[SOLVED] Unable to connect to Apache server over HTTPS on Centos7 on VirtualBox from MAC

Issue

I have a Centos 7 OS configured on VirtualBox machine. I have installed X509 certificate using Openssl tool and configured the apache HTTPD server.

I connect to Centos7 guest on VirtualBox via SSH on my local MAC OSX Seirra (10.12.3) on terminal using root.
I have verified that /etc/host on my MAC is correctly pointing to the guest on VirtualBox. Also verified the port forwarding on VirtualBox and they are all setup correctly for allowing traffic on 80 (http) and 443 (https) and 22 (ssh).Also I have made sure that Apache user has proper previleges on the index.html and other folders under DocumentRoot folder. I have also verified that /etc/host on my MAC is correctly pointing to a guest running on VirtualBox.

I have set the firewall to :

setenforce 0

So hopefully it is not a SELinux issue.

Then I run following command on terminal as root user of my Centos7 OS :

curl https://localhost -k

and I do get the default index.html file content.

But then, when I go to my MAC OS browser to connect to VirtualBOX website on HTTPS, I see following message on Chrome browser :

This site can’t be reached
localhost refused to connect.

Please note that I can connect to my Vbox CentOS HTTPD server on HTTP.
So what is going wrong here when trying to access the apache server using HTTPS?

Solution

You must enable access to https using firewall-cmd:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https

or

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp

then reload the rules

# firewall-cmd --reload

Answered By - Marc Balmer

Answer Checked By - Senaida (WPSolving Volunteer)