SSL Certificate Management

Table of Contents

• [Overview](#overview)
• [When to Use](#when-to-use)
• [Quick Start](#quick-start)
• [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
• [Best Practices](#best-practices)

Overview

Implement automated SSL/TLS certificate management across infrastructure, including provisioning, renewal, monitoring, and secure distribution to services.

When to Use

• HTTPS/TLS enablement
• Certificate renewal automation
• Multi-domain certificate management
• Wildcard certificate handling
• Certificate monitoring and alerts
• Zero-downtime certificate rotation
• Internal PKI management

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# cert-manager-setup.yaml
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-prod
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: [email protected]
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    solvers:
      # HTTP-01 solver for standard domains
      - http01:
          ingress:
            class: nginx
        selector:
          dnsNames:
            - "myapp.com"
            - "www.myapp.com"

      # DNS-01 solver for wildcard domains
      - dns01:
          route53:
            region: us-east-1
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Automate certificate renewal
• Use Let's Encrypt for public certs
• Monitor certificate expiration
• Use wildcard certs strategically
• Implement certificate pinning
• Rotate certificates regularly
• Store keys securely
• Use strong key sizes (2048+ RSA, 256+ ECDSA)

❌ DON'T

• Manual certificate management
• Self-signed certs in production
• Share private keys
• Ignore expiration warnings
• Use weak key sizes
• Mix dev and prod certs
• Commit certs to git
• Disable certificate validation