hpr3295 :: Renewing a Let's Encrypt cert for Home Network use

Summary: How to update a cert when the automatic processes don't work

Source: [http://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=3295](http://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=3295)

Original audio: [http://archive.org/download/hpr3295/hpr3295\_source.wav](http://archive.org/download/hpr3295/hpr3295\_source.wav)

Back in hpr3289 :: NextCloud the hard way, I showed you how to install a Let's Encrypt SSL cert for use on your home network. One of the problems was the fact that the automatic renew tools won't work.

Today I got a reminder email from Let's Encrypt and I used the exact same command to renew it as I did to create it in the first place. The tool is smart enough to know this is a renewal process.

One thing I forgot to do last time was to remove the TXT record from DNS after I was done. So I had to delete the record and wait a while for the Time To Live (TTL) to expire.

I set about doing a check list so the next time the process can be even faster.

1. Run the command

certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns

2. Deploy a DNS TXT record under the name _acme-challenge.nextcloud.example.com

3. Finish the challenge.

4. When successful, remove the DNS TXT record as it's not needed for another two months.