acme_certificate – Create SSL/TLS certificates with the ACME protocol¶

Synopsis
Requirements
Parameters
Notes
See Also
Examples
Return Values
Status

Synopsis ¶

Create and renew SSL/TLS certificates with a CA supporting the ACME protocol, such as Let’s Encrypt or Buypass. The current implementation supports the http-01, dns-01 and tls-alpn-01 challenges.
To use this module, it has to be executed twice. Either as two different tasks in the same run or during two runs. Note that the output of the first run needs to be recorded and passed to the second run as the module argument data.
Between these two tasks you have to fulfill the required steps for the chosen challenge by whatever means necessary. For http-01 that means creating the necessary challenge file on the destination webserver. For dns-01 the necessary dns record has to be created. For tls-alpn-01 the necessary certificate has to be created and served. It is not the responsibility of this module to perform these steps.
For details on how to fulfill these challenges, you might have to read through the main ACME specification and the TLS-ALPN-01 specification. Also, consider the examples provided for this module.
The module includes experimental support for IP identifiers according to the RFC 8738.

Aliases: letsencrypt

Requirements ¶

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

python >= 2.6
either openssl or cryptography >= 1.5

Parameters ¶

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
account_email string		The email address associated with this account. It will be used for certificate expiration warnings. Note that when `modify_account` is not set to `no` and you also used the acme_account module to specify more than one contact for your account, this module will update your account and restrict it to the (at most one) contact email address specified here.
account_key_content string added in 2.5		Content of the ACME account RSA or Elliptic Curve key. Mutually exclusive with `account_key_src`. Required if `account_key_src` is not used. Warning: the content will be written into a temporary file, which will be deleted by Ansible when the module completes. Since this is an important private key — it can be used to change the account key, or to revoke your certificates without knowing their private keys —, this might not be acceptable. In case `cryptography` is used, the content is not written into a temporary file. It can still happen that it is written to disk by Ansible in the process of moving the module with its argument to the node where it is executed.
account_key_src path		Path to a file containing the ACME account RSA or Elliptic Curve key. RSA keys can be created with `openssl genrsa ...`. Elliptic curve keys can be created with `openssl ecparam -genkey ...`. Any other tool creating private keys in PEM format can be used as well. Mutually exclusive with `account_key_content`. Required if `account_key_content` is not used. aliases: account_key
account_uri string added in 2.7		If specified, assumes that the account URI is as given. If the account key does not match this account, or an account with this URI does not exist, the module fails.
acme_directory string	Default: "https://acme-staging.api.letsencrypt.org/directory"	The ACME directory to use. This is the entry point URL to access CA server API. For safety reasons the default is set to the Let's Encrypt staging server (for the ACME v1 protocol). This will create technically correct, but untrusted certificates. For Let's Encrypt, all staging endpoints can be found here: https://community.buypass.com/t/63d4ay/buypass-go-ssl-endpoints For Let's Encrypt, the production directory URL for ACME v1 is https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory. For Buypass, the production directory URL for ACME v2 and v1 is Pebble testing server.
acme_version integer added in 2.5	Choices: 1 ← 2	The ACME version of the endpoint. Must be 1 for the classic Let's Encrypt and Buypass ACME endpoints, or 2 for standardized ACME v2 endpoints.
agreement string		URI to a terms of service document you agree to when using the ACME v1 service at `acme_directory`. Default is latest gathered from `acme_directory` URL. This option will only be used when `acme_version` is 1.
chain_dest path added in 2.5		If specified, the intermediate certificate will be written to this file. aliases: chain
challenge string	Choices: http-01 ← dns-01 tls-alpn-01	The challenge to be performed.
csr path / required		File containing the CSR for the new certificate. Can be created with `openssl req ...`. The CSR may contain multiple Subject Alternate Names, but each one will lead to an individual challenge that must be fulfilled for the CSR to be signed. Note: the private key used to create the CSR must not be the account key. This is a bad idea from a security point of view, and the CA should not accept the CSR. The ACME server should return an error in this case. aliases: src
data dictionary		The data to validate ongoing challenges. This must be specified for the second run of the module only. The value that must be used here will be provided by a previous use of this module. See the examples for more details. Note that for ACME v2, only the `order_uri` entry of `data` will be used. For ACME v1, `data` must be non-empty to indicate the second stage is active; all needed data will be taken from the CSR. Note: the `data` option was marked as `no_log` up to Ansible 2.5. From Ansible 2.6 on, it is no longer marked this way as it causes error messages to be come unusable, and `data` does not contain any information which can be used without having access to the account key or which are not public anyway.
deactivate_authzs boolean added in 2.6	Choices: no ← yes	Deactivate authentication objects (authz) after issuing a certificate, or when issuing the certificate failed. Authentication objects are bound to an account key and remain valid for a certain amount of time, and can be used to issue certificates without having to re-authenticate the domain. This can be a security concern.
dest path		The destination file for the certificate. Required if `fullchain_dest` is not specified. aliases: cert
force boolean added in 2.6	Choices: no ← yes	Enforces the execution of the challenge and validation, even if an existing certificate is still valid for more than `remaining_days`. This is especially helpful when having an updated CSR e.g. with additional domains for which a new certificate is desired.
fullchain_dest path added in 2.5		The destination file for the full chain (i.e. certificate followed by chain of intermediate certificates). Required if `dest` is not specified. aliases: fullchain
modify_account boolean added in 2.6	Choices: no yes ←	Boolean indicating whether the module should create the account if necessary, and update its contact data. Set to `no` if you want to use the acme_account module to manage your account instead, and to avoid accidental creation of a new account using an old key if you changed the account key with acme_account. If set to `no`, `terms_agreed` and `account_email` are ignored.
remaining_days integer	Default: 10	The number of days the certificate must have left being valid. If `cert_days < remaining_days`, then it will be renewed. If the certificate is not renewed, module return values will not include `challenge_data`. To make sure that the certificate is renewed in any case, you can use the `force` option.
retrieve_all_alternates boolean added in 2.9	Choices: no ← yes	When set to `yes`, will retrieve all alternate chains offered by the ACME CA. These will not be written to disk, but will be returned together with the main chain as `all_chains`. See the documentation for the `all_chains` return value for details.
select_crypto_backend string added in 2.7	Choices: auto ← cryptography openssl	Determines which crypto backend to use. The default choice is `auto`, which tries to use `cryptography` if available, and falls back to `openssl`. If set to `openssl`, will try to use the `openssl` binary. If set to `cryptography`, will try to use the terms_agreed boolean added in 2.5	Choices: no ← yes	Boolean indicating whether you agree to the terms of service document. ACME servers can require this to be true. This option will only be used when `acme_version` is not 1.
validate_certs boolean added in 2.5	Choices: no yes ←	Whether calls to the ACME directory will validate TLS certificates. Warning: Should only ever be set to `no` for testing purposes, for example when testing against a local Pebble server.

Notes ¶

Note

At least one of dest and fullchain_dest must be specified.
This module includes basic account management functionality. If you want to have more control over your ACME account, use the acme_account module and disable account management for this module using the modify_account option.
This module was called letsencrypt before Ansible 2.6. The usage did not change.
If a new enough version of the cryptography library is available (see Requirements for details), it will be used instead of the openssl binary. This can be explicitly disabled or enabled with the select_crypto_backend option. Note that using the openssl binary will be slower and less secure, as private key contents always have to be stored on disk (see account_key_content).
Although the defaults are chosen so that the module can be used with the Let’s Encrypt CA, the module can in principle be used with any CA providing an ACME endpoint, such as Buypass Go SSL.

Examples ¶

### Example with HTTP challenge ###

- name: Create a challenge for sample.com using a account key from a variable.
  acme_certificate:
    account_key_content: "{{ account_private_key }}"
    csr: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com.crt
  register: sample_com_challenge

# Alternative first step:
- name: Create a challenge for sample.com using a account key from hashi vault.
  acme_certificate:
    account_key_content: "{{ lookup('hashi_vault', 'secret=secret/account_private_key:value') }}"
    csr: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    fullchain_dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-fullchain.crt
  register: sample_com_challenge

# Alternative first step:
- name: Create a challenge for sample.com using a account key file.
  acme_certificate:
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    csr: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com.crt
    fullchain_dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-fullchain.crt
  register: sample_com_challenge

# perform the necessary steps to fulfill the challenge
# for example:
#
# - copy:
#     dest: /var/www/html/{{ sample_com_challenge['challenge_data']['sample.com']['http-01']['resource'] }}
#     content: "{{ sample_com_challenge['challenge_data']['sample.com']['http-01']['resource_value'] }}"
#     when: sample_com_challenge is changed and 'sample.com' in sample_com_challenge['challenge_data']
#
# Alternative way:
#
# - copy:
#     dest: /var/www/{{ item.key }}/{{ item.value['http-01']['resource'] }}
#     content: "{{ item.value['http-01']['resource_value'] }}"
#   loop: "{{ sample_com_challenge.challenge_data | dictsort }}"
#   when: sample_com_challenge is changed

- name: Let the challenge be validated and retrieve the cert and intermediate certificate
  acme_certificate:
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    csr: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com.crt
    fullchain_dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-fullchain.crt
    chain_dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-intermediate.crt
    data: "{{ sample_com_challenge }}"

### Example with DNS challenge against production ACME server ###

- name: Create a challenge for sample.com using a account key file.
  acme_certificate:
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_email: myself@sample.com
    src: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    cert: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com.crt
    challenge: dns-01
    acme_directory: https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    # Renew if the certificate is at least 30 days old
    remaining_days: 60
  register: sample_com_challenge

# perform the necessary steps to fulfill the challenge
# for example:
#
# - route53:
#     zone: sample.com
#     record: "{{ sample_com_challenge.challenge_data['sample.com']['dns-01'].record }}"
#     type: TXT
#     ttl: 60
#     state: present
#     wait: yes
#     # Note: route53 requires TXT entries to be enclosed in quotes
#     value: "{{ sample_com_challenge.challenge_data['sample.com']['dns-01'].resource_value | regex_replace('^(.*)$', '\"\\1\"') }}"
#   when: sample_com_challenge is changed and 'sample.com' in sample_com_challenge.challenge_data
#
# Alternative way:
#
# - route53:
#     zone: sample.com
#     record: "{{ item.key }}"
#     type: TXT
#     ttl: 60
#     state: present
#     wait: yes
#     # Note: item.value is a list of TXT entries, and route53
#     # requires every entry to be enclosed in quotes
#     value: "{{ item.value | map('regex_replace', '^(.*)$', '\"\\1\"' ) | list }}"
#   loop: "{{ sample_com_challenge.challenge_data_dns | dictsort }}"
#   when: sample_com_challenge is changed

- name: Let the challenge be validated and retrieve the cert and intermediate certificate
  acme_certificate:
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_email: myself@sample.com
    src: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    cert: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com.crt
    fullchain: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-fullchain.crt
    chain: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-intermediate.crt
    challenge: dns-01
    acme_directory: https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    remaining_days: 60
    data: "{{ sample_com_challenge }}"
  when: sample_com_challenge is changed

Return Values ¶

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key		Returned	Description
account_uri string added in 2.5		changed	ACME account URI.
all_chains list / elements=dictionary		when certificate was retrieved and retrieve_all_alternates is set to `yes`	When retrieve_all_alternates is set to `yes`, the module will query the ACME server for alternate chains. This return value will contain a list of all chains returned, the first entry being the main chain returned by the server. See	cert string	always	The leaf certificate itself, in PEM format.
	chain string	always	The certificate chain, excluding the root, as concatenated PEM certificates.
	full_chain string	always	The certificate chain, excluding the root, but including the leaf certificate, as concatenated PEM certificates.
authorizations dictionary		changed	ACME authorization data. Maps an identifier to ACME authorization objects. See Sample: {"example.com":{...}}
cert_days integer		success	The number of days the certificate remains valid.
challenge_data list / elements=dictionary		changed	Per identifier / challenge type challenge data. Since Ansible 2.8.5, only challenges which are not yet valid are returned.
	record string added in 2.5	changed and challenge is `dns-01`	The full DNS record's name for the challenge. Sample: _acme-challenge.example.com
	resource string	changed	The challenge resource that must be created for validation. Sample: .well-known/acme-challenge/evaGxfADs6pSRb2LAv9IZf17Dt3juxGJ-PCt92wr-oA
	resource_original string added in 2.8	changed and challenge is `tls-alpn-01`	The original challenge resource including type identifier for `tls-alpn-01` challenges. Sample: DNS:example.com
	resource_value string	changed	The value the resource has to produce for the validation. For `http-01` and `dns-01` challenges, the value can be used as-is. For `tls-alpn-01` challenges, note that this return value contains a Base64 encoded version of the correct binary blob which has to be put into the acmeValidation x509 extension; see Sample: IlirfxKKXA...17Dt3juxGJ-PCt92wr-oA
challenge_data_dns dictionary added in 2.5		changed	List of TXT values per DNS record, in case challenge is `dns-01`. Since Ansible 2.8.5, only challenges which are not yet valid are returned.
finalization_uri string added in 2.5		changed	ACME finalization URI.
order_uri string added in 2.5		changed	ACME order URI.

Status ¶

This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

Authors¶

Michael Gruener (@mgruener)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation, you can edit this document to improve it.