Let’s assume we have an instance which runs nginx web server it is accessible via load balancer which listens on port 80 plain http, now we’ll install ssl certificates for load balancer and convert it to https so to make it secure.

you have to buy these certificate from Certificate Authorities like Verisign, Thawte, GoDaddy etc …  or you can simply use self signed certificates.

Difference is this 

Both work in the same way encryption etc ...
Main Problem is , when you go to any website with self-signed certificates, it will show red cross mark in address bar saying “Untrusted Site”. 
What does this mean is, details like your site’s ownership is not verified by anyone, so viewer will be warned the same thing. 

Except this nothing different, if your website is not an e-commerece and only your employees use it then self-signed will serve the purpose that is encryption.

Now coming back to work, i’m installing ssl certificates for my load balancer, so all the traffic comes to load balancer on 443 (HTTPS) and from there traffic gets redirected to nginx on port 80 HTTP.

i have my certificates are ready with. If you want to give a try with self-signed see my other post how to generate self-signed certificates.

Go to load balancers, 
Select the load balancer which you want to install certificates for.
Select Listeners tab



By default http listener will be there, so edit it to HTTPS 


and also click on Change for “SSL Certificate”, leave about “Cipher”.


You can use existing certificate if you have, but here we are uploading new so select “Upload a new SSL Certificate"


Give desired name for the certificate which is only to identify in case you multiple certificates uploaded.
Copy Private key content in to Private Key field, “.key” file
Copy Certificate content in to Public Key Certificate field, “.crt” file.

Note: Be very careful while you copy, don’t add any spaces or miss any “—“, every file will have “BIGIN” and “END” make sure you copy including these lines aswell and finally it should look like above screenshot.

Click Save, if you have copy pasted correctly  you’ll below message.


Great you have installed Certificates successfully.