HTTP to HTTPS Migration. Sounds Simple. It Broke Everything. SSL the Hard Way.

HTTP to HTTPS. Should take 2 minutes. Then you meet certificate chains, redirect loops, HSTS headers, and mixed content warnings. Suddenly a 2-minute task is a 2-day rabbit hole. Nginx as a reverse proxy. SSL termination at the edge. Certificate management with Let's Encrypt. Security headers: HSTS, Content Security Policy, X-Frame-Options. Every single one of those has a gotcha hiding behind it. Mixed content warnings appear because one image was still loading over HTTP. Redirect loops that made the browser spin forever. A certificate that expired at 3 AM on a Saturday. And HSTS preload - once you submit your domain, there is no going back. If you mess something up with HTTPS after that, your site is not "shows a warning" unreachable. It's actually unreachable. The result when done right: A+ on SSL Labs, 100% HTTPS coverage, zero mixed content warnings, zero browser security errors. The auto-renewal piece is where most production outages happen - not the initial setup, but the second or third renewal months later when the cron job silently fails and nobody checks. HTTPS is not a feature. It is the absolute bare minimum. And it separates someone who builds websites from someone…