acme-dns-server VS public-roadmap

DNS alias mode:

* https://dan.langille.org/2019/02/01/acme-domain-alias-mode/

* https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/DNS-alias-mo...

* https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/technical-deep-dive-se...

You want the name "internal.example.com". In your external DNS you create a CNAME from "_acme-challenge.internal.example.com" and point it to (e.g.) "internal.example.net" or "internal.dns-auth.example.com"

When you request the certificate you specify the "dns-01" method. The issuer (e.g., LE) will go to the the external DNS server for the look up, see that it is a CNAME and then follow the CNAME/alias, and do the verification at the final hostname.

So your ACME client has to do a DNS (TXT) record update, which can often be done via various APIs, e.g.:

* https://github.com/AnalogJ/lexicon

You can even run your own DNS server locally (in a DMZ?) if your DNS provider does not have an convenient API. There are servers written for this use case:

* https://github.com/joohoi/acme-dns

* https://github.com/joohoi/acme-dns-certbot-joohoi

* https://github.com/pawitp/acme-dns-server

I already had Bind on the machine so it was logical to add the zone there and utilize nsupdate : https://gist.github.com/kronthto/893715f12cc0b1cda9fcfdbd8dc...

But what you are suggesting should work just fine aswell - there should be no need for a persistent service. Of course the service would need to run on port 53, so you actually cannot have another nameserver on that machine already, and also require CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE .

A quick search lead me to this python project that could be an inspiration: https://github.com/pawitp/acme-dns-server

We use Caddy for serving our free dashboards and status pages on your own domain at https://checklyhq.com

It was not super easy to set up. I think the whole config is 20 lines or so, but the docs, naming and functionality of how Caddy actually interfaces with LE was tricky to find out. Basically had to scrape together answers from various GitHub issues etc.

I should write a blog post…

Have you given checklyhq.com a look? Sounds like it could be a great fit. (Disclaimer: I work there).

Have a look at https://checklyhq.com. We do exactly that, API monitoring. You can set up a check that parses your API response and validates a specific field. We also have a free plan. Disclaimer: I’m the CTO.

We're looking forward to how Checkly will make their monitoring solution even more accessible for developers with e.g. versioned code, an integrated Monaco editor with better auto-completion, support for custom NPM modules, or a better debugging experience. We would recommend giving it a try and have not to worry about where to run your status checks or end-to-end tests and benefit from their simplicity. For a more detailed outlook, they provide an official public roadmap on GitHub.