Avoid Downtime: When and How to Renew Your AWS SSL Certificates on Time

A secure and uninterrupted web experience is critical to the trust and confidence of your users. When using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host websites and applications, SSL/TLS certificates are indispensable for encrypting traffic and proving your site’s authenticity. However, failing to renew your AWS SSL certificates on time can lead to unexpected downtime, broken user trust, and potential loss of revenue. Understanding when and how to renew your certificates in a timely manner is essential to maintaining your cloud infrastructure’s integrity and performance.

Why SSL Certificate Renewal Matters

SSL/TLS certificates have a defined validity period. Once that period ends, if the certificate hasn’t been renewed and updated, any browser or application relying on that certificate will begin to throw security warnings—or worse, refuse to connect entirely. For businesses, this can translate to:

• Website Inaccessibility: Users may not be able to access your website or services at all.
• Brand Damage: A visibly expired certificate erodes customer trust in your platform’s security.
• Compliance Risks: Many industries require uninterrupted use of valid HTTPS certificates for regulatory compliance.
• SEO Penalties: Search engines prioritize secure websites, and downtime or invalid certificates can affect rankings.

By renewing your SSL certificates on time, you’re ensuring secure connections and eliminating the risk of critical service interruptions.

Understanding AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) simplifies the process of provisioning, managing, and deploying SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services like Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon CloudFront, and API Gateway. ACM allows users to request certificates either:

• Publicly: For domains that you want to access over the internet, validated via DNS or email.
• Privately: For internal domains and services within your AWS environment.

ACM has the advantage of automatically renewing SSL certificates issued by it, provided they were deployed through integrated AWS services. But that doesn’t mean no further action is needed on your part.

When Should You Renew SSL Certificates?

Renewal timing depends on how your certificate was issued and where it is deployed. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Automatically Renewed Certificates

If you’ve issued a certificate using ACM and deployed it with an eligible integrated service (like Elastic Load Balancer), ACM renews the certificate for you, typically starting 60 days before expiration. Still, it’s your responsibility to ensure deployment is successful, since ACM renews but does not automatically apply the new certificate in all contexts.

2. Manually Issued or Imported Certificates

If you’ve imported an SSL certificate into ACM or are using third-party certificates not issued through ACM, renewal is your responsibility. In these cases, plan to renew at least 30 to 45 days before the expiry to allow margin for errors, testing, and DNS propagation (if applicable).

Signs and Tools to Track Expiry Dates

To prevent lapses, it’s critical to monitor expiry timelines across all your certificates, especially in multi-account AWS environments. Here are several methods:

• AWS Console: Visit ACM, sort certificates by expiration date, and regularly check for any nearing expiration.
• AWS CLI: Use commands like aws acm list-certificates in combination with describe-certificate to script reminders.
• AWS CloudWatch: Set up automated alerts using CloudWatch Events or create custom Lambda functions to notify teams before certificates expire.
• Third-party Monitoring Tools: Use dedicated SSL monitoring tools to send proactive alerts about approaching expiration dates.

Proactive visibility into these dates is your first line of defense against unplanned downtime.

Steps to Renew AWS SSL Certificates

For ACM-Issued Certificates (Auto-Renew Enabled)

1. Ensure the domain validation method used (DNS or Email) remains valid and accessible.
2. Monitor renewal activity beginning 60 days prior to expiration. ACM attempts renewal automatically in this window.
3. Verify that your services are actually using the renewed certificate. Some services might need to be restarted or deployed again to pick up the new cert.
4. Check logs and notifications in ACM; if automatic renewal fails, the certificate status will show as “Failed Renewal.”

For Manually Imported Certificates

1. Obtain a new certificate from your Certificate Authority (CA).
2. Prepare the certificate file, certificate chain, and private key.
3. In AWS ACM, choose Import a certificate and upload the new certificate to replace the expiring one.
4. Apply the imported certificate to your services (e.g., Elastic Load Balancer, CloudFront distributions).
5. Test the deployment thoroughly before the old certificate expires.

Validating Domain Ownership

If the domain validation method is via DNS records, make sure those records are still properly configured and have not been deleted or altered. Tokenized DNS entries must still exist or renewal may fail silently.

Best Practices to Ensure Smooth Renewal

As with any important infrastructure component, planning and automation go a long way in reducing risk. Here are recommendations to streamline your certificate lifecycle:

• Use ACM Certificates Whenever Possible: They are easier to manage, renew, and monitor within the AWS ecosystem.
• Avoid Last-Minute Renewals: Begin the renewal process at least 30-45 days before expiry, especially for manual or third-party certificates.
• Automate Alerts: Set up monitoring with CloudWatch, Lambda, or third-party tools to avoid oversight.
• Audit Certificates Regularly: Periodically review all your certificates, their usage, and expiration dates.
• Document Everything: Log certificate issuance, validation methods, and renewal history in your configuration management documents.

Avoiding Downtime During Renewal

Downtime often happens not due to a flawed certificate, but because the updated certificate hasn’t been integrated in time. To avoid service disruption:

• Test new certificates in a staging environment before deploying to production.
• Use blue/green deployment strategies when updating certificates on critical infrastructure.
• Maintain a backup of the current working configuration in case issues arise during renewal.
• Ensure your DevOps or cloud operations team has access to the DNS records used in domain validations so quick fixes are possible if renewals fail.

Conclusion

SSL/TLS certificates are not just a checkbox for web security—they are a cornerstone of user trust and compliance. Failure to renew certificates on time can result in serious short- and long-term consequences. While AWS offers powerful tools like Certificate Manager to simplify this process, staying vigilant and implementing best practices for certificate lifecycle management is your ultimate safeguard.

By consistently monitoring expiration dates, enabling automation wherever possible, and testing renewals thoughtfully, you can effectively avoid downtime and ensure your digital services remain secure, functional, and trusted. Planning ahead is not optional—it’s imperative.