Free SSL certificates in DirectAdmin-Let's Encrypt

DirectAdmin includes built-in Let's Encrypt integration for free SSL certificates. Certificates are issued per domain and auto-renew before expiry. A valid SSL certificate is required for HTTPS, which is expected by all modern browsers and required by Google for ranking.

How SSL works in DirectAdmin

Let's Encrypt validates that you control the domain before issuing a certificate. The most common validation method used by DirectAdmin is HTTP-01-it places a temporary file in your document root and the Let's Encrypt servers fetch it to confirm you control the domain.

This means the domain must already be pointed at your server (A record resolving to your server IP) before SSL can be issued. SSL will fail if DNS is still pointing to another host.

Issue a Let's Encrypt certificate

1. Log in to DirectAdmin
2. Go to Advanced Features → SSL Certificates (or Domain Setup → Manage Domain → SSL)
3. Select your domain from the dropdown
4. Click the Let's Encrypt tab or button
5. Ensure www and the root domain (yourdomain.com) are both listed if you want both covered by a single certificate
6. Click Save or Request

The certificate is issued within a few seconds to a minute if the domain DNS is pointing correctly. Refresh the page to confirm the certificate is now showing as active.

Force HTTPS

Once SSL is issued, redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS. Add the following to your .htaccess file in public_html/:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Or, if DirectAdmin has a built-in HTTPS redirect option in the SSL section, enable it from there. For WordPress, you can also set the site URL to https:// in Settings → General.

Certificate renewal

Let's Encrypt certificates are valid for 90 days. DirectAdmin automatically renews them before expiry. You do not need to manually renew unless auto-renewal has failed for some reason.

If the certificate is showing as expired: re-issue it manually using the same steps above. Renewal failures are usually caused by DNS changes that have made the domain unreachable from Let's Encrypt validation servers.

Fix SSL errors

Related: DirectAdmin DNS records | Fix SSL not working | SSL overview | Fix mixed content

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