This can be quite a nightmare with a new apache install without a guide. I have struggled a few times with getting it setup correctly, especially with “Letsencrypt.”
Assuming apache is already installed and working run the following
$ sudo make-ssl-cert generate-default-snakeoil --force-overwrite
$ sudo a2enmod ssl
$ sudo service apache2 restart
SSL is now enabled, now to create your first site. First create your website document root under /var/www
$ cd /var/www
$ sudo mkdir example.com
Now browse to sites-available and create the .conf file.
$ cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
$ sudo nano example.com.conf
Copy and paste this template into the file and modify to fit your domain name
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined </VirtualHost>
The last step is to run a2ensite to create the SSL entry for your new site and restart apache.
$ sudo a2ensite example.com
$ sudo service apache2 reload
Now proceed on to the “Letsencrypt” tutorial for some free SSL certs!