Linux system role to issue and renew SSL certificates.
Basic usage:
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- certificate
On a RPM-based system this will place the certificate in /etc/pki/tls/certs/mycert.crt
and the key in /etc/pki/tls/private/mycert.key
.
Parameter | Description | Type | Required | Default |
---|---|---|---|---|
certificate_wait | If the task should wait for the certificate to be issued. | bool | no | yes |
certificate_requests | A list of dicts representing each certificate to be issued. See certificate_requests. | list | no | - |
Note: Fields such as common_name
, country
, state
, locality
,
organization
, organizational_unit
, email
, key_usage
, and
extended_key_usage
that can be included in the certificate request
are defined by the RFC 5280.
Note: Be aware that the CA might not honor all the requested fields.
For example, even if a request include country: US
, the CA might issue
the certificate without country
in it's subject.
Note: The fields dns
, email
and ip
are used to define the Subject
Alternative Names (SAN).
Parameter | Description | Type | Required | Default |
---|---|---|---|---|
name | Name of the certificate. A full path can be used to choose the directory where files will be stored. | str | yes | - |
ca | CA that will issue the certificate. See CAs and Providers. | str | yes | - |
dns | Domain (or list of domains) to be included in the certificate. Also can provide the default value for common_name. | str or list | no | - |
Email (or list of emails) to be included in the certificate. | str or list | no | - | |
ip | IP, or list of IPs, to be included in the certificate. IPs can be IPv4, IPv6 or both. Also can provide the default value for common_name. | str or list | no | - |
auto_renew | Indicates if the certificate should be renewed automatically before it expires. | bool | no | yes |
owner | User name (or user id) for the certificate and key files. | str | no | User running Ansible |
group | Group name (or group id) for the certificate and key files. | str | no | Group running Ansible |
key_size | Generate keys with a specific keysize in bits. | int | no | 2048 - See key_size |
common_name | Common Name requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | See common_name |
country | Country requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
state | State requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
locality | Locality requested for the certificate subject (usually city). | str | no | - |
organization | Organization requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
organizational_unit | Organizational unit requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
contact_email | Contact email requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
key_usage | Allowed Key Usage for the certificate. For valid values see: key_usage. | list | no | See key_usage |
extended_key_usage | Extended Key Usage attributes to be present in the certificate request. | list | no | See extended_key_usage |
run_before | Command that should run before saving the certificate. See run hooks. | str | no | - |
run_after | Command that should run after saving the certificate. See run hooks. | str | no | - |
principal | Kerberos principal. | str | no | - |
provider | The underlying method used to request and manage the certificate. | str | no | Varies by CA |
If common_name
is not set the role will attempt to use the first
value of dns
or ip
, respectively, as the default. If dns
and
ip
are also not set, common_name
will not be included in the certificate.
Recommended minimal-values for a certificate key size, from different
organizations, vary across time. In the attempt to provide safe settings,
the default minimal-value for key_size
will be increased over time.
If you want your certificates to always keep the same key_size
when
renewed, set this variable to the desired value.
Valid values for key_usage
are:
- digitalSignature
- nonRepudiation
- keyEncipherment
- dataEncipherment
- keyAgreement
- keyCertSign
- cRLSign
- encipherOnly
- decipherOnly
The defaults for key_usage
are:
- digitalSignature
- keyEncipherment
Any valid oid can be used to set one or more extended_key_usage
.
In addition to that there is also a list of known aliases that
will be recognized by the role:
- id-kp-serverAuth
- id-kp-clientAuth
- id-kp-codeSigning
- id-kp-emailProtection
- id-kp-timeStamping
- id-kp-OCSPSigning
- id-kp-ipsecEndSystem
- id-kp-ipsecTunnel
- id-kp-ipsecUser
If extended_key_usage
is not set the role will default to:
- id-kp-serverAuth
- id-kp-clientAuth
Sometimes you need to execute a command just before a certificate is
renewed and another command just after. In order to do that use
run_before
and run_after
.
The value provided to run_before
and run_after
will be wrapped and
stored in shell script files that later will be executed by the provider.
CA | Providers | CA description | Requirements |
---|---|---|---|
self‑sign | certmonger* | Issue self-signed certificates from a local CA. | |
ipa | certmonger* | Issue certificates using the FreeIPA CA. | Host needs to be enrolled in a FreeIPA server. |
* Default provider.
CA represents the CA certificates that will be used to issue and sign the requested certificate. Provider it's the method used to send the certificate request to the CA and then retrieve the signed certificate.
If a user chooses self-sign
CA, with certmonger
as provider and, later on
decide to change the provider to openssl
, the CA certificates used in both
cases needs to be the same. Please note that openssl
is not yet a supported
provider and it's only mentioned here as an example.
This role provides facts that can be useful for conditional control in playbooks or even for debugging.
A list of available CAs in the host.
If any CA is listed in CAs and Providers but
it's not showing in the certificate_available_cas
fact, it means that
this CA doesn't meet the requirements to be enabled.
For example if host is not enrolled in an IPA server:
{
"certificate_available_cas": [
"self-sign"
]
}
If host is enrolled in an IPA server:
{
"certificate_available_cas": [
"self-sign",
"ipa"
]
}
Issue a certificate for *.example.com
and place it in the standard
directory for the distribution.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: *.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- certificate
The directories for each distribution are:
-
Debian/Ubuntu:
- Certificates:
/etc/ssl/localcerts/certs/
- Keys:
/etc/ssl/localcerts/private/
- Certificates:
-
RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:
- Certificates:
/etc/pki/tls/certs/
- Keys:
/etc/pki/tls/private/
- Certificates:
Issue a certificate and key and place them in the specified location.
The example bellow will create a certificate file in
/another/path/mycert.crt
and a key file in /another/path/mycert.key
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: /another/path/mycert
dns: *.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- certificate
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns:
- www.example.com
- sub1.example.com
- sub2.example.com
- sub3.example.com
ip:
- 192.0.2.12
- 198.51.100.65
- 2001:db8::2:1
email:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
ca: self-sign
roles:
- certificate
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
common_name: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
country: US
state: NY
locality: New York
organization: Red Hat
organizational_unit: platform
email: [email protected]
roles:
- certificate
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
key_size: 4096
roles:
- certificate
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
key_usage:
- digitalSignature
- nonRepudiation
- keyEncipherment
extended_key_usage:
- id-kp-clientAuth
- id-kp-serverAuth
roles:
- certificate
The certificate issuance can take several minutes depending on the CA. Because of that it's also possible to request the certificate but not actually wait for it.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_wait: false
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- certificate
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
principal: HTTP/www.example.com
roles:
- certificate
By default certificates generated by the role will be set for
auto-renewal. To disable that behavior set auto_renew: no
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
auto_renew: no
roles:
- certificate
If your host is enrolled in a FreeIPA server you will also have the option
to use it's CA to issue your certificate. To do that just set ca: ipa
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: ipa
roles:
- certificate
In case you want to use FreeIPA but fallback to self-sign if the host is not enrolled:
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: "{{ 'ipa' if 'ipa' in certificate_available_cas else 'self-sign' }}"
roles:
- certificate
Sometimes you need to execute a command just before a certificate is
renewed and another command just after. In order to do that use
run_before
and run_after
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
run_before: systemctl stop webserver.service
run_after: systemctl start webserver.service
roles:
- certificate
If you are using a certificate for a service, for example httpd, it's likely that you'll need to set the certificate owner and group that will own the certificate. In the following example the owner and group are both set to httpd.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
owner: httpd
group: httpd
roles:
- certificate
Please note that it's also possible to use UID and GID instead of user and group names.