Geoserver installation and its connection over https

Currently, I am exploring the GIS, developing a web environment for exploring the changes in Attika land by creating a comparative online space for the ‘Karten von Attika’, the 19th-century maps of Attika land (Greece) and a contemporary one from the Openstreet map.

This is article presents the process of creating a web-map environment by using QGIS software and Geoserver. Maps are stored on Geoserver in an external virtual machine and the WMS layer is used to load in the QGIS project. When a website uses https protocol the virtual machine that hosts the Geoserver must be secured as well because https communicate and work properly with https thus Geoserver has to be connected over https.

Geoserver installation

GeoServer is an open-source server for sharing geospatial data,
it will be installed in an external virtual machine that has Ubuntu 20.04 O.S.

Run the virtual machine and update it with the latest apt packages.

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrate

Geoserver requires Java. Install it by running

sudo apt install default-jdk -y

Check if Java is installed

java -version

and if the output is the below, Java is in the V.M

openjdk 11.0.17 2022-10-18
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.17+8-post-Ubuntu-1ubuntu222.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.17+8-post-Ubuntu-1ubuntu222.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Download the Geoserver 2.21

wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/geoserver/files/GeoServer/2.21.0/geoserver-2.21.0-bin.zip

Create a geoserver directory in /usr/share folder

mkdir /usr/share/geoserver

Extract the downloaded zip file in the above geoserver folder

unzip -d /usr/share/geoserver/geoserver-2.21.0-bin.zip

Create a geoserver user

sudo useradd -m -U -s /bin/false geoserver

Set this geoserver user as the ownership of the geoserver directory:

sudo chown -R geoserver:geoserver /usr/share/geoserver

Create a Systemd service file for GeoServer

sudo nano /usr/lib/systemd/system/geoserver.service

and write the bellow

[Unit]
Description=GeoServer Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple

User=geoserver
Group=geoserver

Environment="GEOSERVER_HOME=/usr/share/geoserver"

ExecStart=/usr/share/geoserver/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/usr/share/geoserver/bin/shutdown.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload the systemd daemon.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start and enable the GeoServer at system reboot

sudo systemctl enable --now geoserver

Check the status of the GeoServer

sudo systemctl status geoserver

and if you see

Active: active (running)

ok!

Geoserver listens on port 8080 Type on you browser virtual machine’s IP address e.g xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/geoserver

An SSL certificate enables an encrypted connection (HTTPS) There are many hosts and certificate authorities (CA), like Let’s Encrypt.

Prerequisites and requirements to install Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
1. Ubuntu 20.04 installed
2. Ability to manage your domain’s DNS records. Let’s Encrypt works with a fully registered domain name e.g example.com
3. Apache2 installed and active. An Apache2 virtual host configured for your website: example.com

DNS records
You have to log in to your domain provider and add DNS records for example.com
An A record with your_domain pointing to your server’s public IP address.
An A record with www.your_domain pointing to your server’s public IP address.

Apache HTTP Server

Installing Apache in Ubuntu 20.04

sudo apt install apache2

Start Apache

sudo service apache2 start

The html content of apache is stored inside the html folder that is in /var/www/
Create a new folder to store your webpage, e.g example (the same name as your domain name) and I created a simple index.html file inside this folder.
Apache has to serve this new content instead the default html one, a new virtual host has to be created.
The Apache’s virtual hosts are stored in /etc/apache2/sites-available

Navigate to this location

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/

The default configuration is the 000-default.conf Instead of modifying the default configuration file, create a new one: example.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.conf

and add the following.

<VirtualHost *:80> 
ServerAdmin my@email.com 
ServerName example.com 
ServerAlias www.example.com 
DocumentRoot /var/www/example 
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log 
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined 
</VirtualHost>

Enable this new configuration file by using the a2ensite tool:

sudo a2ensite example.conf

Disable the default configuration file : 000-default.conf

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Test this for configuration errors

sudo apache2ctl configtest

You should receive the following output

Output
Syntax OK

Restart Apache

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Open a browser http://example.com:8080/geoserver to see Geoserver page

In this case Apache proxies http://example.com/geoserver requests to the http://example.com:8080/geoserver.
Backend server receives the request and sent the respond to the apache, which then generates the actual HTTP response back to the client.

Set up Apache as a reverse proxy server on Ubuntu 20.04, the following modules must be enabled by running the following commands:

sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http

The example.conf file has to be replaced by the following
The “ProxyPass” and “ProxyPassReverse” parameters are used to tell Apache how to proxy requests.

<VirtualHost *:80> 
ServerAdmin my@e-mail.com 
ServerName example.com 
ServerAlias www.example.com 
DocumentRoot /var/www/example 
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log 
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined 
 ProxyRequests On
 ProxyPass /geoserver/ http://example.com:8080/geoserver/
 ProxyPassReverse /geoserver/ http://example.com/geoserver/
 <Location /geoserver>
 Order allow,deny
 Allow from all
 </Location>
</VirtualHost>

Now you can type the address without port number http://example.com/geoserver

SSL Let’s Encrypt

Install the Certbot, a command-line utility that is used to get the certificate.
It helps to get and renew the SSL certificate when needed. It is available in the official APT package repository of Ubuntu.
Start the installation process of Certbot and python3-certbot-apache.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache

Allow HTTPS traffic the default and pre-installed UFW firewall must be enabled to modify the firewall rules.
Check UFW firewall

sudo ufw status

It will show all the rules running if there are any.
If the status is inactive, enable the ufw utility using the command:

sudo ufw enable

Check the status again

Allow the Apache Full by running the below command

sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'

Check the status of UFW again to verify the new configuration

sudo ufw status

and see

Apache Full Allow Anywhere
Apache Full(v6) Allow Anywhere

Get the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
Get the SSL certificate using the Certbot by typing the command given below:

sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

The execution of the above command will prompt a couple of questions, so read them carefully and answer accordingly as per your requirements and needs.

Handling maps to Geoserver, the GeoCat Bridge plugin

When your map project has been completed, maps are ready to be uploaded on the Geoserver.
The GeoCat Bridge plugin easily publishes data and metadata from QGIS to Geoserver.

Go to QGOS project Plugins –> ‘Manage and Install Plugins’ Create a new Geoserver
Give a name,
type its address: https://examples.com/geoserver
Requires authentication and the default login values of Geoserver is username: admin and password geoserver
When the server is ready click publish tab