Futureshock-ed

Configuring SSL for Rails with Apache

To enable SSL, keep these notes handy:

Enable 443 so we can do SSL:

In /etc/apache2/ports.conf add

Listen 80
Listen 443

Then, enable the needed apache modules:

# a2enmod rewrite
# a2enmod proxy
# a2enmod proxy_http
# a2enmod proxy_balancer
# a2enmod ssl
# a2enmod headers

Then, use this site configuration as sample:

<virtualhost we.riseup.net:80="">
ServerName we.riseup.net
RedirectMatch (.*)$ https://we.riseup.net$1
</virtualhost>

<virtualhost we.riseup.net:443="">
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/certs/we.riseup.net/key.pem
SSLCertificateFile /etc/certs/we.riseup.net/cert.pem
RequestHeader set X_FORWARDED_PROTO 'https'

ServerName we.riseup.net

DocumentRoot /usr/apps/crabgrass/current/public
<directory "="" usr="" apps="" crabgrass="" current="" public"="">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</directory>
</virtualhost>

The X_FORWARDED_PROTO is needed when using mongrel in order for rails to think that it is really serving https. This also works with Passenger.