EVOLUTION-MANAGER

Edit File: using.rst

========== User Guide ========== .. contents:: Table of Contents :local: Certbot Commands ================ Certbot uses a number of different commands (also referred to as "subcommands") to request specific actions such as obtaining, renewing, or revoking certificates. The most important and commonly-used commands will be discussed throughout this document; an exhaustive list also appears near the end of the document. The ``certbot`` script on your web server might be named ``letsencrypt`` if your system uses an older package, or ``certbot-auto`` if you used an alternate installation method. Throughout the docs, whenever you see ``certbot``, swap in the correct name as needed. .. _plugins: Getting certificates (and choosing plugins) =========================================== The Certbot client supports two types of plugins for obtaining and installing certificates: authenticators and installers. Authenticators are plugins used with the ``certonly`` command to obtain a certificate. The authenticator validates that you control the domain(s) you are requesting a certificate for, obtains a certificate for the specified domain(s), and places the certificate in the ``/etc/letsencrypt`` directory on your machine. The authenticator does not install the certificate (it does not edit any of your server's configuration files to serve the obtained certificate). If you specify multiple domains to authenticate, they will all be listed in a single certificate. To obtain multiple separate certificates you will need to run Certbot multiple times. Installers are Plugins used with the ``install`` command to install a certificate. These plugins can modify your webserver's configuration to serve your website over HTTPS using certificates obtained by certbot. Plugins that do both can be used with the ``certbot run`` command, which is the default when no command is specified. The ``run`` subcommand can also be used to specify a combination_ of distinct authenticator and installer plugins. =========== ==== ==== =============================================================== ============================= Plugin Auth Inst Notes Challenge types (and port) =========== ==== ==== =============================================================== ============================= apache_ Y Y | Automates obtaining and installing a certificate with Apache. http-01_ (80) nginx_ Y Y | Automates obtaining and installing a certificate with Nginx. http-01_ (80) webroot_ Y N | Obtains a certificate by writing to the webroot directory of http-01_ (80) | an already running webserver. standalone_ Y N | Uses a "standalone" webserver to obtain a certificate. http-01_ (80) | Requires port 80 to be available. This is useful on | systems with no webserver, or when direct integration with | the local webserver is not supported or not desired. |dns_plugs| Y N | This category of plugins automates obtaining a certificate by dns-01_ (53) | modifying DNS records to prove you have control over a | domain. Doing domain validation in this way is | the only way to obtain wildcard certificates from Let's | Encrypt. manual_ Y N | Helps you obtain a certificate by giving you instructions to http-01_ (80) or | perform domain validation yourself. Additionally allows you dns-01_ (53) | to specify scripts to automate the validation task in a | customized way. =========== ==== ==== =============================================================== ============================= .. |dns_plugs| replace:: :ref:`DNS plugins <dns_plugins>` Under the hood, plugins use one of several ACME protocol challenges_ to prove you control a domain. The options are http-01_ (which uses port 80) and dns-01_ (requiring configuration of a DNS server on port 53, though that's often not the same machine as your webserver). A few plugins support more than one challenge type, in which case you can choose one with ``--preferred-challenges``. There are also many third-party-plugins_ available. Below we describe in more detail the circumstances in which each plugin can be used, and how to use it. .. _challenges: https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-acme-acme-03#section-7 .. _http-01: https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-acme-acme-03#section-7.2 .. _dns-01: https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-acme-acme-03#section-7.4 Apache ------ The Apache plugin currently `supports <https://github.com/certbot/certbot/blob/master/certbot-apache/certbot_apache/_internal/entrypoint.py>`_ modern OSes based on Debian, Fedora, SUSE, Gentoo and Darwin. This automates both obtaining *and* installing certificates on an Apache webserver. To specify this plugin on the command line, simply include ``--apache``. Webroot ------- If you're running a local webserver for which you have the ability to modify the content being served, and you'd prefer not to stop the webserver during the certificate issuance process, you can use the webroot plugin to obtain a certificate by including ``certonly`` and ``--webroot`` on the command line. In addition, you'll need to specify ``--webroot-path`` or ``-w`` with the top-level directory ("web root") containing the files served by your webserver. For example, ``--webroot-path /var/www/html`` or ``--webroot-path /usr/share/nginx/html`` are two common webroot paths. If you're getting a certificate for many domains at once, the plugin needs to know where each domain's files are served from, which could potentially be a separate directory for each domain. When requesting a certificate for multiple domains, each domain will use the most recently specified ``--webroot-path``. So, for instance, :: certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/example -d www.example.com -d example.com -w /var/www/other -d other.example.net -d another.other.example.net would obtain a single certificate for all of those names, using the ``/var/www/example`` webroot directory for the first two, and ``/var/www/other`` for the second two. The webroot plugin works by creating a temporary file for each of your requested domains in ``${webroot-path}/.well-known/acme-challenge``. Then the Let's Encrypt validation server makes HTTP requests to validate that the DNS for each requested domain resolves to the server running certbot. An example request made to your web server would look like: :: 66.133.109.36 - - [05/Jan/2016:20:11:24 -0500] "GET /.well-known/acme-challenge/HGr8U1IeTW4kY_Z6UIyaakzOkyQgPr_7ArlLgtZE8SX HTTP/1.1" 200 87 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Let's Encrypt validation server; +https://www.letsencrypt.org)" Note that to use the webroot plugin, your server must be configured to serve files from hidden directories. If ``/.well-known`` is treated specially by your webserver configuration, you might need to modify the configuration to ensure that files inside ``/.well-known/acme-challenge`` are served by the webserver. Nginx ----- The Nginx plugin should work for most configurations. We recommend backing up Nginx configurations before using it (though you can also revert changes to configurations with ``certbot --nginx rollback``). You can use it by providing the ``--nginx`` flag on the commandline. :: certbot --nginx .. _standalone: Standalone ---------- Use standalone mode to obtain a certificate if you don't want to use (or don't currently have) existing server software. The standalone plugin does not rely on any other server software running on the machine where you obtain the certificate. To obtain a certificate using a "standalone" webserver, you can use the standalone plugin by including ``certonly`` and ``--standalone`` on the command line. This plugin needs to bind to port 80 in order to perform domain validation, so you may need to stop your existing webserver. It must still be possible for your machine to accept inbound connections from the Internet on the specified port using each requested domain name. By default, Certbot first attempts to bind to the port for all interfaces using IPv6 and then bind to that port using IPv4; Certbot continues so long as at least one bind succeeds. On most Linux systems, IPv4 traffic will be routed to the bound IPv6 port and the failure during the second bind is expected. Use ``--<challenge-type>-address`` to explicitly tell Certbot which interface (and protocol) to bind. .. _dns_plugins: DNS Plugins ----------- If you'd like to obtain a wildcard certificate from Let's Encrypt or run ``certbot`` on a machine other than your target webserver, you can use one of Certbot's DNS plugins. These plugins are not included in a default Certbot installation and must be installed separately. While the DNS plugins cannot currently be used with ``certbot-auto``, they are available in many OS package managers and as Docker images. Visit https://certbot.eff.org to learn the best way to use the DNS plugins on your system. Once installed, you can find documentation on how to use each plugin at: * `certbot-dns-cloudflare <https://certbot-dns-cloudflare.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-cloudxns <https://certbot-dns-cloudxns.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-digitalocean <https://certbot-dns-digitalocean.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-dnsimple <https://certbot-dns-dnsimple.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-dnsmadeeasy <https://certbot-dns-dnsmadeeasy.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-google <https://certbot-dns-google.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-linode <https://certbot-dns-linode.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-luadns <https://certbot-dns-luadns.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-nsone <https://certbot-dns-nsone.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-ovh <https://certbot-dns-ovh.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-rfc2136 <https://certbot-dns-rfc2136.readthedocs.io>`_ * `certbot-dns-route53 <https://certbot-dns-route53.readthedocs.io>`_ Manual ------ If you'd like to obtain a certificate running ``certbot`` on a machine other than your target webserver or perform the steps for domain validation yourself, you can use the manual plugin. While hidden from the UI, you can use the plugin to obtain a certificate by specifying ``certonly`` and ``--manual`` on the command line. This requires you to copy and paste commands into another terminal session, which may be on a different computer. The manual plugin can use either the ``http`` or the ``dns`` challenge. You can use the ``--preferred-challenges`` option to choose the challenge of your preference. The ``http`` challenge will ask you to place a file with a specific name and specific content in the ``/.well-known/acme-challenge/`` directory directly in the top-level directory (“web root”) containing the files served by your webserver. In essence it's the same as the webroot_ plugin, but not automated. When using the ``dns`` challenge, ``certbot`` will ask you to place a TXT DNS record with specific contents under the domain name consisting of the hostname for which you want a certificate issued, prepended by ``_acme-challenge``. For example, for the domain ``example.com``, a zone file entry would look like: :: _acme-challenge.example.com. 300 IN TXT "gfj9Xq...Rg85nM" Additionally you can specify scripts to prepare for validation and perform the authentication procedure and/or clean up after it by using the ``--manual-auth-hook`` and ``--manual-cleanup-hook`` flags. This is described in more depth in the hooks_ section. .. _combination: Combining plugins ----------------- Sometimes you may want to specify a combination of distinct authenticator and installer plugins. To do so, specify the authenticator plugin with ``--authenticator`` or ``-a`` and the installer plugin with ``--installer`` or ``-i``. For instance, you could create a certificate using the webroot_ plugin for authentication and the apache_ plugin for installation. :: certbot run -a webroot -i apache -w /var/www/html -d example.com Or you could create a certificate using the manual_ plugin for authentication and the nginx_ plugin for installation. (Note that this certificate cannot be renewed automatically.) :: certbot run -a manual -i nginx -d example.com .. _third-party-plugins: Third-party plugins ------------------- There are also a number of third-party plugins for the client, provided by other developers. Many are beta/experimental, but some are already in widespread use: ================== ==== ==== =============================================================== Plugin Auth Inst Notes ================== ==== ==== =============================================================== haproxy_ Y Y Integration with the HAProxy load balancer s3front_ Y Y Integration with Amazon CloudFront distribution of S3 buckets gandi_ Y N Obtain certificates via the Gandi LiveDNS API varnish_ Y N Obtain certificates via a Varnish server external-auth_ Y Y A plugin for convenient scripting pritunl_ N Y Install certificates in pritunl distributed OpenVPN servers proxmox_ N Y Install certificates in Proxmox Virtualization servers dns-standalone_ Y N Obtain certificates via an integrated DNS server dns-ispconfig_ Y N DNS Authentication using ISPConfig as DNS server ================== ==== ==== =============================================================== .. _haproxy: https://github.com/greenhost/certbot-haproxy .. _s3front: https://github.com/dlapiduz/letsencrypt-s3front .. _gandi: https://github.com/obynio/certbot-plugin-gandi .. _varnish: http://git.sesse.net/?p=letsencrypt-varnish-plugin .. _pritunl: https://github.com/kharkevich/letsencrypt-pritunl .. _proxmox: https://github.com/kharkevich/letsencrypt-proxmox .. _external-auth: https://github.com/EnigmaBridge/certbot-external-auth .. _dns-standalone: https://github.com/siilike/certbot-dns-standalone .. _dns-ispconfig: https://github.com/m42e/certbot-dns-ispconfig If you're interested, you can also :ref:`write your own plugin <dev-plugin>`. .. _managing-certs: Managing certificates ===================== To view a list of the certificates Certbot knows about, run the ``certificates`` subcommand: ``certbot certificates`` This returns information in the following format:: Found the following certs: Certificate Name: example.com Domains: example.com, www.example.com Expiry Date: 2017-02-19 19:53:00+00:00 (VALID: 30 days) Certificate Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem Private Key Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem ``Certificate Name`` shows the name of the certificate. Pass this name using the ``--cert-name`` flag to specify a particular certificate for the ``run``, ``certonly``, ``certificates``, ``renew``, and ``delete`` commands. Example:: certbot certonly --cert-name example.com .. _updating_certs: Re-creating and Updating Existing Certificates ---------------------------------------------- You can use ``certonly`` or ``run`` subcommands to request the creation of a single new certificate even if you already have an existing certificate with some of the same domain names. If a certificate is requested with ``run`` or ``certonly`` specifying a certificate name that already exists, Certbot updates the existing certificate. Otherwise a new certificate is created and assigned the specified name. The ``--force-renewal``, ``--duplicate``, and ``--expand`` options control Certbot's behavior when re-creating a certificate with the same name as an existing certificate. If you don't specify a requested behavior, Certbot may ask you what you intended. ``--force-renewal`` tells Certbot to request a new certificate with the same domains as an existing certificate. Each domain must be explicitly specified via ``-d``. If successful, this certificate is saved alongside the earlier one and symbolic links (the "``live``" reference) will be updated to point to the new certificate. This is a valid method of renewing a specific individual certificate. ``--duplicate`` tells Certbot to create a separate, unrelated certificate with the same domains as an existing certificate. This certificate is saved completely separately from the prior one. Most users will not need to issue this command in normal circumstances. ``--expand`` tells Certbot to update an existing certificate with a new certificate that contains all of the old domains and one or more additional new domains. With the ``--expand`` option, use the ``-d`` option to specify all existing domains and one or more new domains. Example: .. code-block:: none certbot --expand -d existing.com,example.com,newdomain.com If you prefer, you can specify the domains individually like this: .. code-block:: none certbot --expand -d existing.com -d example.com -d newdomain.com Consider using ``--cert-name`` instead of ``--expand``, as it gives more control over which certificate is modified and it lets you remove domains as well as adding them. ``--allow-subset-of-names`` tells Certbot to continue with certificate generation if only some of the specified domain authorizations can be obtained. This may be useful if some domains specified in a certificate no longer point at this system. Whenever you obtain a new certificate in any of these ways, the new certificate exists alongside any previously obtained certificates, whether or not the previous certificates have expired. The generation of a new certificate counts against several rate limits that are intended to prevent abuse of the ACME protocol, as described `here <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/rate-limits-for-lets-encrypt/6769>`__. .. _changing: Changing a Certificate's Domains ================================ The ``--cert-name`` flag can also be used to modify the domains a certificate contains, by specifying new domains using the ``-d`` or ``--domains`` flag. If certificate ``example.com`` previously contained ``example.com`` and ``www.example.com``, it can be modified to only contain ``example.com`` by specifying only ``example.com`` with the ``-d`` or ``--domains`` flag. Example:: certbot certonly --cert-name example.com -d example.com The same format can be used to expand the set of domains a certificate contains, or to replace that set entirely:: certbot certonly --cert-name example.com -d example.org,www.example.org Revoking certificates --------------------- If your account key has been compromised or you otherwise need to revoke a certificate, use the ``revoke`` command to do so. Note that the ``revoke`` command takes the certificate path (ending in ``cert.pem``), not a certificate name or domain. Example:: certbot revoke --cert-path /etc/letsencrypt/live/CERTNAME/cert.pem You can also specify the reason for revoking your certificate by using the ``reason`` flag. Reasons include ``unspecified`` which is the default, as well as ``keycompromise``, ``affiliationchanged``, ``superseded``, and ``cessationofoperation``:: certbot revoke --cert-path /etc/letsencrypt/live/CERTNAME/cert.pem --reason keycompromise Additionally, if a certificate is a test certificate obtained via the ``--staging`` or ``--test-cert`` flag, that flag must be passed to the ``revoke`` subcommand. Once a certificate is revoked (or for other certificate management tasks), all of a certificate's relevant files can be removed from the system with the ``delete`` subcommand:: certbot delete --cert-name example.com .. note:: If you don't use ``delete`` to remove the certificate completely, it will be renewed automatically at the next renewal event. .. note:: Revoking a certificate will have no effect on the rate limit imposed by the Let's Encrypt server. .. _renewal: Renewing certificates --------------------- .. note:: Let's Encrypt CA issues short-lived certificates (90 days). Make sure you renew the certificates at least once in 3 months. .. seealso:: Many of the certbot clients obtained through a distribution come with automatic renewal out of the box, such as Debian and Ubuntu versions installed through `apt`, CentOS/RHEL 7 through EPEL, etc. See `Automated Renewals`_ for more details. As of version 0.10.0, Certbot supports a ``renew`` action to check all installed certificates for impending expiry and attempt to renew them. The simplest form is simply ``certbot renew`` This command attempts to renew any previously-obtained certificates that expire in less than 30 days. The same plugin and options that were used at the time the certificate was originally issued will be used for the renewal attempt, unless you specify other plugins or options. Unlike ``certonly``, ``renew`` acts on multiple certificates and always takes into account whether each one is near expiry. Because of this, ``renew`` is suitable (and designed) for automated use, to allow your system to automatically renew each certificate when appropriate. Since ``renew`` only renews certificates that are near expiry it can be run as frequently as you want - since it will usually take no action. The ``renew`` command includes hooks for running commands or scripts before or after a certificate is renewed. For example, if you have a single certificate obtained using the standalone_ plugin, you might need to stop the webserver before renewing so standalone can bind to the necessary ports, and then restart it after the plugin is finished. Example:: certbot renew --pre-hook "service nginx stop" --post-hook "service nginx start" If a hook exits with a non-zero exit code, the error will be printed to ``stderr`` but renewal will be attempted anyway. A failing hook doesn't directly cause Certbot to exit with a non-zero exit code, but since Certbot exits with a non-zero exit code when renewals fail, a failed hook causing renewal failures will indirectly result in a non-zero exit code. Hooks will only be run if a certificate is due for renewal, so you can run the above command frequently without unnecessarily stopping your webserver. When Certbot detects that a certificate is due for renewal, ``--pre-hook`` and ``--post-hook`` hooks run before and after each attempt to renew it. If you want your hook to run only after a successful renewal, use ``--deploy-hook`` in a command like this. ``certbot renew --deploy-hook /path/to/deploy-hook-script`` For example, if you have a daemon that does not read its certificates as the root user, a deploy hook like this can copy them to the correct location and apply appropriate file permissions. /path/to/deploy-hook-script .. code-block:: none #!/bin/sh set -e for domain in $RENEWED_DOMAINS; do case $domain in example.com) daemon_cert_root=/etc/some-daemon/certs # Make sure the certificate and private key files are # never world readable, even just for an instant while # we're copying them into daemon_cert_root. umask 077 cp "$RENEWED_LINEAGE/fullchain.pem" "$daemon_cert_root/$domain.cert" cp "$RENEWED_LINEAGE/privkey.pem" "$daemon_cert_root/$domain.key" # Apply the proper file ownership and permissions for # the daemon to read its certificate and key. chown some-daemon "$daemon_cert_root/$domain.cert" \ "$daemon_cert_root/$domain.key" chmod 400 "$daemon_cert_root/$domain.cert" \ "$daemon_cert_root/$domain.key" service some-daemon restart >/dev/null ;; esac done You can also specify hooks by placing files in subdirectories of Certbot's configuration directory. Assuming your configuration directory is ``/etc/letsencrypt``, any executable files found in ``/etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/pre``, ``/etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/deploy``, and ``/etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/post`` will be run as pre, deploy, and post hooks respectively when any certificate is renewed with the ``renew`` subcommand. These hooks are run in alphabetical order and are not run for other subcommands. (The order the hooks are run is determined by the byte value of the characters in their filenames and is not dependent on your locale.) Hooks specified in the command line, :ref:`configuration file <config-file>`, or :ref:`renewal configuration files <renewal-config-file>` are run as usual after running all hooks in these directories. One minor exception to this is if a hook specified elsewhere is simply the path to an executable file in the hook directory of the same type (e.g. your pre-hook is the path to an executable in ``/etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/pre``), the file is not run a second time. You can stop Certbot from automatically running executables found in these directories by including ``--no-directory-hooks`` on the command line. More information about hooks can be found by running ``certbot --help renew``. If you're sure that this command executes successfully without human intervention, you can add the command to ``crontab`` (since certificates are only renewed when they're determined to be near expiry, the command can run on a regular basis, like every week or every day). In that case, you are likely to want to use the ``-q`` or ``--quiet`` quiet flag to silence all output except errors. If you are manually renewing all of your certificates, the ``--force-renewal`` flag may be helpful; it causes the expiration time of the certificate(s) to be ignored when considering renewal, and attempts to renew each and every installed certificate regardless of its age. (This form is not appropriate to run daily because each certificate will be renewed every day, which will quickly run into the certificate authority rate limit.) Note that options provided to ``certbot renew`` will apply to *every* certificate for which renewal is attempted; for example, ``certbot renew --rsa-key-size 4096`` would try to replace every near-expiry certificate with an equivalent certificate using a 4096-bit RSA public key. If a certificate is successfully renewed using specified options, those options will be saved and used for future renewals of that certificate. An alternative form that provides for more fine-grained control over the renewal process (while renewing specified certificates one at a time), is ``certbot certonly`` with the complete set of subject domains of a specific certificate specified via `-d` flags. You may also want to include the ``-n`` or ``--noninteractive`` flag to prevent blocking on user input (which is useful when running the command from cron). ``certbot certonly -n -d example.com -d www.example.com`` All of the domains covered by the certificate must be specified in this case in order to renew and replace the old certificate rather than obtaining a new one; don't forget any `www.` domains! Specifying a subset of the domains creates a new, separate certificate containing only those domains, rather than replacing the original certificate. When run with a set of domains corresponding to an existing certificate, the ``certonly`` command attempts to renew that specific certificate. Please note that the CA will send notification emails to the address you provide if you do not renew certificates that are about to expire. Certbot is working hard to improve the renewal process, and we apologize for any inconvenience you encounter in integrating these commands into your individual environment. .. note:: ``certbot renew`` exit status will only be 1 if a renewal attempt failed. This means ``certbot renew`` exit status will be 0 if no certificate needs to be updated. If you write a custom script and expect to run a command only after a certificate was actually renewed you will need to use the ``--deploy-hook`` since the exit status will be 0 both on successful renewal and when renewal is not necessary. .. _renewal-config-file: Modifying the Renewal Configuration File ---------------------------------------- When a certificate is issued, by default Certbot creates a renewal configuration file that tracks the options that were selected when Certbot was run. This allows Certbot to use those same options again when it comes time for renewal. These renewal configuration files are located at ``/etc/letsencrypt/renewal/CERTNAME``. For advanced certificate management tasks, it is possible to manually modify the certificate's renewal configuration file, but this is discouraged since it can easily break Certbot's ability to renew your certificates. If you choose to modify the renewal configuration file we advise you to test its validity with the ``certbot renew --dry-run`` command. .. warning:: Modifying any files in ``/etc/letsencrypt`` can damage them so Certbot can no longer properly manage its certificates, and we do not recommend doing so. For most tasks, it is safest to limit yourself to pointing symlinks at the files there, or using ``--deploy-hook`` to copy / make new files based upon those files, if your operational situation requires it (for instance, combining certificates and keys in different way, or having copies of things with different specific permissions that are demanded by other programs). If the contents of ``/etc/letsencrypt/archive/CERTNAME`` are moved to a new folder, first specify the new folder's name in the renewal configuration file, then run ``certbot update_symlinks`` to point the symlinks in ``/etc/letsencrypt/live/CERTNAME`` to the new folder. If you would like the live certificate files whose symlink location Certbot updates on each run to reside in a different location, first move them to that location, then specify the full path of each of the four files in the renewal configuration file. Since the symlinks are relative links, you must follow this with an invocation of ``certbot update_symlinks``. For example, say that a certificate's renewal configuration file previously contained the following directives:: archive_dir = /etc/letsencrypt/archive/example.com cert = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/cert.pem privkey = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem chain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/chain.pem fullchain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem The following commands could be used to specify where these files are located:: mv /etc/letsencrypt/archive/example.com /home/user/me/certbot/example_archive sed -i 's,/etc/letsencrypt/archive/example.com,/home/user/me/certbot/example_archive,' /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/example.com.conf mv /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/*.pem /home/user/me/certbot/ sed -i 's,/etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com,/home/user/me/certbot,g' /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/example.com.conf certbot update_symlinks Automated Renewals ------------------ Many Linux distributions provide automated renewal when you use the packages installed through their system package manager. The following table is an *incomplete* list of distributions which do so, as well as their methods for doing so. If you are not sure whether or not your system has this already automated, refer to your distribution's documentation, or check your system's crontab (typically in `/etc/crontab/` and `/etc/cron.*/*` and systemd timers (`systemctl list-timers`). .. csv-table:: Distributions with Automated Renewal :header: "Distribution Name", "Distribution Version", "Automation Method" "CentOS", "EPEL 7", "systemd" "Debian", "jessie", "cron, systemd" "Debian", "stretch", "cron, systemd" "Debian", "testing/sid", "cron, systemd" "Fedora", "26", "systemd" "Fedora", "27", "systemd" "RHEL", "EPEL 7", "systemd" "Ubuntu", "17.10", "cron, systemd" "Ubuntu", "certbot PPA", "cron, systemd" .. _where-certs: Where are my certificates? ========================== All generated keys and issued certificates can be found in ``/etc/letsencrypt/live/$domain``. In the case of creating a SAN certificate with multiple alternative names, ``$domain`` is the first domain passed in via -d parameter. Rather than copying, please point your (web) server configuration directly to those files (or create symlinks). During the renewal_, ``/etc/letsencrypt/live`` is updated with the latest necessary files. .. note:: ``/etc/letsencrypt/archive`` and ``/etc/letsencrypt/keys`` contain all previous keys and certificates, while ``/etc/letsencrypt/live`` symlinks to the latest versions. The following files are available: ``privkey.pem`` Private key for the certificate. .. warning:: This **must be kept secret at all times**! Never share it with anyone, including Certbot developers. You cannot put it into a safe, however - your server still needs to access this file in order for SSL/TLS to work. .. note:: As of Certbot version 0.29.0, private keys for new certificate default to ``0600``. Any changes to the group mode or group owner (gid) of this file will be preserved on renewals. This is what Apache needs for `SSLCertificateKeyFile <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcertificatekeyfile>`_, and Nginx for `ssl_certificate_key <http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#ssl_certificate_key>`_. ``fullchain.pem`` All certificates, **including** server certificate (aka leaf certificate or end-entity certificate). The server certificate is the first one in this file, followed by any intermediates. This is what Apache >= 2.4.8 needs for `SSLCertificateFile <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcertificatefile>`_, and what Nginx needs for `ssl_certificate <http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#ssl_certificate>`_. ``cert.pem`` and ``chain.pem`` (less common) ``cert.pem`` contains the server certificate by itself, and ``chain.pem`` contains the additional intermediate certificate or certificates that web browsers will need in order to validate the server certificate. If you provide one of these files to your web server, you **must** provide both of them, or some browsers will show "This Connection is Untrusted" errors for your site, `some of the time <https://whatsmychaincert.com/>`_. Apache < 2.4.8 needs these for `SSLCertificateFile <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcertificatefile>`_. and `SSLCertificateChainFile <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslcertificatechainfile>`_, respectively. If you're using OCSP stapling with Nginx >= 1.3.7, ``chain.pem`` should be provided as the `ssl_trusted_certificate <http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html#ssl_trusted_certificate>`_ to validate OCSP responses. .. note:: All files are PEM-encoded. If you need other format, such as DER or PFX, then you could convert using ``openssl``. You can automate that with ``--deploy-hook`` if you're using automatic renewal_. .. _hooks: Pre and Post Validation Hooks ============================= Certbot allows for the specification of pre and post validation hooks when run in manual mode. The flags to specify these scripts are ``--manual-auth-hook`` and ``--manual-cleanup-hook`` respectively and can be used as follows: :: certbot certonly --manual --manual-auth-hook /path/to/http/authenticator.sh --manual-cleanup-hook /path/to/http/cleanup.sh -d secure.example.com This will run the ``authenticator.sh`` script, attempt the validation, and then run the ``cleanup.sh`` script. Additionally certbot will pass relevant environment variables to these scripts: - ``CERTBOT_DOMAIN``: The domain being authenticated - ``CERTBOT_VALIDATION``: The validation string (HTTP-01 and DNS-01 only) - ``CERTBOT_TOKEN``: Resource name part of the HTTP-01 challenge (HTTP-01 only) Additionally for cleanup: - ``CERTBOT_AUTH_OUTPUT``: Whatever the auth script wrote to stdout Example usage for HTTP-01: :: certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges=http --manual-auth-hook /path/to/http/authenticator.sh --manual-cleanup-hook /path/to/http/cleanup.sh -d secure.example.com /path/to/http/authenticator.sh .. code-block:: none #!/bin/bash echo $CERTBOT_VALIDATION > /var/www/htdocs/.well-known/acme-challenge/$CERTBOT_TOKEN /path/to/http/cleanup.sh .. code-block:: none #!/bin/bash rm -f /var/www/htdocs/.well-known/acme-challenge/$CERTBOT_TOKEN Example usage for DNS-01 (Cloudflare API v4) (for example purposes only, do not use as-is) :: certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges=dns --manual-auth-hook /path/to/dns/authenticator.sh --manual-cleanup-hook /path/to/dns/cleanup.sh -d secure.example.com /path/to/dns/authenticator.sh .. code-block:: none #!/bin/bash # Get your API key from https://www.cloudflare.com/a/account/my-account API_KEY="your-api-key" EMAIL="your.email@example.com" # Strip only the top domain to get the zone id DOMAIN=$(expr match "$CERTBOT_DOMAIN" '.*\.\(.*\..*\)') # Get the Cloudflare zone id ZONE_EXTRA_PARAMS="status=active&page=1&per_page=20&order=status&direction=desc&match=all" ZONE_ID=$(curl -s -X GET "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones?name=$DOMAIN&$ZONE_EXTRA_PARAMS" \ -H "X-Auth-Email: $EMAIL" \ -H "X-Auth-Key: $API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" | python -c "import sys,json;print(json.load(sys.stdin)['result'][0]['id'])") # Create TXT record CREATE_DOMAIN="_acme-challenge.$CERTBOT_DOMAIN" RECORD_ID=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_records" \ -H "X-Auth-Email: $EMAIL" \ -H "X-Auth-Key: $API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ --data '{"type":"TXT","name":"'"$CREATE_DOMAIN"'","content":"'"$CERTBOT_VALIDATION"'","ttl":120}' \ | python -c "import sys,json;print(json.load(sys.stdin)['result']['id'])") # Save info for cleanup if [ ! -d /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN ];then mkdir -m 0700 /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN fi echo $ZONE_ID > /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/ZONE_ID echo $RECORD_ID > /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/RECORD_ID # Sleep to make sure the change has time to propagate over to DNS sleep 25 /path/to/dns/cleanup.sh .. code-block:: none #!/bin/bash # Get your API key from https://www.cloudflare.com/a/account/my-account API_KEY="your-api-key" EMAIL="your.email@example.com" if [ -f /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/ZONE_ID ]; then ZONE_ID=$(cat /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/ZONE_ID) rm -f /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/ZONE_ID fi if [ -f /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/RECORD_ID ]; then RECORD_ID=$(cat /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/RECORD_ID) rm -f /tmp/CERTBOT_$CERTBOT_DOMAIN/RECORD_ID fi # Remove the challenge TXT record from the zone if [ -n "${ZONE_ID}" ]; then if [ -n "${RECORD_ID}" ]; then curl -s -X DELETE "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_records/$RECORD_ID" \ -H "X-Auth-Email: $EMAIL" \ -H "X-Auth-Key: $API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" fi fi .. _lock-files: Changing the ACME Server ======================== By default, Certbot uses Let's Encrypt's initial production server at https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/. You can tell Certbot to use a different CA by providing ``--server`` on the command line or in a :ref:`configuration file <config-file>` with the URL of the server's ACME directory. For example, if you would like to use Let's Encrypt's new ACMEv2 server, you would add ``--server https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory`` to the command line. Certbot will automatically select which version of the ACME protocol to use based on the contents served at the provided URL. If you use ``--server`` to specify an ACME CA that implements a newer version of the spec, you may be able to obtain a certificate for a wildcard domain. Some CAs (such as Let's Encrypt) require that domain validation for wildcard domains must be done through modifications to DNS records which means that the dns-01_ challenge type must be used. To see a list of Certbot plugins that support this challenge type and how to use them, see plugins_. Lock Files ========== When processing a validation Certbot writes a number of lock files on your system to prevent multiple instances from overwriting each other's changes. This means that by default two instances of Certbot will not be able to run in parallel. Since the directories used by Certbot are configurable, Certbot will write a lock file for all of the directories it uses. This include Certbot's ``--work-dir``, ``--logs-dir``, and ``--config-dir``. By default these are ``/var/lib/letsencrypt``, ``/var/log/letsencrypt``, and ``/etc/letsencrypt`` respectively. Additionally if you are using Certbot with Apache or nginx it will lock the configuration folder for that program, which are typically also in the ``/etc`` directory. Note that these lock files will only prevent other instances of Certbot from using those directories, not other processes. If you'd like to run multiple instances of Certbot simultaneously you should specify different directories as the ``--work-dir``, ``--logs-dir``, and ``--config-dir`` for each instance of Certbot that you would like to run. .. _config-file: Configuration file ================== Certbot accepts a global configuration file that applies its options to all invocations of Certbot. Certificate specific configuration choices should be set in the ``.conf`` files that can be found in ``/etc/letsencrypt/renewal``. By default no cli.ini file is created (though it may exist already if you installed Certbot via a package manager, for instance). After creating one it is possible to specify the location of this configuration file with ``certbot --config cli.ini`` (or shorter ``-c cli.ini``). An example configuration file is shown below: .. include:: ../examples/cli.ini :code: ini By default, the following locations are searched: - ``/etc/letsencrypt/cli.ini`` - ``$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/letsencrypt/cli.ini`` (or ``~/.config/letsencrypt/cli.ini`` if ``$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`` is not set). Since this configuration file applies to all invocations of certbot it is incorrect to list domains in it. Listing domains in cli.ini may prevent renewal from working. Additionally due to how arguments in cli.ini are parsed, options which wish to not be set should not be listed. Options set to false will instead be read as being set to true by older versions of Certbot, since they have been listed in the config file. .. keep it up to date with constants.py .. _log-rotation: Log Rotation ============ By default certbot stores status logs in ``/var/log/letsencrypt``. By default certbot will begin rotating logs once there are 1000 logs in the log directory. Meaning that once 1000 files are in ``/var/log/letsencrypt`` Certbot will delete the oldest one to make room for new logs. The number of subsequent logs can be changed by passing the desired number to the command line flag ``--max-log-backups``. .. note:: Some distributions, including Debian and Ubuntu, disable certbot's internal log rotation in favor of a more traditional logrotate script. If you are using a distribution's packages and want to alter the log rotation, check `/etc/logrotate.d/` for a certbot rotation script. .. _command-line: Certbot command-line options ============================ Certbot supports a lot of command line options. Here's the full list, from ``certbot --help all``: .. literalinclude:: cli-help.txt Getting help ============ If you're having problems, we recommend posting on the Let's Encrypt `Community Forum <https://community.letsencrypt.org>`_. If you find a bug in the software, please do report it in our `issue tracker <https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues>`_. Remember to give us as much information as possible: - copy and paste exact command line used and the output (though mind that the latter might include some personally identifiable information, including your email and domains) - copy and paste logs from ``/var/log/letsencrypt`` (though mind they also might contain personally identifiable information) - copy and paste ``certbot --version`` output - your operating system, including specific version - specify which installation method you've chosen