Thank you for your interest in our beta program! We're excited to let you know that your domains (below) have been whitelisted, and you can now utilize an ACME client to obtain a certificate for them.
Quick Start
To use Let's Encrypt's official client to obtain your real certificates, you will need to provide the production API URL on the command line:
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
When running the Python client (installation directions [1]), be sure to specify the --server argument as shown below:
git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt
cd letsencrypt
./letsencrypt-auto --server \
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory --help
How to use the client
The Let's Encrypt client supports a number of different "plugins" that can be used to obtain and/or install certificates. A few examples of the options are included below.
If you're running Apache on a recent Debian-based OS, you can try the Apache plugin, which automates both obtaining and installing certs:
./letsencrypt-auto --apache --server https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory --agree-dev-preview
To obtain a cert using a "standalone" webserver (you may need to temporarily stop your exising webserver) for example.com and www.example.com:
./letsencrypt-auto certonly -a standalone \
-d example.com -d www.example.com \
--server https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory --agree-dev-preview
To obtain a cert using the "webroot" plugin, which can work with the webroot of any webserver software:
./letsencrypt-auto certonly -a webroot --webroot-path /var/www/example \
-d example.com -d www.example.com \
-server https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory --agree-dev-preview
Note: Currently the webroot plugin can only obtain certs for several domains simultaneously if they share a webroot.
To receive instructions for the (fairly complex) process of obtaining a cert from Let's Encrypt by manually providing proof you control a domain:
./letsencrypt-auto certonly -a manual -d example.com \
--server https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory --agree-dev-preview
If you are using a different ACME client, be sure to configure it to use the production URL in order to get valid certificates. Many clients will default to the staging URL.
Help and Known Issues
You can get help with the client and Let's Encrypt at:
https://community.letsencrypt.org/
Known issues with the Python client can be tracked here:
https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt/issues
Please search thoroughly for existing issues before filing a new report!
Renewals and Lifetimes
Certificates from Let's Encrypt are valid for 90 days. We recommend renewing them every 60 days to provide a nice margin of error. As a beta participant, you should be prepared to manually renew your certificates at that time. As we get closer to General Availability, we hope to have automatic renewal tested and working on more platforms, but for now, please play it safe and keep track.
Rate Limiting
During this beta test we have very tight rate-limiting in place. We plan to loosen these limits as the beta proceeds.
There are two rate limits in play: Registrations/IP address, and Certificates/Domain.
Registrations/IP address limits the number of registrations you can make in a given day; currently 10. This means you should avoid deleting the /etc/letsencrypt/accounts folder, or you may not be able to re-register.
Certificates/Domain you could run into through repeated re-issuance. This limit measures certificates issued for a given combination of Top Level Domain + Domain. This means if you issue certificates for the following domains, at the end you would have what we consider 4 certificates for the domain example.com.
www.example.com example.com www.example.com webmail.example.com ldap.example.com example.com www.example.com
The limit on Certificates/Domain has a window of 60 days, to give 30 days for renewals. We know it's restrictive at present; thank you for your patience in helping us ensure Let's Encrypt is ready for the whole world. Certificate Transparency
Part of our transparency mission includes publicly disclosing the certificates we issue via Certificate Transparency. Your email address is not publicly disclosed.
Helpful Information
Let's Encrypt maintainence events are posted on https://letsencrypt.status.io/ and Twitter (@letsencrypt_ops). If you need help, both the Let's Encrypt community at https://community.letsencrypt.org/ and #letsencrypt on irc.freenode.org are excellent sources of assistance.