Thoughts on Let's Encrypt for SSL
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
Let's encrypt is awesome. It requires renewal every 3 months, which I have automated. Not using Azure though, so no experience with LE and Azure. You may or may not find my article useful: Self-Hosting Multiple HTTPS Websites in IIS with SNI and LetsEncrypt Certificates[^]
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
Have used it on OpenLearning.com (custom NS) with no problem for a while and have a bunch of servers that using it by automation. If you don't like the hassle on renewal, maybe cheap SSL from Godaddy or Comodo will do.
{My Greatest Challenge Is Me}*
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Let's encrypt is awesome. It requires renewal every 3 months, which I have automated. Not using Azure though, so no experience with LE and Azure. You may or may not find my article useful: Self-Hosting Multiple HTTPS Websites in IIS with SNI and LetsEncrypt Certificates[^]
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
I am using Certify The Web and max renewal time span is 60 days. What software do you using?
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
I am using it for like a 6 months now. The biggest problem was automation for me (still not working 100%), but this is because of my complex setup (2 servers: Windows VPS and in-house ubuntu machine; severals applications like cloud, webpages, mail etc. all using the same certificate), nothing to do with LE which have broad community, lots of software, is supported out-of-the-box by a lot of Open Source projects and have a lot of guides. The only thing that can be hard to do is updating DNS during certification if you need * certificate and your hosting to do not support any APIs for that. Good thing my is just simple webform so I can do it in like 3 lines of Power Shell code even if I had to spend like a day to figure out how to do it.
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
kmoorevs wrote:
anyone here using let's encrypt?
Yes, it's open and safe. The 3 month renewal requirement is actually a security feature. This makes your service less susceptible to vulnerabilities as you will get patched certificates more often than regular long lived certificates. I have seen my fair share of security vulnerabilities being disclosed that affect some of these long lived certificates generated by paid CA's. So prefer short lived certificates so you don't actually have to rely on not missing any news to ensure your services are protected.
kmoorevs wrote:
Anyone had issues with it?
Yes, when I first started I didn't get automation right. It solves itself once you get to know what you're doing.
kmoorevs wrote:
Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such
Yes, and the reason is a more secure web. Let's Encrypt is a non-profit organization to make security accessible to everyone. It's backed by many of the big corporates: [Current Sponsors and Donors - Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS Certificates](https://letsencrypt.org/sponsors/). But by being free it means it gets used a lot with a limited amount of budget. The main limitation is that you can only generate 50 certificates per week for a given top level domain. Which in my experience is more than enough for most use cases. See here for more details: [Rate Limits - Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS Certificates](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/rate-limits/)
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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I use it on QNAP NAS, client site (Linux) and personal usage (Windows). And it works without any issues. Auto renewal is awesome. However, you can not get OV or EV certificate from Let's Encrypt.
There can be only one.
EV certs aren't much use these days anyway. :) Troy Hunt: Extended Validation Certificates are Dead[^] Troy Hunt: PayPal's Beautiful Demonstration of Extended Validation FUD[^]
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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I am using Certify The Web and max renewal time span is 60 days. What software do you using?
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
n.podbielski wrote:
What software do you using?
I wrote my own service that checks whether the cert needs to be renewed and then launches a wrapper that provides the command line parameters to GitHub - oocx/acme.net: A .net implementation of ACME (Automatic Certificate Management Environment)[^] In some cases, I embed the check in the web server itself so I don't need a separate service. [edit] Richard's post on PKISharp is definitely on my list to investigate! [/edit] Marc
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
I use it for 2 sites hosted on a commercial ISP. Unfortunately, the ISP does not support autorenewal (they want you to buy certificates from their provider), but the process of updating the certificates (using certbot-auto on a Debian VM) every 2.5 months takes about half an hour of my time from start to finish, and the cost/benefit versus paying for commercial ones seems worthwhile. I have not encountered any issues.
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Let's encrypt is awesome. It requires renewal every 3 months, which I have automated. Not using Azure though, so no experience with LE and Azure. You may or may not find my article useful: Self-Hosting Multiple HTTPS Websites in IIS with SNI and LetsEncrypt Certificates[^]
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
Thanks for the link for Self-Hosting. :thumbsup: I used another GUI (certify) and everything seemed to go well...the cert shows active with 89 days, the .well-known folder was created, the tests all passed, the certs show up in IIS, bindings seem to be good....still not getting websites to work with https. :confused: What I've done: 0: verified that my ISP is not blocking incoming on 443. 1: Added a port forwarding rule in my home/office router for 443 to the server's internal IP. 2: Tried various binding configurations in IIS. 3: Stopped and restarted the webserver via IIS after changes. 4: Checked my DNS/routing records at the domain registrar...doesn't seem to be anything I need to change here. 5: Googled for most of yesterday and this morning looking for some obvious stupid thing that I have overlooked. 6: Tried using tracert, but it won't work with a protocol in the hostname All I'm getting when I try to access anything using https is 'can't reach this page...temporary dns error...error code (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND)'. On a lighter note, I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of self-hosting and have been doing it for my small company for over 15 years. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I use both in Azure and in hosted on-site websites with no problems. The biggest issue in Azure is getting the renewal automated, which requires that your website has a service level of "always on" to run the renewal web job when necessary. I found the following link quite useful: ["Let's Encrypt" Azure Web Apps the Free and Easy Way | GoorooThink Tech News | Articles | Skills Analytics | Gooroo](https://gooroo.io/GoorooTHINK/Article/16420/Lets-Encrypt-Azure-Web-Apps-the-Free-and-Easy-Way/20047#.XPk4h3dFxhF)
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How did you automate the renewal process? I also have been using LetsEncrypt successfully in both on-prem servers and Azure VMs (dev and test servers). But every 3 months I have to go through the hassle of manually renewing.
Da Bomb
This works well: GitHub - PKISharp/win-acme: win-acme - A Simple ACME Client for Windows (for use with Let's Encrypt)[^]
Blog: [Code Index] By Mike Marynowski | Business: Singulink
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This works well: GitHub - PKISharp/win-acme: win-acme - A Simple ACME Client for Windows (for use with Let's Encrypt)[^]
Blog: [Code Index] By Mike Marynowski | Business: Singulink
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I'm getting a new Azure VM ready to host several web apps and am to the point of getting an SSL cert for it. It appears that Let's Encrypt requires renewals more frequently than a 'store bought' ssl but that the renewal can be automated. I might be able to live with that. Anyhow, to the point...anyone here using let's encrypt? Anyone had issues with it? Usually there is a reason things are free...limitations and such. Thanks for any suggestions/thoughts. :) Edit: 4 hours later after receiving some encouraging reviews and I can't get it working! Using a GUI tool called certify, I got a cert installed easily, but no joy on connecting via https...now giving a dns error. (INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND) The certs (I now have 3 from trying different configurations to get it to work) appear to be valid on the server. The bindings appear to be correct as well. IIS 10 on Server 2016 if it matters. I'd hate to find out that my ISP's cable modem is blocking 443...probably not, but I'm running out of reasons why this won't work. wte would dns have to do with it...the sites show up fine with http, but not https.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
I use Let's Encrypt on my hosted sites, which run on shared Windows hosts under Plesk. No problems with the certificate per se, but Plesk's renewal process is a pain. It seems to involve installing files on a specific sub-folder and verifying those files by making a non-encrypted http request. This is a pain as the sites are configured to auto-redirect any insecure requests to the https: protocol, so these verification requests fail (as they don't accept a redirect as a valid response). To complicate matters further, many of my sites require authentication on all pages (apart from the login form) so again the verification request fails. I can get around this by explicitly removing authentication for the relevant subfolder, but the automatic redirect to https is more of a pain and I'm finding I have to manually disable this temporarily, manually issue a renew request, then reinstate the redirect. I suspect this is more of a Plesk issue than LetsEncrypt, but it all adds to the hassle. That said, I have some sites that now run on https that I probably wouldn't have bothered with had I had to buy SSL certs (they're hobby sites essentially).
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How did you automate the renewal process? I also have been using LetsEncrypt successfully in both on-prem servers and Azure VMs (dev and test servers). But every 3 months I have to go through the hassle of manually renewing.
Da Bomb
I had the same problem at first. You have to select a Azure subscription level that won't shut down the WebJob that does the renewal. If I remember right, when you go to the web job you will probably get a warning about this, and give you the option to update your subscription. Once you do that you should have no more issues with this.
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n.podbielski wrote:
What software do you using?
I wrote my own service that checks whether the cert needs to be renewed and then launches a wrapper that provides the command line parameters to GitHub - oocx/acme.net: A .net implementation of ACME (Automatic Certificate Management Environment)[^] In some cases, I embed the check in the web server itself so I don't need a separate service. [edit] Richard's post on PKISharp is definitely on my list to investigate! [/edit] Marc
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
Marc Clifton wrote:
I see this is just a some hobby project.
Marc Clifton wrote:
PKISharp
I probably would have to create my own certificate installer for OS and IIS right? For now Let's Encrypt doing this for me :)
Marc Clifton wrote:
Richard's post on PKISharp is definitely on my list to investigate!
Do you have a link?
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
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Marc Clifton wrote:
I see this is just a some hobby project.
Marc Clifton wrote:
PKISharp
I probably would have to create my own certificate installer for OS and IIS right? For now Let's Encrypt doing this for me :)
Marc Clifton wrote:
Richard's post on PKISharp is definitely on my list to investigate!
Do you have a link?
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
That link to acme.net has a command line option to update IIS. Works quite well. Perusing the source, it's definitely not a hobby project, imo. :)
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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That link to acme.net has a command line option to update IIS. Works quite well. Perusing the source, it's definitely not a hobby project, imo. :)
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
Marc Clifton wrote:
Perusing the source, it's definitely not a hobby project, imo.
From github:
Quote:
This project is work in progress. It works, but probably still has many bugs and needs more testing. If you are just looking for a Let's Encrypt client or a more mature project, then you should take a look at these projects:
For me looks like hobby project. I am not saying that it not works. Description from the author sends a signal: 'do not use it at home' :)
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
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I use Let's Encrypt on my hosted sites, which run on shared Windows hosts under Plesk. No problems with the certificate per se, but Plesk's renewal process is a pain. It seems to involve installing files on a specific sub-folder and verifying those files by making a non-encrypted http request. This is a pain as the sites are configured to auto-redirect any insecure requests to the https: protocol, so these verification requests fail (as they don't accept a redirect as a valid response). To complicate matters further, many of my sites require authentication on all pages (apart from the login form) so again the verification request fails. I can get around this by explicitly removing authentication for the relevant subfolder, but the automatic redirect to https is more of a pain and I'm finding I have to manually disable this temporarily, manually issue a renew request, then reinstate the redirect. I suspect this is more of a Plesk issue than LetsEncrypt, but it all adds to the hassle. That said, I have some sites that now run on https that I probably wouldn't have bothered with had I had to buy SSL certs (they're hobby sites essentially).
Thanks for the response! I've spent several hours trying to get https to work on an in-house web server that hosts our secondary website and multiple customer web applications. It still doesn't work. :sigh: I was trying it (let's encrypt) out locally before I put it on a new Azure VM that will most likely take over most of the customer web apps. Anyhow, I decided to try a different ACME tool on the new server and in < 10 minutes, had it working! My goal was to have the new server ready by Monday so it's mission accomplished! :) I suppose I'll find out about renewal issues in a few months. :laugh: I've been running my company's secondary website and customer web apps without a cert for around 15 years. Nobody ever complained until chrome started showing the 'Not secure' tag...I think they have plans to make that tag more prominent in future versions. At any rate, I am grateful to the open source community and especially let's encrypt for providing this solutions for free ssl. :thumbsup:
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
