certbot-systemd-nginx

This is a small systemd unit for automating the Certbot certificate renewal for the nginx web server. It runs monthly and simply executes

certbot renew --standalone

It uses the standalone authenticator, because Certbot nginx support is incomplete. This requires the web server to be stopped for a couple of seconds during each run (monthly, but can be overridden) and a bit more during renewal (once every two months).

Installation

Arch Linux

On Arch Linux you can use the certbot-systemd-nginx AUR package.

Other Linux with systemd

To use this on other Linux distributions that use systemd, you can copy the units to their usual location:

# cp certbot-nginx.{service,timer} /etc/systemd/system/
# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl start certbot-nginx.service # to start manually
# systemctl enable --now certbot-nginx.timer # to use the timer