# Minimum needed to get LetsEncrypt working on a GCE instance
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 21, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853 "2017-06-21T04:43:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dmahler](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmahler)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853/1 "2017-06-21T04:43:38Z")
I have a working Discourse instance on a GCE instance.
I have email working through Mailjet by setting smtp\_port=2525
I am now trying to enable HTTPS.
My reading of [Set up HTTPS support with Let's Encrypt](https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-up-lets-encrypt/40709)
is that I just need to uncomment
```plaintext
#- "templates/web.ssl.template.yml"
#- "templates/web.letsencrypt.ssl.template.yml"
```
in app.yml and set `LETSENCRYPT_ACCOUNT_EMAIL` to the email address I have registered with Mailjet,
which is the same as `DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS` and the `From:` address used by Discourse,
and then rebuild and restart Discourse with
```plaintext
sudo ./launcher rebuild app
```
After that LetsEncrypt/HTTPS should just work automagically if I understand the instructions correctly.
However I am finding that Discourse just becomes inaccessible after that.
It becomes accessible again if I undo the above changes and rebuild again.
Am I missing something?
Is there anything special needed on GCE?
I currently use the GCE external IP as `DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME`,
which is working fine with regular HTTP.
Do I need to set up a DNS domain and hotname to wok with LetsEncrypt?
---
### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853/2 "2017-06-21T04:45:34Z")
> [@dmahler](#):
>
> Do I need to set up a DNS domain and hotname to wok with LetsEncrypt?
Yup you’ll need to have a valid hostname in order to get a cert.
---
### Author:  [@dmahler](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmahler)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853/3 "2017-06-21T04:47:47Z")
Thanks! Why does my Discourse become completely inaccessible though rather than keep working through HTTP?
---
### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2017, 4:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853/4 "2017-06-21T04:48:45Z")
Because when you uncomment the `web.ssl.template.yml` it redirects all HTTP traffic to use HTTPS. Known issue but not trivial to fix.
---
### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2024, 12:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/minimum-needed-to-get-letsencrypt-working-on-a-gce-instance/64853/5 "2024-06-08T12:44:34Z")
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