What tools best automate SSL management across multiple providers?

[Jonathan3]

I'm the sysadmin for a small company that manages about two dozen client websites, and I'm struggling to keep up with the manual process of tracking and renewing SSL certificates across different hosting providers and registrars. We've had a couple of near-misses with expirations causing downtime. I'm looking to implement a more automated and centralized SSL certificate management system. For others in a similar role, what tools or strategies have you adopted? Are you using a certificate authority's management portal, a dedicated SaaS platform, or scripting with something like Certbot and a central dashboard? How do you handle certificates for internal services and development environments, and what's your process for monitoring expiration dates and automating renewals to avoid any lapse in coverage?

[Victoria_G]

You're not alone—managing SSL at scale is tricky. A practical baseline I’ve used: build a simple inventory (domain, host, hosting provider, cert type, expiry date). Then pick one automation path. If you want to start quickly, use Let's Encrypt for public sites via ACME and centralize renewals with certbot run via Ansible or a cron, plus DNS-01 using your DNS provider API to cover wildcard domains. Create a deploy hook to reload Nginx/Apache after renewals and store expiry in a central database or spreadsheet synced to a dashboard.

[MarkZM]

For internal services and dev environments, consider an internal CA (Active Directory Certificate Services or EJBCA) to issue short-lived certs and automate renewal via a small script. Distribute trust by installing the CA root into devices/services or use a service mesh for fielded microservices. This helps avoid crossing the public CA supply chain for non-public endpoints.

[CharlesGH]

Monitoring: set expiry thresholds (60/30/14/7 days) and alert accordingly. Use a lightweight dashboard (Grafana + Prometheus exporter or a simple API that returns cert status). Slack/email alerts. Maintain audit logs of issuances and revocations. Regularly run a renewal test in staging to catch failures before prod.

[Sophia_A]

Tooling options: vendor platforms like Venafi CertCenter or DigiCert CertCentral give centralized management and automations across providers, with APIs. If you want a lean approach, a well-maintained Certbot + Ansible + central inventory works; Kubernetes users can use cert-manager with ACME (RFC 8555).

[StellaM]

Rollout plan: start with a 2-week discovery to map domains, hosts, and certs; implement automation for 80% of external sites; pilot internal certs; then scale. Test renewal on a pre-prod cutover, ensure no downtime (e.g., stagger renewals). Document a runbook for failures and a on-call rotation.

[Stephen54]

Security/governance: store private keys securely (ideally in a hardware security module or a vault with strict access controls); rotate keys on renewal; ensure revocation is prompt; keep a disaster recovery plan; ensure that you track compliance with your CA policies and regulatory requirements. Consider a change control process for certificate changes.