Cert update dates

jimp

To help with some of this confusion, ACME 0.5.7, which I just committed a few minutes ago, now uses RFC 2822 format dates to show the last renewal. This makes it consistent with the dates shown on other certificate-related pages.

chudak

@jimp Thanks looks good !

chudak

@johnpoz

I am still not 100% sure what's going on with update dates.
So I am a new user of ACME and like it a lot!

Last time I manually updated certificates were April 7th

I expected to start seeing emails 20 days before expiration sometime around 10th of July.

I actually saw that certificates were renewed yesterday June 7th.

What am I missing ?

Thx

Derelict

It was automatically-renewed like it was supposed to be.

Certbot runs every day. It checks the dates. If it needs to be renewed it runs the process. If everything works you have a refreshed cert.

chudak

@Derelict said in Cert update dates:

It was automatically-renewed like it was supposed to be.

Certbot runs every day. It checks the dates. If it needs to be renewed it runs the process. If everything works you have a refreshed cert.

I get that, but why I did not get any emails ?

Gertjan

@chudak said in Cert update dates:

I get that, but why I did not get any emails ?

From who ?
acme works has the FreeBSD/Linux mentality : no news is good news.
There isn't a checkbox that states : "send me a mail" neither.
Although the question was asked before.

When you visit your setup, and the cert is 3 or 4 week, just hit the Renew yourself, and observer the process.
When no errors, and you don't break things afterwards, renewing will just go fine in the future.

edit : or : help yourself : write a small shell script that collects some data , activate it in the Action list and our done.

/usr/local/pkg/acme/acme.sh --home /tmp/acme/[your-domain]/ --list

to see actual cert details.

Derelict

Emails from where?

jimp

If you put your e-mail on the ACME key then Let's Encrypt (NOT pfSense/the firewall/etc) will send you an e-mail when it is close to expiring, but that only triggers if it's not renewed before the time they warn you.

Since the ACME package checks every day to see if it needs renewed, it gets renewed before that e-mail warning would fire off.

The firewall won't e-mail you anything about the certificates, but it makes entries in the main system log. If you have a central logging system you could have it flag those messages and alert you when things happen.

chudak

@jimp

Hmm

letsencrypt has 90 days cycle, no ?

why then I see this (using the script by @Gertjan ):

/usr/local/pkg/acme/acme.sh --home /tmp/acme/XXXYYY/ --list
Main_Domain      KeyLength  SAN_Domains  Created                       Renew
XXXYYY  ""         no           Fri Jun  7 10:16:07 UTC 2019  Tue Aug  6 10:16:07 UTC 2019

renew in 60 days ?

Also you say "If you have a central logging system you could have it flag those messages and alert you when things happen."

Any example of you do to flag messages ?

Thx

jimp

@chudak said in Cert update dates:

letsencrypt has 90 days cycle, no ?

The certificates expire in 90 days.

@chudak said in Cert update dates:

renew in 60 days ?

It renews then so that if there is a failure, you have time to fix the problem.

@chudak said in Cert update dates:

Also you say "If you have a central logging system you could have it flag those messages and alert you when things happen."
Any example of you do to flag messages ?

No, that's all up to your logging/alerting/NMS system.

chudak

@jimp Ok cool, sounds like all is in order.

I will wait for emails to be sent then.

Thx!

Gertjan

@chudak said in Cert update dates:

renew in 60 days ?

Check your own settings of your cert : bottom of the page :

You see the last renewal date.
And the time - default 60 days - when it gets renewed.

See my edit above how to implement a small shell script that sends a mail as an Action script.

chudak

@Gertjan

Makes sense, changed to 90 days, and added the script to Certificate options Actions list (not sure if it will send email, but will be seeing in the logs for sure)

Thx!

jimp

Why would you want to wait until the certificate has already expired before you renew it?

Leave it at 60 and ignore it unless it fails to renew. The default settings are best.

chudak

@jimp

I’m trying to find best way to be remained to do some manual actions for one certificate that is being managed by acme.

For pfsense 60 days overlapping/advanced updates will work fine.

But I need to get some emails in order to copy new certificate to my other server. (need to see how further automate this process)

Thx all for suggestions and useful tips

jimp

Waiting for it to expire to get an e-mail from Let's Encrypt seems like an incredibly bad idea.

Next time, lead with what you are trying to accomplish. There are likely much better ways to achieve your ultimate goal without relying on hacks.

chudak

@jimp said in Cert update dates:

Waiting for it to expire to get an e-mail from Let's Encrypt seems like an incredibly bad idea.

Next time, lead with what you are trying to accomplish. There are likely much better ways to achieve your ultimate goal without relying on hacks.

Waiting for expansion sounds like extreme, there would be several emails.

“We send the first notice at 20 days before your certificate expires, and more notices at 10 days and 1 day before it expires.”

That’s what I’m looking for - what’s the better way?

Derelict

Pretty sure you can make something like Nagios alert you if a certificate changes. Been a while since I looked. Certainly a log host can watch for certain events and do it, as has been mentioned.

Gertjan

@chudak said in Cert update dates:

not sure if it will send email

??
You test a script when you create it. If it works - then you 'activate' it by using it as an 'action'.
Never ever use a script automatically, that is, for example, by a cron script.
Test first. Check all the 'input' variables, that they are available at any time.

"90 days" is no good. If anything goes wrong, you'll find out when it it to late.
"Let's Enscrypts" advises themselves to renew after 60 days, which mans that you have 30 days to have a a look at it when something goes wrong.

chudak

@Gertjan said in Cert update dates:

'activate' it by using it as an 'action'

where? Services/Acme/Certificate options: Edit/-> Action List ?