Using Caprover with custom SSL certificates

[yasin-eraslan]

So I will use Caprover for my Bachelor Thesis any my first problem is using custom SSL certificates.

I am not allowed to use the Lets Encrypt certificates and has to use custom ones, What I did was moving my certs to /captain/data/nginx-shared and referenced them like it is told in the docs.

I edited my settings in the caprover dashboard to this:

Default catch-all page. e.g. if you enter SOME-RANDOM-CHARS.captainroot.domain.com

server {
   # Catch all HTTP
     listen       80;

     # Catch all HTTPS
     listen              443 ssl;
     ssl_certificate     /nginx-shared/apps_mni_thm_de.pem;
     ssl_certificate_key /nginx-shared/caprover.mni.thm.de.key 

After I save this and let him reload , everything breaks, what am I doing wrong or what am I missing ?
Or am I configured on the wrong place ?

[githubsaturn]

1- what do you mean by everything breaks?
2- Are you sure apps_mni_thm_de.pem and /nginx-shared/caprover.mni.thm.de.key are the correct keys for ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key? The name suggests they are for different domains.

Last, but not least, using custom certificates require you to be very familiar with nginx configs, if you're not familiar with nginx, you need to go with the default option that CapRover provides. After all that's why CapRover exists, so you don't have to play with nginx.

If you want to use custom certificates, I strongly recommend first, familiarize yourself with nginx, get everything working with pure nginx, then if you want you can migrate them to CapRover.

[yasin-eraslan]

1. When I go to captain dashboard, after some seconds it says Captain did not start up wait and then in the end I can not even access the dashboard anymore

My docker logs:

Error: Wrapped: Error        Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 10.48.18.210:80
Error: Wrapped: Error        Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 10.48.18.210:80
   at errorize (/usr/src/app/built/utils/Logger.js:7:16)
   at Function.e (/usr/src/app/built/utils/Logger.js:27:21)
   at Request._callback (/usr/src/app/built/user/system/DomainResolveChecker.js:55:42)
   at self.callback (/usr/src/app/node_modules/request/request.js:185:22)
   at Request.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at Request.onRequestError (/usr/src/app/node_modules/request/request.js:877:8)
   at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at Socket.socketErrorListener (_http_client.js:475:9)
   at Socket.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at emitErrorNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:106:8)
November 3rd 2021, 2:04:04.642 pm    Error: Wrapped: body         undefined
Error: Wrapped: body         undefined
   at errorize (/usr/src/app/built/utils/Logger.js:7:16)
   at Function.e (/usr/src/app/built/utils/Logger.js:27:21)
   at Request._callback (/usr/src/app/built/user/system/DomainResolveChecker.js:56:42)
   at self.callback (/usr/src/app/node_modules/request/request.js:185:22)
   at Request.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at Request.onRequestError (/usr/src/app/node_modules/request/request.js:877:8)
   at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at Socket.socketErrorListener (_http_client.js:475:9)
   at Socket.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at emitErrorNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:106:8)
November 3rd 2021, 2:04:04.642 pm    Error: Wrapped: randomUuid   93832733-f6d1-4528-b210-835b8c0956ea
Error: Wrapped: randomUuid   93832733-f6d1-4528-b210-835b8c0956ea
   at errorize (/usr/src/app/built/utils/Logger.js:7:16)
   at Function.e (/usr/src/app/built/utils/Logger.js:27:21)
   at Request._callback (/usr/src/app/built/user/system/DomainResolveChecker.js:57:42)
   at self.callback (/usr/src/app/node_modules/request/request.js:185:22)
   at Request.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at Request.onRequestError (/usr/src/app/node_modules/request/request.js:877:8)
   at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at Socket.socketErrorListener (_http_client.js:475:9)
   at Socket.emit (events.js:400:28)
   at emitErrorNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:106:8)
November 3rd 2021, 2:04:04.642 pm    Captain health check failed: #4 at captain.apps.mni.thm.de
November 3rd 2021, 2:04:04.642 pm    NGINX health check failed: #4

2. My instructor said those are the certs and keys, so I suppose those are the right ones

[githubsaturn]

Yea those error logs tell me that you certs aren't working the way they should.

catch all page shouldn't even break the dashboard. I suggest you just get a pure nginx (without using CapRover) working, then migrate things to CapRover.

What has happened here is that by changing this certificates, your nginx container is completely broken. It's not even CapRover.

[yasin-eraslan]

So it is about the non matching cert and keys you think ?

[githubsaturn]

Most likely. You can run docker service ls and you'll see that your nginx container is unhealthy.

You'll find out more when you run pure nginx. It's much easier to learn how nginx works, when you use it in isolation.

[yasin-eraslan]

Okay, I will try that first then , thanks