This role is meant to request SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt, using the HTTP or the DNS challenge for their ACME API.
Features:
- Installs and configures certbot and the DNS challenge helper script
- Supports both the HTTP and the DNS challenge
- For HTTP challenge, the authenticator plugins
apache,nginx,standaloneandwebrootare supported
- For HTTP challenge, the authenticator plugins
- The DNS challenge uses a dedicated zone for AMCE challenge tokens only, lowering the security risks of dynamic updates. The concept is explained here
- Restart of services at certificate renewal using post-hooks or custom post-hook command
- Permission control to certificates using a dedicated system group
Supported distributions:
- Debian 11 (Bullseye)
- Debian 12 (Bookworm)
Tested on:
- Debian 11 (Bullseye)
- Debian 12 (Bookworm)
- CentOS7
- Ubuntu 2204 (Jammy Jellyfish)
It does the following:
-
When letsencrypt_setup is True (the default) this role will:
- Install certbot
- Register an account at Let's Encrypt
- Install required files/keys for the DNS challenge
- Create the system group 'letsencrypt'
-
When invoked with filled variable 'letsencrypt_cert':
- Requests a SSL certificate via the Let's Encrypt ACME API, either using the HTTP challenge or using the DNS challenge
- Optionally sets the post-hook for certificate renewals (to restart required services afterwards)
- Optionally adds system users to the 'letsencrypt' system group to grant them read access to the SSL certificates and their private keys
- Installation of certbot
ansible-playbook site.yml -l localhost -t letsencrypt - Creation of a certificate via HTTP challenge and with
webrootauthenticator (restarting service 'apache2' at renewal):ansible-playbook site.yml -l localhost -t letsencrypt -e '{"letsencrypt_cert":{"name":"sub.example.org","domains":["sub.example.org"],"challenge":"http","http_auth":"webroot","webroot_path":"/var/www/sub.example.org","services":["apache2"]}}' - Creation of a certificate via DNS challenge (granting read access to
certs to user 'Debian-exim', restarting services 'exim4' and 'dovecot`
at renewal):
ansible-playbook site.yml -l localhost -t letsencrypt -e '{"letsencrypt_cert":{"name":"sub2","domains":["sub2.example.org","sub2.another.example.org"],"challenge":"dns","services":["dovecot","exim4"],"users":["Debian-exim"]}}' - Creation of a certificate via HTTP challenge and with
standaloneauthenticator (re-using same private key at renewal and running a custom post-hook script at renewal):ansible-playbook site.yml -l localhost -t letsencrypt -e '{"letsencrypt_cert":{"name":"sub3","domains":["sub3.example.org"],"challenge":"http","http_auth":"standalone","reuse_key":True,"post_hook":"/usr/local/bin/cert-post-hook.sh"}}'
The variable letsencrypt_cert is expected to be a dictionary:
letsencrypt_opts_extra: "--register-unsafely-without-email"
letsencrypt_cert:
name: sub.example.org
domains:
- sub.example.org
challenge: http
http_auth: webroot
webroot_path: /var/www/sub.example.org
services:
- apache2
or:
letsencrypt_cert:
name: sub2
domains:
- sub2.example.org
- sub2.another.example.org
challenge: dns
services:
- dovecot
- exim4
users:
- Debian-exim
or:
letsencrypt_cert:
name: sub3
domains:
- sub3.example.org
challenge: http
http_auth: standalone
reuse_key: True
post_hook: "/usr/local/bin/cert-post-hook.sh"
letsencrypt_cert:
name: sub3
domains:
- sub3.example.org
challenge: http
http_auth: standalone
reuse_key: True
deploy_hook: "/usr/local/bin/cert-post-hook.sh"
The dictionary supports the following keys:
name: name of the certificate [optional]domains: list of domains for the certificate [required]challenge: 'http' or 'dns' [required]- for challenge 'http':
http_auth: 'webroot', 'apache' or 'nginx' [optional, default 'webroot']- for http_auth 'webroot':
webroot_path[optional, default '/var/www']
- for http_auth 'webroot':
- for challenge 'http':
services: list of services to be restarted in the post-hook [optional]reuse_key: Reuse same private key at certificate renewal. 'True' or 'False' (default 'False')post_hook: Custom post-hook to be executed after attempt to obtain/renew a certificate [optional]deploy_hook: Custom deploy-hook to be executed after a successful attempt to obtain/renew a certificate [optional]renew_hook: Custom renew-hook to be executed once for each renewed certificate after certificate renewal [optional]users: list of users to be added to system group 'letsencrypt' [optional]
The role takes care of installing certbot and requesting SSL certificates using either the HTTP or the DNS challenge. It doesn't install or configure the required infrastructure (i.e. the Apache webserver or a DNS server).
The role is tested with Ansible 2.2 only. No guaranties that it runs with earlier versions of Ansible.
Requirements:
- The domain name(s) of the requested certificate has to point to the system
- For http_auth 'apache', Apache2 has to be installed (and configured) on the system
- For http_auth 'nginx', NGINX has to be installed (and configured) on the system
Requirements:
- A DNS server with a dedicated zone, used for the ACME DNS challenge only. This zone has to allow dynamic DNS updates (NSUPDATE) for TXT records (see below).
- CNAME records for
_acme-challenge.sub.example.orgfor all domain names(s) of the requested certificate have to point tosub.example.org._le.example.org(inside the dedicated zone for the ACME DNS challenge). - The content of the DNS update key and private DNS update keys need to be
available in the Ansible vars
letsencrypt_ddns_keyandletsencrypt_ddns_privkey(preferably inside a vault).
This role installs a helper script for the DNS challenge to
/usr/local/bin/certbot-dns-hook.sh. This script will add the validation
token to the TXT record at sub.example.org._le.example.org during the DNS
challenge and remove it afterwards.
Obtaining wildcard certificates should work out of the box via DNS challenge.
(Another option would be to use the acme-dns server for this)
Generate a key for dynamic updates:
cd /etc/bind/keys
dnssec-keygen -a HMAC-SHA512 -b 512 -n USER _le.example.org_ddns_update
chown -R bind:bind /etc/bind/keys
Add the key to your bind config (e.g. at /etc/bind/named.conf.options):
key "_le.example.org_ddns_update" {
algorithm hmac-sha512;
secret "...";
};
Create the zone for dynamic updates:
$ORIGIN .
$TTL 86400 ; 1 day
_le.example.org IN SOA ns1.example.org. postmaster.example.org. (
2017061501 ; serial
86400 ; refresh (1 day)
3600 ; retry (1 hour)
2419200 ; expire (4 weeks)
86400 ; minimum (1 day)
)
NS ns1.example.org.
NS ns2.example.org.
TXT "v=spf1 -all"
and configure it in your bind config (e.g. at /etc/bind/named.conf.local):
zone "_le.example.org" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/zones/db._le.example.org";
update-policy { grant _le.example.org_ddns_update wildcard *._le.example.org. TXT; };
};
Format for /etc/letsencrypt/keys/ddns_update.key (from bind)
key "<key>" {
algorithm HMAC-SHA512;
secret "<key>";
};
Format for /etc/letsencrypt/keys/ddns_update.private
Private-key-format: v1.3
Algorithm: 165 (HMAC_SHA512)
Key: <key>
Bits: AAA=
Created: 20181017144534
Publish: 20181017144534
Activate: 20181017144534
# Perform setup step; set false to disable
letsencrypt_setup: True
# Provide existing account data to be copied over
letsencrypt_account: ""
# letsencrypt_account:
# hash: 1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef
# id: 123456789
# creation_host: localhost
# creation_dt: 2020-12-13T13:12:00Z
# private_key:
# n: 1234
# e: 5678
# d: 90ab
# p: cdef
# q: 1234
# dp: 5678
# dq: 90ab
# qi: cdef
# kty: RSA
# Set the email address associated with the Let's Encrypt account
letsencrypt_account_email: ""
# Default authenticator for the HTTP challenge ('webroot' or 'apache')
letsencrypt_http_auth: webroot
# Default webroot path for the authenticator 'webroot'
letsencrypt_webroot_path: /var/www
# Install the DNS challenge helper script and DNS update key
letsencrypt_dns_challenge: yes
# Settings for the dynamic DNS zone updates
# letsencrypt_ddns_server: ""
# letsencrypt_ddns_zone: ""
# letsencrypt_ddns_key: ""
# letsencrypt_ddns_privkey: ""
# Create system group 'letsencrypt' for access to certificates
letsencrypt_group: yes
# Reuse private key at certificate renewal?
letsencrypt_reuse_key: False
# Allow subset of names?
letsencrypt_subset_names: True
# Set global extra commandline options for certbot
letsencrypt_opts_extra: ""
# Set path for letsencrypt directory (no trailing "/" !!)
letsencrypt_directory: /etc/letsencrypt
For testing purposes, variable letsencrypt_test can be set. If set to
True, the role will use Let's Encrypt test servers for account creation
and obtaining the certificate.
For developing and testing the role we use Molecule and Vagrant/Github Actions. On the local environment you can easily test the role with
molecule test
This Ansible role is licensed under the GNU GPLv3.
Copyright 2017-2019 systemli.org (https://www.systemli.org/)
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