Blog

Get a free SSL certificate for your website by manually verifying domain ownership with Let’s Encrypt

Important: Manual certificates require manual renewal every 90 days. Automation is better for most live sites. This method is for specific cases (testing, restricted environments, learning).

Step 1: Install Certbot

For Ubuntu/Debian:

You can use this command

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install certbot

For Arch:

Wwe can use certbot via snapd package, which can be installed via pacseek.
After got the snapd, start it and install certbot

sudo systelctl start snapd

sudo snap install --classic certbot

#Prepare the Certbot command

sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

Step 2: Generate the certificate

Open terminal and run this command first:

sudo certbot -d [domain] --manual --preferred-challenges dns certonly

After a short time, there will show a screen require you for update the acme record to your domain DNS:

You will need to go to your domain dns management page for create that record.

After creating the acme record, you can check the result on the toolbox url which provided in terminal.

If the toolbox return the value, back to terminal and press OK. your certs are created.
Now you can use them for place in Nginx config, Kong gateway, ….