I've recently began working on a side project that requires me to serve files over https. Given some trial and error, I managed to get a server up and running perfectly. I thought I'd share which solution worked best for me. I've always been a minimalist, so if 'keeping it simple' is your M.O., you may find this quick tutorial quite useful.

Install Dependencies

If you're running on the latest ubuntu, then the only dependency you'll need to install is Nginx.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nginx

Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate

Create a directory to store the ssl files.

sudo mkdir /etc/nginx/ssl

Next, generate a self-signed ssl certificate. Self-signed, meaning the digital certificate is signed using its own private key.

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.key -out /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt

After you've completed the form, the following files should have been generated:

/etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt
/etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.key

Configure Nginx

To configure Nginx, open the default file located in the sites-available directory.

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Make the following changes to enable both http and https requests.

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.html index.htm;

    # Redirect http to https
    # return 301 $scheme://www.website.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443;
    server_name localhost;

    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.html index.htm;

    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.key;
}

Next, test the that the changes you've made were successful.

sudo nginx -t

Then, restart Nginx.

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx stop
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start

Now you should be good to go!

Running within Vargent (optional)

If you're a mac user, such as myself, I would recommend using Vagrant. It easily allows users to run their vm on a private network.

Here's an initial Vagrant file to get you started.

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"

  # Set VM's IP to make server available to a local network
  # https://55.55.55.55
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "55.55.55.55"

  config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install -y nginx
  SHELL
end

Cheers!