To generate private (dummy) certificates you can perform the following list of openssl commands.
First change directory to where you want to create the certificate and private key, for example:
$ cd /usr/local/nginx/conf
Now create the server private key, you'll be asked for a passphrase:
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
Create the Certificate Signing Request (CSR):
$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
Remove the necessity of entering a passphrase for starting up nginx with SSL using the above private key:
$ cp server.key server.key.org $ openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key
Finally sign the certificate using the above private key and CSR:
$ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
Update Nginx configuration by including the newly signed certificate and private key:
server { server_name YOUR_DOMAINNAME_HERE; listen 443; ssl on; ssl_certificate /usr/local/nginx/conf/server.crt; ssl_certificate_key /usr/local/nginx/conf/server.key; }
Restart Nginx.
Now we're ready to access the above host using:
https://YOUR_DOMAINNAME_HERE