Managing SSL certificates for servers hosting dozens or hundreds of domains requires automation. Certbot automates the Let's Encrypt certificate lifecycle, from domain validation through renewal, eliminating manual certificate management entirely.
Multi-Domain Certificate Automation
The Certbot Apache and Nginx plugins automatically configure virtual hosts with certificates. For servers with many domains, use the certonly command with webroot or DNS validation to obtain certificates without modifying server configuration directly.
Wildcard certificates cover all subdomains under a domain, reducing the total number of certificates to manage. DNS-01 challenge validation is required for wildcards, which can be automated with Certbot DNS plugins for providers like Cloudflare, Route 53, and DigitalOcean.
Set up renewal hooks to reload your web server after successful renewal. Certbot's built-in timer or a cron job running certbot renew twice daily ensures certificates are refreshed well before their 90-day expiration, with renewal attempts starting at 60 days remaining.