Let’s Encrypt : Free Certificates on Oracle Linux (CertBot)

 

My website has been using HTTPS for over 18 months now. A couple of months ago I came across Let’s Encrypt and thought, “Free Certificates? That’s interesting!”, so I gave it a shot for some other stuff I look after, just to see how I got on with it.

The certificates only last 3 months, but you can automate their renewal using CertBot. You set it up to check every day, and the certificates get renewed if they are within 30 days of expiring. Since I set it up a little over 2 months ago, the first round of renewals happened a couple of days ago. No dramas.

Having seen the first automated refresh happen successfully, I decided to switch the main website to use the Let’s Encrypt certificate today. That means no more buying certificates for me! 🙂

I put together this article when I did the initial setup, just to document it for myself.

I didn’t mention it at the time as I wasn’t really sure about how it would work out, but now I’m using it I thought it might be interesting to any other cheapskates out there. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.