Usage Guide

Requesting a Certificate

Step-by-step guide for ordering certificates using various ACME clients

Ordering the certificate

Make sure you create the DNS record for the domain(s) you are ordering the certificate for.

To order a certificate you will need the credentials you created before. In the examples below, replace the following placeholders with your actual values:

PlaceholderValueWhere to find it
<YOUR-KID>Your EAB Key Identifier (KID)ACME credentials
<YOUR-SECRET>Your EAB HMAC KeyACME credentials
<SELECTED-SERVER>The ACME server URL for your productACME automation page

The server URL follows this format: https://acme.networking4all.com/<PRODUCT> where <PRODUCT> is the type of certificate you are ordering.
For example, to order a DV certificate, select dv resulting in https://acme.networking4all.com/dv as the server URL.
If you are using credentials created within the test environment, use https://test-acme.networking4all.com/<PRODUCT> instead.

Using the NGINX plugin (automatically configures your webserver)

certbot --nginx --eab-kid <YOUR-KID> --eab-hmac-key <YOUR-SECRET> --server <SELECTED-SERVER> -d example.com --issuance-timeout 180

To use a different plugin, like Apache, simply replace nginx with apache.

Other examples

The first time you order a certificate, Certbot will automatically register an account for your device or server on the ACME server.
This means you only need the --eab-kid and --eab-hmac-key parameters for your very first order from a specific server.
You do not need these parameters on future requests from the same server unless you switch to a different ACME server URL (this includes when you change the <PRODUCT>).

Register an account

./acme.sh --server <SELECTED-SERVER> --eab-kid <YOUR-KID> --eab-hmac-key <YOUR-SECRET> --register-account

Order the certificate

./acme.sh --server <SELECTED-SERVER> --issue -d example.com -w /var/www/example.com/

You can add multiple domains by chaining more after the first one like this: -d example.com -d second.example.com -d third.example.com

Install the certificate

For more information on how to install the certificate on your webserver follow the instructions as mentioned here.

Start the order process using the following command

wacs --accepttos --baseuri <SELECTED-SERVER> --eab-key-identifier <YOUR-KID> --eab-key <YOUR-SECRET> --validation none

The --validation none flag is required when using the Networking4all ACME server. Without it, simple-acme may attempt validation methods that are not supported.

Choose one of the scenarios below for an indication of the choices you could make. Note that all the choices made are also available as CLI arguments or can be set through the settings.json

Additional information