Automatically Update SSL Certificates by Certbot

Certbot is a fully-featured client for the Let’s Encrypt CA that can automate the tasks of obtaining certificates and configuring webservers to use them.

I would like to introduce certbot for obtaining certiciates and renew the certiciates.

🐝 Tutorial Environment

In this article, I use the following linux env:

• OS: CentOS/RHEL 7
• Server: Nginx

If your env is different, please see official guide.

https://certbot.eff.org/all-instructions/

🐮 Installation

You should first enable EPEL repository and install Certbot

curl -O https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto && \
mv certbot-auto /usr/local/bin/certbot && \
chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/certbot

🗽 Automated Get Started

Running a folloing command will get a certificate and have Certbot edit your Nginx configuration automatically to serve it.

/usr/local/bin/certbot certonly --standalone -d {{ hostname }} -m {{ contact_email }} --agree-tos -n

🚕 Automating Renewal

30 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/certbot renew --quiet --webroot --webroot-path {{ webroot_path }} && /bin/systemctl reload nginx

🐯 Special Thanks

• https://certbot.eff.org/all-instructions/
• https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/welcome-to-lets-encrypt-community-support/8
• https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/renew-place-webroot-path-in-config-file/16684/8

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