In the ACME general settings, check Write Certificates, and then have your script check in /conf/acme/ and copy them wherever you want. The script doesn't need to hook on an update, it could check the file modification time or use some other method. Calling it from cron once a day some time after the ACME update would be sufficient.

That would be a matter of configuring plesk to accept updates via the nsupdate method. Using their API is going to be completely different unless it implements that somehow.

nsupdate is an implementation of a specific protocol, RFC2136.

This is a guide on what is required to get a bind server configured to accept updates:

https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/dns/rfc2136-dynamic-dns.html

An alternate strategy might be to set up a bind server like in that link that serves as the master of a dynamic zone with the plesk as the slave but that would preclude managing the zone in plesk which is likely undesirable.

The heavy lifting for this probably needs to be done on the plesk. Instead of accepting updates via their proprietary API they should have a standard method such as RFC2136.

@gertjan - Thanks so much!

Your suggestion led me to a realization. I dropped to the pfSense shell and SSH'd into my Serv-U instance. First thing I noticed (I suspected this would be the case) was that the SSH crypto key wasn't recognized in the host list, and I didn't know if the ACME package forced acceptance the first time it connected so I added the key to the list manually from the shell and then realized something else...

I had originally assumed that the FTP Webroot connection was coming from Let's Encrypt issuing servers, but I remembered reading somewhere in their forums that they don't use FTP at all for challenges, rather this is a function of the pfSense ACME package. I had been using one of my DDNS hostnames for the SFTP setup in the ACME package and I realized that this meant that if the FTP connection was coming from the pfSense box then the DDNS URI would be trying to use reflection to resolve the IP address, which probably wouldn't work. Now that I understood the FTP connection was coming from pfSense and not Let's Encrypt I should change the URI to use the actual LAN IP of the Serv-U host. I did this and the FTP Webroot challenge worked like a charm.

I'm posting this response simply to add to the information here on the configuration of the acme plugin to successfully create/renew a Let'sEncrypt certificate. I had quite a struggle to get it to work and also got a timeout error message.

It seems essential that port 80 is open for the pfSense web interface. Under "System / Advanced / Admin Access" the WebGUI redirect" tickbox must not be ticked, to allow port 80 to be redirected to port 443. If this is ticked, port 80 does not respond and the certbot script to fails.

Under "Services / Acme / Certificate options: Edit" it's easy to miss the small little "+" for RootFolder under Domain SAN list.
Here's the spot!
Domain SAN list small plus
Ensure that the directory is specified.

Lastly, I have created a firewall rule that allows port 80 access to "this firewall" in the WAN rules. I did this before I discovered point 1 above, so it may not be required, but I'm not going to delete my cert now to test it again :-)

Hope that helps future finders of this thread.

i still can't fix it. i am using simple dns plus dns server.

and why i can't input add EC PRIVATE KEY in custom key?

-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----
MHQCAQEEIIJtk7xEZdevLY597iBUD59GQra/Uh/hzoQg9DCIAUy9oAcGBSuBBAAK
oUQDQgAE6atp4nEZ1LapCAHdwY6REzljZHUZI0HYH16lCOOGQ+uh
+z1ZmWWXuqSEEThQvpZjESy66GcGWQ==
-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----

i try change to -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- get log:
getCertificatePSK updating custom key

/usr/local/pkg/acme/acme.sh --renew -d 'xi.net' -d '*.xi.net' --home '/tmp/acme/xi.net/' --accountconf '/tmp/acme/xi.net/accountconf.conf' --force --reloadCmd '/tmp/acme/xi.net/reloadcmd.sh' --yes-I-know-dns-manual-mode-enough-go-ahead-please --dns --ocsp-must-staple --log-level 3 --log '/tmp/acme/xi.net/acme_issuecert.log'

Array
(
[path] => /etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin/
[PATH] => /etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin/
)
[Sun Jun 24 02:27:14 CST 2018] Renew: 'xi.net'
[Sun Jun 24 02:27:18 CST 2018] Multi domain='DNS:xi .net,DNS:*.xi.net'
unable to load Private Key
34380776392:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong tag:/builder/ce-243/tmp/FreeBSD-src/crypto/openssl/crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:1200:
34380776392:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_ITEM_EX_D2I:nested asn1 error:/builder/ce-243/tmp/FreeBSD-src/crypto/openssl/crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:374:Type=X509_ALGOR
34380776392:error:0D08303A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_TEMPLATE_NOEXP_D2I:nested asn1 error:/builder/ce-243/tmp/FreeBSD-src/crypto/openssl/crypto/asn1/tasn_dec.c:700:Field=pkeyalg, Type=PKCS8_PRIV_KEY_INFO
34380776392:error:0907B00D:PEM routines:PEM_READ_BIO_PRIVATEKEY:ASN1 lib:/builder/ce-243/tmp/FreeBSD-src/crypto/openssl/crypto/pem/pem_pkey.c:142:
[Sun Jun 24 02:27:18 CST 2018] Create CSR error.
[Sun Jun 24 02:27:18 CST 2018] Please check log file for more details: /tmp/acme/xiaoyu.net/acme_issuecert.log
[Sun Jun 24 02:27:18 CST 2018] The dns manual mode can not renew automatically, you must issue it again manually. You'd better use the other modes instead.

@sgw if you've got problem importing certs or CAs into things like switches etc. make sure which format they need. Some won't like normal PEM style format and want sth like PKCS8 or PKCS12 format. Others want key+cert in the same file. :)

Thanks for the reply

well-known/acme-challenge/my_token at  http://www.mydomain.com/ did not give back the token.

do you mean a token should be returned after the colon in the following example

errordetail='Invalid response from http://www.mydomain.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/F-diHXNvud92akJo7Va8450ZS-6MHt23A9n2KjEBBsFc: '

web root file not present

No file existed at /tmp/haproxy_chroot/.well-known/acme-challenge

Is this an authorization issue

error='"error":{"type":"urn:acme:error:unauthorized"

You will have to use a DNS-based validation method. ACME requires port 80. TLS validation on port 443 is also no longer supported.

Why on Earth would you do it that way vs just handling ACME on the server? If the certificate has nothing to do with pfSense, and the proxy or web server is capable of handling the request, just handle it there with a local ACME client (certbot, acme.sh, dehydrated, etc)

Exposing the firewall web server, adding users to scp keys around… Lots of things here are using insecure practices, or at least less-than-ideal ones.

After further diagnosis, this appears to be an upstream routing or firewall issue.  pfsense cannot ping route53.amazonaws.com and traceroute gets hung up 1 hop away with our ISP–working with them on that.

fixed! that was fast  ;D

Let's Encrypt certificates are only ever valid for 90 days. The field in the GUI controls how long it will wait to force a renewal, usually it's at 60 days IIRC but you can turn that down. You can't effectively go over 90 since that would mean it never renews.

Looks like upgrading to 0.2.7 fixed the timeout. It works flawlessly now.

The code is fine, it works for me and hundreds, maybe thousands, of others.

Something is wrong in your settings or with your DNS provider.

Just got the new build this morning. We are back in business. It works. Just have to test the nsupdate now.  Thanks 8)

Update to the most recent version of the ACME package, 0.2.6, and try again.

If you do not see that update available, then update pfSense to the most current version first.

;D
That "someone" was me : a certificate for the portal.(mydomane.tld) and another certificate for pfsense.(mydomane.tld) hosted on another NIC.
True, I could have combined these two into one certificate.

These days I simplified maintenance, and I use a (one) wildcard cert.

Btw : not related to acme :
Restarting the GUI is completely harmless - I'm the only "user" anyway.
Restarting the portal does have an impact as explained above.

Hey,

i found some interesting stuff applying some echo lines on datetimes:

Let's encrypt generated certificate is always 90 days valid

pfsense WebUI "Services/Acme/Certificate options/Certificate renewal after" option does not affect certificate lifetime generated by Let's encrypt. It does affect acme_command.sh;

Even a 1 day certificate is valid for 90 days but the option set "Certificate renewal after" correctly set the end date checked by acme_command.sh. So i trust that it could do a good job within 90 days time frame. Any value grater than 90 would let you drop in an unmanged time frame where your certificate is outdated but the script things "Renewal number of days not yet reached".

I would suggest a bug fix in pfsense UI to discard bad values set up in certificate edit page and help users.

Also

You should consider the second gap: since cron job run once a day, you may run the job just 1 hour before a certificate may ends, then you have to wait next job 24 later to get an updated certificate; in the case a webserver's certificate you can get users warned by browser security features for 23/24 hours.

We will plan to examine better the code and patch it with such as a provision feature to issue a new certificate if it will be replaced soon

Easy as we speak

just adding the following line in acme.inc it is possible to renew certificates on the edge of 24 hours

$nextrenewalex = $nextrenewal->sub(new \DateInterval('PT24H'));

in the function issue_certificate right after:

$nextrenewal = $lastrenewal->add(new \DateInterval('P'.$renewafterdays.'D'));

With this patch cron job would be more efficent while renewing certificates giving no downtime of services where certificates are applied to