Some advice please. I’ve not installed a certificate yet but just wanted to check before I do:
I want to install a certificate on a development server, using certbot, for a website that is soon to go live, for testing. It is currently using a temporary domain name and when it’s ready to launch I am going to point the live domain name at the server. How straightforward is it to change the cert to reflect the new domain name? Installation seems straightforward enough, but how about revision or uninstalling / reinstalling?
After you update your DNS records and point your live domain to the server, you can use certbot to issue a new certificate with that domain name. You don’t need to revoke or even delete the development certificate from your host. Once issued, you can update your webserver’s configuration to use the new cert.
If you might delete and rebuild the development host many times over, consider making a backup of your /etc/letsencrypt folder so you don’t run into any rate limits trying to generate a new cert each build.
Additionally, consider using the staging server with --dry-run flag before issuing your new cert to make sure you have the live domain correctly configured.