Validate SSL/TLS certificates for Lightsail container services - Amazon Lightsail
PrerequisiteGet the CNAME record values to validate your certificateAdd the CNAME records to your domain's DNS zoneView the status of your certificate

Validate SSL/TLS certificates for Lightsail container services

An Amazon Lightsail SSL/TLS certificate must be validated after it's created, and before you can use it with your Lightsail container service. After your certificate request is submitted, the status of your new certificate is changed to Attempting to validate your certificate. During this time, Lightsail attempts to add the certificate's validation record to the DNS of the domain names that you specified for the certificate. After a while, the status will change to Valid, or Validation timed out.

If automatic validation fails you must verify that you control all the domain names that you specified for the certificate when you created it. You do this by adding canonical name (CNAME) records to the DNS zone of each of the domains specified on the certificate. The records that you need to add are listed in the Validation details section of the certificate.

In this guide, we provide you with the procedure to manually validate your certificate using a Lightsail DNS zone. The procedure to validate your certificate using a different DNS hosting provider, like Domain.com or GoDaddy, might be similar. For more information about Lightsail DNS zones, see DNS.

For more information about SSL/TLS certificates, see SSL/TLS certificates.

Prerequisite

Before you get started, you need to create an SSL/TLS certificate for your container service. For more information, see Create SSL/TLS certificates for your container services.

Get the CNAME record values to validate your certificate

Complete the following procedure to get the CNAME records that you must add to your domains to validate the certificate.

  1. Sign in to the Lightsail console.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose Containers.

  3. Choose the name of the container service for which want to create a certificate.

  4. Choose the Custom domains tab on your container service management page.

  5. Scroll down to the Attached certificates section of the page.

    All of your certificates are listed under the Attached certificates section of the page, including certificates created for other Lightsail resources, and certificates that are pending validation.

  6. Find the certificate that you want to validate, expand Validation details, and make note of the Name and Value of the CNAME records that you must add for each domain listed.

    You must add these records exactly as listed. We recommend that you copy and paste these values into a text file that you can refer to later. For more information, see the following Add the CNAME records to your domain's DNS zone section of this guide.

Add the CNAME records to your domain's DNS zone

Complete the following procedure to add CNAME records to your domain's DNS zone.

  1. In the left navigation pane, choose Domains & DNS.

  2. Under the DNS zones section of the page, choose the domain name to which you want to add the CNAME records to validate your certificate.

  3. Choose the DNS records tab.

  4. Choose Add record in the DNS records management page.

  5. Choose CNAME in the Record type drop-down.

  6. In the Record name text box, enter the Name value of the CNAME record that you got from your certificate.

    The Lightsail console pre-populates the apex portion of your domain. For example, if you want to add the www.example.com subdomain, then you only have to enter www into the text box, and Lightsail adds the .example.com portion for you when you save the record.

  7. In the Route traffic to text box, enter the Value portion of the CNAME record that you got from your certificate.

  8. Confirm that the values you entered are exactly as they were listed on the certificate that you want to validate.

  9. Choose the save icon to save the record to your DNS zone.

    Repeat these steps to add additional CNAME records for domains on your certificate that need to be validated. Allow time for changes to propagate through the internet's DNS. After a few minutes, you should see if the status of your certificate has changed to Valid. For more information, see the following View the status of your certificate section of this guide.

View the status of your certificate

Complete the following procedure to view the status of your SSL/TLS certificate.

  1. In the left navigation pane, choose Containers.

  2. Choose the name of the container service for which you want to view a certificate's status.

  3. Choose the Custom domains tab on your container service management page.

  4. Scroll down to the Attached certificates section of the page.

    All of your certificates are listed under the Attached certificates section of the page, including certificates with Pending validation and Valid statuses.

    Note

    If you left the Custom domains page open while validating your certificates, you might have to refresh to see the updated status of your certificates.

    A Valid status confirms that you successfully validated your certificate with the CNAME records that you added to your domains. Choose Details to view your certificate's important dates, encryption details, identification, and validation records. Your certificates are valid for 13 months from the date on which you validated them, after which time Lightsail attempts to automatically re-validate them. Don't delete the CNAME records that you added to your domain because they are required when your certificate is re-validated on the Valid until date listed.

    After you validate your SSL/TLS certificate, you should enable custom domains for your container service to use the domain names of your certificate on your service. For more information, see Enable and manage custom domains for your container services.