with persistent storage.
@vichoko what do you mean with ‘automatic flow’? Is that part of GCP?
To generate an SSL certificate in Really Simple SSL you have to follow the steps in the wizard, as described here:
https://really-simple-ssl.com/instructions/installing-a-free-lets-encrypt-ssl-certificate/
Did you follow these steps?
Ohh yesterday I pressed Activate SSL and the Wizard closed itself immediately. I guessed it was done.
Now I reinitiated the wizard a pressed Install SSL Certificate and it passed me through this wizard asking me my email address and more stuff. It eventually ended with:
Your hosting environment does not allow automatic SSL installation. Please complete manually in your hosting dashboard. You can follow these instructions. After completing the installation, you can continue to the next step to complete your configuration.
The instructions don’t include GCP VM as a valid hosting, so no clue how to proceed. Anyway, this says I’d need to do this manually each 90 days which doesn’t scale as much as I’d wanted to.
Please also note, a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate should be renewed every 60-90 days. If automatic installation is not possible, you’ll need to install the renewed certificate each 90 days manually.
Any suggestion how to get this automated? 🙏
Automatic installation is possible if the hosting allows this through the cpanel api, or has the shell_exec function enabled.
If this is not the case you can check if command line installation using certbot is possible.
Alternatively you can use a host which allows the above, or has an SSL certificate included with the package.
Thanks for the answer! Logging with SSH and installing Certbot worked like a charm. I guess this Really Simple SSL plugin is not a great option for on-premise hosting like these VM solutions. I really appreciate the help!
I’ll change my vote accordingly. I think it would be nicer if I could have figured out this before installing and trying to figure out this plugin.
