Do you want to have FREE SSL Certificates for your Azure WebApps and Azure Functions, renew them automatically and manage them hassle-free?

Keep reading then...

Intro

Today I want to talk to you about a project of mine, which is completely Open Source and free to use, that allows you to create free SSL Certificates (thanks to Let's Encrypt), install it on your Azure WebApp or Azure Function, and automatically renew them before their expiration.

SSL Certificates are very important, they allow you (among other things) to enable HTTPS on your websites, web applications and serverless functions.

Welcome Azure WebApp SSL Manager

The project name is Azure WebApp SSL Manager, and it's an Azure Function that acquires and manages free SSL certificates for applications hosted on Azure Web Apps and Azure Function Apps.

It is fully Open Source, and hosted on GitHub:

You can use it to acquire FREE certificates for any domain you own, including wildcards. Those certificate are completely trusted since they are generated using the Let's Encrypt Certification Authority.

Azure WebApp SSL Manager is also listed on the official Let'S Encrypt website as the first client for Azure (take a look here)

Why use your project instead of Let's Encrypt directly?

Good question. Azure WebApp SSL Manager makes it super easy and automatic to create, renew and manage all the certificates.

Without Azure WebApp SSL Manager

If you use Let's Encrypt directly, instead, you would need to:

• Manually generate the certificate with a multi-step flow
• Save the account key somewhere
• Convert the certificate file in something usable by your service
• Remember to renew your certificates every 3 months
• Re-upload the certificate file
• Replace the old certificate with the new one
• Repeat this for every and each certificate!

And what happens if you forget to renew on time? Or you are away? Or if you lose the account key?

Why going through all those problems when you can have everything automatically done?

WITH Azure WebApp SSL Manager

• Deploy the Azure Function (can be done automatically as well from the GitHub repo!)
• Add the list of domains you need the certificate for to the configuration file
• Forget about everything and Azure WebApp SSL Manager will do all the work for you

Give Azure WebApp SSL Manager a try, check out the GitHub repo now!

How it works - some details

The main Tasks performed are:

• Order/Renewal of SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt free trusted CA
• Validation of the order using Azure DNS TXT record
• Download of the certificates and save them on Azure Blob Storage
• Installation of the certificates on Azure App Service Web App or Function App
• Association of the certificates to the Web App or Function App hostname bindings

Let's talk technical

The project is written in .NET Core 3.1 (Porting to .NET 5 is in progress and pending full support by Azure Functions) and can be hosted on either Azure Functions (Windows) or Azure Functions (Linux).

The deployment can be done:

• Manually, downloading the source files and building/publishing it
• Automatically, via ARM, using the PowerShell script provided
• Automatically, via ARM, using the Azure CLI with the bash script provided
• Automatically, via ARM, using the Azure CLI with the cmd script provided
• Automatically, via ARM, using the Wizard provided

Conclusion

Check out the project's GitHub repo, try it out and let me know what you think!

Remember to star the repo and follow me on GitHub as well.