Certificate Renewal Automation: What to Automate First and What Still Needs Approval

Introduction: What Should You Automate First?

Begin certificate renewal automation with low-risk and repeating tasks. First Automate discovery, expiration alerts, and renewals of standard website certificates. Maintain a human approval process for code signing, private CA, wildcard, and business-critical certificates. This blend prevents interruptions and ensures your team is in control.

The lifespan of certificates is getting shorter and shorter, and manual renewals no longer work. This guide will help you understand what to automate first when it comes to certificate renewals and which certificate renewals require manual approval. You will also find out how to avoid certificate expiration outages. Let’s get the fundamentals right.

What Is Certificate Renewal Automation?

Automated certificate renewal uses software to renew your digital certificates. A digital certificate is an online ID card. It establishes the authenticity of a website, server, or device. As with any ID card, it has an expiry date.

Automated Certificate Renewal in Simple Words

Automated certificate renewal is similar to a service that automatically updates your card before it expires. The software asks the certificate authority (CA) for a new certificate. It then installs the certificate. Last but not least, it checks that everything is functioning. You don’t have to use a calendar or spreadsheet to remind your team.

Where It Fits in Certificate Lifecycle Management

Certificate lifecycle management includes all aspects of a certificate from discovery to retirement. One of the key aspects of that is certificate renewal automation. It takes care of the renewal stage, and your team can focus on other work. 

Why Shorter Certificate Lifespans Need Automation

Shorter certificate lifespans automation is now a basic need. The maximum life of public certificates is set by the CA/Browser Forum. It is now reduced to 200 days. It drops to 100 days in March 2027 and 47 days in March 2029.

• A certificate that required annual renewal will soon need to be renewed eight times a year.
• Every renewal is an opportunity for human error.

That’s too fast to be done by hand. 

What to Automate First in Certificate Renewal

Don’t automate on day one. Begin with the steps that are least risky and have the greatest time savings.

1. Certificate Discovery and Inventory

A certificate cannot be renewed if you are not aware of it. So make a comprehensive list first. We have a guide on how to find every certificate across your enterprise. Then automate the scans to keep the list up to date.

2. Expiry Alerts & Certificate Expiration Management

Then, automate the process for managing certificate expiration. Set alerts at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days. Distribute each alert to a named owner and a backup. This is a safe step because alerts don’t change anything.

3. Standard Public TLS Renewals

Then automate renewals for regular website certificates. They occur frequently and repeat in each step. Use test systems as a starting point. After the first renewals have been successful, move to production.

4. Installation and Deployment

A new certificate is not useful without use by a server. Automate the install step as well. A lot of outages occur because a team renews a certificate, but fails to install it.

5. Post-Renewal Checks

Lastly, automate a fast test. It verifies that the new certificate is up and running and the chain is valid. If the test is not successful, your team is notified.

Which Certificate Renewals Need Manual Approval?

There are some renewals that need a human check. Ask one question: “What could possibly go wrong? Add an approval step if the answer is “a big business problem”.

Certificates that are typically required for approval.

• Code signing certificates: If the key is stolen, attackers can sign fake software.
• Private CA certificates: One error can impact all systems that rely on the CA.
• The person may verify your company information with an organization-validated and extended validation certificate.
• Wildcard certificates: If one certificate expires, many subdomains are affected.
• Critical system certificates: Payment pages, banking apps.
• New domains or changed details: Confirmation is needed as to who asked and why.

A Simple Approval Rule

Apply the following rule: low risk, automate; high risk, approve. Many teams begin with the OK on all things. Then they move low-risk certificates to full automation as trust grows. For an understanding of how trust systems work together, see our guide to how CLM, PKI, and key management fit together.

Certificate Renewal Automation With AppleShine Tech 

This is a time-consuming project to do by yourself. All scans, alerts, renewals, approvals, and reports need to be working together. This is where AppleShine Tech can come in handy.

Our approach to certificate renewal automation enables the safe work to be automated and the risky work to be approved. All certificates, their owners, and expiration dates are displayed in one location.

The benefits you get:

• Low-risk certificates are automatically renewed.
• The process of obtaining approvals for high-risk certificates.
• Notifies you ahead of time when anything is going to expire
• Records made up to audit-ready for all renewals
• Test it out in your system to see how it works.

How to Prevent Certificate Expiration Outages

Rarely do hard problems exist that cause outages. They are from simple misses. Follow these steps.

• Build one inventory. Manage all certificates from a single location.
• Name an owner for each certificate. Inform the owner when people change jobs.
• Set early alerts. Don’t delay until the last week.
• Cert renewal automation is utilized for safe renewals. Apply approvals to the risky ones.
• Test after each one of the renewals. Test the new certificate.
• Check your setup periodically, every quarter. Seal gaps in time.

A Quick Example

Suppose a company has 2000 certificates. A busy admin manually renews them and forgets to renew one on a payment page. A security alert appears, and customers walk away. The system automatically renews that certificate and alerts weeks ahead of time. There is no one to notice, and that is the intent.

Conclusion

You need to renew your certificate in stages for certificate renewal automation to be effective. Firstly, automate discovery, alerts, and standard public renewals. Then, add install and test steps. But retain manual approval of certificates such as code signing, private CA, wildcard and business-critical certificates.

Manual tracking is too risky due to shorter certificate durations. With a clear plan in place, you can minimise certificate expiration outages and ensure that your team stays in control. All these steps are interconnected in strong certificate lifecycle management. Begin small, test frequently, expand from there.

Looking to make renewals easy? Explore our certificate lifecycle management service and see how AppleShine Tech can automate the safe work for you.

FAQs About Certificate Renewal Automation

What should I automate first in certificate renewal?

Start with certificate discovery, expiry alerts, and standard public TLS renewals. These steps carry low risk and save the most time.

Which certificate renewals need manual approval?

Code signing, private CA, wildcard, organization-validated, and critical system certificates often need approval. A mistake with these can cause serious damage.

How does automated certificate renewal prevent outages?

It renews certificates before they expire and installs them on time. As a result, no one has to remember a date.

Why do shorter certificate lifespans need automation?

Public certificates will last only 47 days by 2029. That means about eight renewals per year for each certificate, which is too many to handle by hand.

Is certificate lifecycle management the same as certificate renewal automation?

No. Certificate lifecycle management covers every stage, from discovery to retirement. Renewal automation is one important part of it.