How to Renew Let's Encrypt Certificates

Let's Encrypt certificates are issued on an Ad hoc basis and are valid for 90 days. This can be batched via Cron to auto-renew every 90 days, although it can be done manually if need be.

Renewal

Abstract

• Log into pfSense and navigate to Service —> Acme Certificates
• The Certificates page has all pertinent information related to each respective certificate.
• There are two separate certificates to renew:
  • pfSense
    • Click on the Issue/Renew button to automatically generate a new certificate.
    • Since the certificate is already in place within Cert. Manager, there is nothing further to do.
  • Diskstation (NAS)
    • Click on the Issue button.
      • If this was the first time clicking this button, a string of text will be generated that will need to be added in a TXT record with the DDNS provider (NoIP).
    • Click the Renew button and a new certificate will automatically be generated.
    • Since the certificate is already in place within Cert. Manager, there is nothing further to do.

Cron

As mentioned earlier in the post, this can be batched to auto-renew every 90 days by using Cron.

Note

This will create a Cron job to automatically renew certificates each day at 3:16am.

• Navigate to Services —> Acme Certificates and click General.
• Check the box for Cron Entry.

This can be verified in Services —> Cron under Cron Schedules.