aeletsencrypt

Overview ¶

Package aeletsencrypt manages Let's Encrypt certificates for AppEngine.

How it works ¶

Package initialization registers an HTTP handler at /.well-known/letsencrypt restricted to app admins and AppEngine cron, which calls it daily. This handler uses the AppEngine Admin API as the AppEngine default service account to list custom domains, creating certificates when missing, and to list certificates, updating them 30 days before they expire. To create and update certificates with LetsEncrypt it creates a temporary account key, resolves the http-01 challenge for domain validation, creates a certificate key and request, receives the signed certificate with its chain and uploads it to AppEngine along with the key. Nothing is saved in the app itself.

Setup ¶

In the Google Cloud Console, configure custom domains (https://console.cloud.google.com/appengine/settings/domains), enable the AppEngine Admin API (https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/api/appengine.googleapis.com/overview) and grant the AppEngine default service account the AppEngine admin role (https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/iam/project). In the Google Webmaster Console, add the AppEngine default service account as verified owner for the domains (https://www.google.com/webmasters/verification/details).

Import this package anywhere in your app for its side-effect: during initialization it registers its handlers.

import (
	...
	_ "github.com/StalkR/aeletsencrypt"
)

Add the following handlers to your app.yaml:

handlers:
# Cron job handler to create and update certificates
- url: /.well-known/letsencrypt
  script: _go_app
  secure: optional
  login: admin
# Challenge handler for domain validation
- url: /.well-known/acme-challenge/.*
  script: _go_app
  secure: optional

Handlers order matter, so insert above more generic handlers (e.g /.*). The "secure: optional" is to avoid https redirect, which might not work yet.

Add the following cron jobs to your cron.yaml, creating it if necessary:

cron:
- description: create and update certificates
  url: /.well-known/letsencrypt
  schedule: every 24 hours

At this point you are done, certificates for all custom domains will be created next time the cron job runs. To create certificates immediately, run the cron job now by visiting http://<any custom domain>/.well-known/letsencrypt.

If you have several domains be mindful of Let's Encrypt rate-limits (https://letsencrypt.org/docs/rate-limits/) in particular 20 domains per week. If you hit this limit, just wait a week and let the cron job resume certificate creation for the remaining domains.

If you add new custom domains later, the cron job will automatically create certificates next time it runs.