Cron renewal - Switched from HTTP-01 to DNS-01 challenge

[jeffshead]

I have a couple of AlmaLinux 9.x systems that were setup with a script. These servers originally used acme.sh with HTTP-01 challenge to obtain/renew the certs.

I want to switch to DNS-01 challenge. My DNS provider has API to automate DNS-01 challenge and I have successfully obtained a cert using DNS-01 challenge. Here's what I've done so far:

• Revoked and removed the original certs.
• Added my auth-id and password to the ~/.acme.sh/dnsapi/dns_cloudns.sh file
• Ran the following commands to obtain two separate certs:
  • acme.sh --issue --dns dns_cloudns -d sub1.example.com
  • acme.sh --issue --dns dns_cloudns -d sub2.example.com

I received both certs without issue. I have the following pre-existing cron job:

2 11 * * * "/root/.acme.sh"/acme.sh --cron --home "/root/.acme.sh" > /dev/null

My question is how do I make sure DNS-01 challenge is used for all future auto cert renewals via cron job? How does acme.sh know to use DNS-01 instead of HTTP-01 challenge?

[Neilpang]

acme.sh  --info  -d sub1.example.com

[jeffshead]

Thank you!

[Sat Jan  4 15:30:15 EST 2025] The domain 'sub1.example.com' seems to already have an ECC cert, let's use it.
DOMAIN_CONF=/root/.acme.sh/sub1.example.com_ecc/sub1.example.com.conf
Le_Domain=sub1.example.com
Le_Alt=no
Le_Webroot=dns_cloudns
Le_PreHook=
Le_PostHook=
Le_RenewHook=
Le_API=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
Le_Keylength=ec-256
Le_OrderFinalize=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/finalize/4785
Le_LinkOrder=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/order/4567/7895
Le_LinkCert=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/cert/3468064
Le_CertCreateTime=1735968060
Le_CertCreateTimeStr=2025-01-04T05:21:00Z
Le_NextRenewTimeStr=2025-03-04T05:21:00Z
Le_NextRenewTime=1741065660

My follow up question would be, "How does acme.sh know to use DNS-01? "
ANSWER: It seems acme.sh creates a config file named account.conf where the DNS-01 credentials are stored.