How do I transfer a Let's Encrypt certificate from one droplet to another?

May 10, 2017 4.2k views
Let's Encrypt Ubuntu 16.04
Saga
By:
Saga

I’ve followed this guide to install a Let’s Encrypt certificate on the first droplet: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-nginx-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-16-04

I’d like to destroy that droplet and instead move the certificate to a new droplet elsewhere. Do I run certbot again on the new droplet? Or do I just copy over the certificate files? If the latter, then how do I configure auto-renewal?

Thanks!

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1 Answer
hansen May 10, 2017

Hi @Saga
You can do what @mnordhoff recommends - it’s probably the easiest way.
Otherwise you would have to manually copy files from /etc/letsencrypt to the new server.
Just remember that you will get an email alerting you that the old certificate is expiring - you need to ignore those mails, since you are actually using a different certificate on a different server. I think you get two mails around day 80 of the old certificate.

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  • mnordhoff May 10, 2017

    If the new certificate is for the same set of names as the old certificate, Let’s Encrypt won’t send expiration warning emails.

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