Auto SSL with Snaps

We now include the option to enable Caddy in your snap. Caddy makes use of Let’s Encrypt to automatically provide you SSL protection for your communications.

Starting from release 0.73 you can easily configure everything related to Caddy using snap hooks to ensure your DNS configuration is set up correctly before starting Caddy and Let’s Encrypt support.

Configure everything using snap

If you want to enable SSL and Let’s Encrypt certificates you should:

1. input a URL starting with HTTPS
2. own the domain name you would like to use
3. and have the correct DNS record set up to resolve your domain name to your public IP (remember DNS records could take some time to propagate).

These next commands will check that configuration is set up correctly before starting the services:

sudo snap set pimentachat-server caddy-url=https://<your-domain-name>
sudo snap set pimentachat-server caddy=enable
sudo snap set pimentachat-server https=enable
sudo pimentachat-server.initcaddy

If no errors where found is safe to restart pimenta.chat and Caddy:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-server.service
sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy.service

In case you don’t want to configure SSL for your site, or want to remove SSL configuration:

sudo snap set pimentachat-server https=disable
sudo snap set pimentachat-server caddy-url=http://<your-domain-name>
sudo snap set pimentachat-server caddy=enable
sudo pimentachat-server.initcaddy

If no errors where found is safe to restart pimenta.chat and Caddy:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-server.service
sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy.service

Check Caddy’s logs

journalctl -r | grep caddy | less

Configure Caddy yourself or use another http proxy

In case you plan to use another https proxy or you prefer other options in Caddy configuration, you can disable caddy:

sudo snap set pimentachat-server caddy=disable

Then, edit the Caddyfile found at /var/snap/pimentachat-server/current/Caddyfile and write your configuration.

Replace _caddy-url_ and _port_ with your site information. For instance, let’s say I have example-domain.com pointing at my server.

First, be sure that your DNS has finished resolving before before attempting to enable SSL. If your DNS is not working yet, you could be instantly throttled by Let’s Encrypt for up to a week. To test your DNS you can use http:

http://example-domain.com
proxy / localhost:3000 {
  websocket
  transparent
}

and restart caddy:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

You can check that the Caddy service started correctly by running:

sudo systemctl status snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

Once that is tested and resolved, to get secured communications, you can remove the http://:

example-domain.com
proxy / localhost:3000 {
  websocket
  transparent
}

Please note: using an IP address will not work for automatically enabling SSL. You must use a valid hostname (here’s why).

Now you can restart the Caddy service by running:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

You can check that the Caddy service started correctly by running:

sudo systemctl status snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

If everything went well, the site will be accessible at https://example-domain.com.

Testing with an untrusted self-signed certificate

Simply add the tls self_signed directive to your Caddyfile like so:

https://example-domain.com
tls self_signed
proxy / localhost:3000 {
  websocket
  transparent
}

Remember to restart the Caddy service:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

This will enable SSL with an untrusted, self-signed certificate for testing purposes.

For details on the Caddy TLS directive, visit https://caddyserver.com/docs/tls

Redirecting HTTP to HTTPS

Redirecting is handled automatically by caddy by omitting the http / https in front.

example-domain.com {
  proxy / localhost:3000 {
    websocket
    transparent
  }
}

Remember to restart the Caddy service:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

Disabling SSL or listening on custom ports

This configuration will listen without SSL on the default port 80:

http://example-domain.com {
  proxy / localhost:3000 {
    websocket
    transparent
  }
}

This configuration will listen without SSL on port 8080:

http://example-domain.com:8080 {
  proxy / localhost:3000 {
    websocket
    transparent
  }
}

This configuration will listen with SSL on port 8080:

https://example-domain.com:8080 {
  proxy / localhost:3000 {
    websocket
    transparent
  }
}

Note that, without SSL, you can use an IP address:

http://192.168.1.1:8080 {
  proxy / localhost:3000 {
    websocket
    transparent
  }
}

Remember to restart the Caddy service:

sudo systemctl restart snap.pimentachat-server.pimentachat-caddy

Opening ports when running pimentaCHAT server from behind router

For Caddy to be able to work from behind a router, the following ports need to be opened between the internet and the server. This is usually achieved through router software or web-interface.

• HTTP: port 80
• HTTPS: port 443

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