Automatically manage Certificates in VKS with Nginx Ingress Controller, Cert-Manager, and Let's Encr

Necessary conditions

• You have initialized the Cluster on the VKS system according to the instructions here and the GreenNode LoadBalancer Controller has been installed on your cluster .

• Next, make sure you have a domain registered and in use.

• Finally, you need an email address to perform the Certificate management test.

• Next, you need to install nginx-ingress-controller with the command:

helm install nginx-ingress-controller oci://ghcr.io/nginxinc/charts/nginx-ingress --namespace kube-system

---

Install Cert-Manager

Cert-Manager is responsible for automatically issuing and renewing certificates from Let's Encrypt.

• Use Helm to install Cert-Manager via command:

helm install \
  cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager \
  --create-namespace \
  --version v1.16.2 \
  --set crds.enabled=true

---

Steps to follow

Deploy sample app

Let's deploy a sample app, for example:

kubectl create deployment echo-server --image=mccutchen/go-httpbin
kubectl expose deployment echo-server --name=clusterip --port=80 --target-port=8080 --type=ClusterIP

Issuer Configuration

Issuer is the component that helps Cert-Manager communicate with Let's Encrypt to issue certificates.

Testing on STAGING environment

1. Create file letsencrypt-issuer.yaml:

   apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
   kind: Issuer
   metadata:
     name: letsencrypt-staging
   spec:
     acme:
       server: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
       email: ______________________ # Change to your email
       privateKeySecretRef:
         name: letsencrypt-staging
       solvers:
         - http01:
             ingress:
               ingressClassName: nginx

2. Create Issuer on VKS cluster via command:

   kubectl apply -f letsencrypt-issuer.yaml

3. Check Issuer via command:

   kubectl describe issuer letsencrypt-staging

4. The results returned are as follows:

   Status:
     Acme:
       Uri:  https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/...
     Conditions:
       Last Transition Time:  ...
       Message:               The ACME account was registered with the ACME server
       Reason:                ACMEAccountRegistered
       Status:                True
       Type:                  Ready

5. Continue to deploy ingress, change your domain in the yaml file below:

   apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: Ingress
   metadata:
     name: go-httpbin
     annotations:
       cert-manager.io/issuer: "letsencrypt-staging"
       acme.cert-manager.io/http01-edit-in-place: "true"
   spec:
     ingressClassName: nginx
     tls:
     - hosts:
       - ______________________ # Change to your domain
       secretName: quickstart-example-tls
     rules:
     - host: ______________________ # Change to your domain
       http:
         paths:
         - path: /
           pathType: Prefix
           backend:
             service:
               name: clusterip
               port:
                 number: 80

6. Check certificate via command:

   kubectl get certificate
   
   NAME                     READY   SECRET                   AGE
   quickstart-example-tls   True    quickstart-example-tls   16m # Ready should be True

7. Check certificate details:

   kubectl describe certificate quickstart-example-tls
   
   Name:         quickstart-example-tls
   Namespace:    default
   Labels:       <none>
   Annotations:  <none>
   API Version:  cert-manager.io/v1
   Kind:         Certificate
   Metadata:
     Cluster Name:
     Creation Timestamp:  2018-11-17T17:58:37Z
     Generation:          0
     Owner References:
       API Version:           networking.k8s.io/v1
       Block Owner Deletion:  true
       Controller:            true
       Kind:                  Ingress
       Name:                  kuard
       UID:                   a3e9f935-ea87-11e8-82f8-42010a8a00b5
     Resource Version:        9295
     Self Link:               /apis/cert-manager.io/v1/namespaces/default/certificates/quickstart-example-tls
     UID:                     68d43400-ea92-11e8-82f8-42010a8a00b5
   Spec:
     Dns Names:
       www.example.com
     Issuer Ref:
       Kind:       Issuer
       Name:       letsencrypt-staging
     Secret Name:  quickstart-example-tls
   Status:
     Acme:
       Order:
         URL:  https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/order/...
     Conditions:
       Last Transition Time:  2018-11-17T18:05:57Z
       Message:               Certificate issued successfully
       Reason:                CertIssued
       Status:                True
       Type:                  Ready
   Events:
     Type     Reason          Age                From          Message
     ----     ------          ----               ----          -------
     Normal   CreateOrder     9m                 cert-manager  Created new ACME order, attempting validation...
     Normal   DomainVerified  8m                 cert-manager  Domain "www.example.com" verified with "http-01" validation
     Normal   IssueCert       8m                 cert-manager  Issuing certificate...
     Normal   CertObtained    7m                 cert-manager  Obtained certificate from ACME server
     Normal   CertIssued      7m                 cert-manager  Certificate issued Successfully

8. Check connection to domain via command:

   curl -kivL -H 'Host: ______DOMAIN______' 'http://_____IP_____'

9. You can also delete test resources via the command:

   kubectl delete ingress go-httpbin
   kubectl delete issuer letsencrypt-staging
   kubectl delete secret quickstart-example-tls
   kubectl delete secret letsencrypt-staging

Execute on PRODUCTION environment

1. Create file letsencrypt-issuer.yaml:

   apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
   kind: Issuer
   metadata:
     name: letsencrypt-prod
   spec:
     acme:
       server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
       email: ______________________ # Change to your email
       privateKeySecretRef:
         name: letsencrypt-prod
       solvers:
         - http01:
             ingress:
               ingressClassName: nginx

2. Create Issuer on VKS cluster via command:

   kubectl apply -f letsencrypt-issuer.yaml

3. Check Issuer via command:

   kubectl describe issuer letsencrypt-prod

4. Continue to deploy ingress, change your domain in the yaml file below:

   apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: Ingress
   metadata:
     name: go-httpbin
     annotations:
       cert-manager.io/issuer: "letsencrypt-prod"
       acme.cert-manager.io/http01-edit-in-place: "true"
   spec:
     ingressClassName: nginx
     tls:
     - hosts:
       - ______________________ # Change to your domain
       secretName: quickstart-example-tls
     rules:
     - host: ______________________ # Change to your domain
       http:
         paths:
         - path: /
           pathType: Prefix
           backend:
             service:
               name: clusterip
               port:
                 number: 80