nginx-1.15.9 Variable support in "ssl_certificate" and "ssl_certificate_key" directives

Question

So nginx-1.15.9 was released very recently with the following change:

Feature: variables support in the "ssl_certificate" and "ssl_certificate_key" directives.

I setup an instance with multiple domains pointing to the following server block. I am using dehydrated to generate the certs automatically and in their own respective folders.

However, despite trying several variations and googling for various solutions, I am not having any success in having the variables in the "ssl_certificate" and "ssl_certificate_key" directives being recognised.

• Have verified that the certs are generated correctly (with fullchain.pem and privkey.pem)
• The error I'm getting from navigating to the https URL directly: Secure Connection Failed
• https works perfectly if I update the "$server_name" to the actual domain folder containing the certs

Appreciate if someone could take a look at my server block to identify what I'm doing wrong or point me in the correct direction. Thank you.

server { listen 80 default_server; listen [::]:80 default_server; listen 443 ssl default_server; listen [::]:443 ssl default_server; root /var/www/html; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name _; # ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/dehydrated/certs/$server_name/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/dehydrated/certs/$server_name/privkey.pem; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } location ~ \.php$ { try_files $uri =404; fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$; fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; } location ~ /\.ht { deny all; } } 

Answer 1

Make sure you are using $ssl_server_name instead of $server_name and that Nginx has read-access to your certificates.

I've made a full write up using LetsEncrypt. In your case it would look like this:

server { listen 80 default_server; listen [::]:80 default_server; listen 443 ssl default_server; listen [::]:443 ssl default_server; root /var/www/html; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name _; # ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/dehydrated/certs/$ssl_server_name/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/dehydrated/certs/$ssl_server_name/privkey.pem; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } location ~ \.php$ { try_files $uri =404; fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$; fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; } location ~ /\.ht { deny all; } }