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shankar0123
57b539c378
Closes acquisition-diligence Bundle 12 — Observability, DR,
Operations Receipts, And Performance Proof. Source IDs: D5, D6, D8,
T9, finding 7, OPS-H1, OPS-M1, OPS-M2, LOW-7.
Two new operator-facing references; both non-audit-framed per the
Bundle 5 doc-placement policy.
docs/operator/observability.md — single canonical statement of what
certctl emits, what it doesn't, and what survives a restart:
- Metrics surface: both /api/v1/metrics (JSON) and
/api/v1/metrics/prometheus (text exposition v0.0.4); inventory of
certctl_certificate_* gauges + certctl_issuance_duration_seconds
per-issuer-type histogram + certctl_uptime_seconds.
- Prometheus library vs hand-rolled exposition: explicit scope
statement — hand-rolled fmt.Fprintf is intentional for v2.x given
the shallow metric surface; client_golang migration tracked as
v3 item (closes OPS-M1).
- Tracing: explicit deferral — no OTel SDK setup, OTel packages
are indirect-only in go.mod, no spans, no OTLP exporter; tracked
as v3 item; in the meantime structured logs carry request_id and
certctl_issuance_duration_seconds carries the per-issuer latency
signal (closes OPS-M2).
- Logging: structured JSON via log/slog; CERTCTL_LOG_LEVEL control;
no key material / bearer tokens / session cookies in log lines.
- Rate-limit semantics under restarts + replicas: per-process,
in-memory, reset-on-restart, NOT shared across replicas; full
inventory of the 5 limiter call sites (break-glass login,
SCEP/Intune per-device, EST per-principal CSR, EST HTTP-Basic
source-IP, ACME per-account); multi-replica + sticky-session
implications; database-backed sliding window deferred to v3
(closes D8).
- Performance harness scope: cross-references the explicit
'What it explicitly does NOT measure' list in
deploy/test/loadtest/README.md (closes LOW-7 + finding 7).
docs/operator/runbooks/postgres-backup.md — operator-runnable
backup procedure:
- Inventory of what to back up (DB + operator-managed file
material that lives outside the DB: CA keys, RA keys, OCSP
responder keys, trust bundles).
- Logical backup recipe with docker-compose + Kubernetes variants,
integrity verification step, off-host storage step.
- Physical / PITR recipe pointing at pgbackrest / wal-g
(certctl ships nothing here — standard PostgreSQL DBA work).
- Three sample automation paths (in-cluster Postgres → S3 CronJob,
managed Postgres PITR, self-hosted VM systemd timer + restic).
- Quarterly restore-dry-run procedure.
- Helm CronJob template deliberately not shipped — three
documented reasons (deployment topology / secret-management
integration / off-host storage all vary by operator) plus
roadmap entry for shipping a starter template when a real
operator asks for one (closes D6 + OPS-H1).
Both new docs wired into docs/README.md Operator + Runbooks tables.
D5 (ServiceMonitor) and T9 (canonical k6 load-test) were already
shipped in Bundle 3 (deploy/helm/certctl/templates/servicemonitor.yaml)
and in deploy/test/loadtest/ + .github/workflows/loadtest.yml
respectively; this bundle doesn't touch them — it just records the
closure in the audit HTML.
Verified:
bash scripts/ci-guards/G-3-env-docs-drift.sh # PASS
bash scripts/ci-guards/doc-rot-detector.sh # PASS
All 35 scripts/ci-guards/*.sh green.
certctl Documentation
Last reviewed: 2026-05-12
The full docs index, organized by audience. Pick the section that matches what you need to do; each link below opens a focused doc rather than a wall of text.
For the elevator pitch and quickstart commands, see the repo README.md at the root. For the marketing site, see certctl.io.
Getting Started
You're new to certctl, just cloned the repo, or want to understand what it does before installing.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Concepts | TLS certificates explained for beginners — CAs, ACME, EST, private keys, the full glossary |
| Quickstart | Five-minute setup with Docker Compose, dashboard tour, API tour |
| Examples | Five turnkey scenarios — ACME+NGINX, wildcard DNS-01, private CA+Traefik, step-ca+HAProxy, multi-issuer |
| Advanced demo | End-to-end certificate lifecycle with technical depth at each step |
| Why certctl | Positioning vs ACME clients, agent-based SaaS, enterprise platforms; when to look elsewhere |
Reference
You're operating certctl in production or building integrations and need authoritative technical detail.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Architecture | System design, data flow, security model, deployment topologies |
| Profiles | CertificateProfile policy object — issuer wiring, EKUs, RequiresApproval gate (with profile-edit closure) |
| API | OpenAPI 3.1 spec, integration patterns, client SDK generation |
| CLI | certctl-cli command reference and CI/CD integration patterns |
| Configuration | CERTCTL_* environment variable reference (scheduler, rate limits, deploy verify, audit, agent) |
| MCP server | Model Context Protocol integration for AI assistants |
| Release verification | Cosign / SLSA / SBOM verification procedure |
| Intermediate CA hierarchy | Multi-level CA tree management — RFC 5280 §3.2/§4.2.1.9/§4.2.1.10 enforcement |
| Auth standards implemented | RFC + CWE evidence for the API-key + RBAC + OIDC + sessions + break-glass surface (NOT a compliance-mapping doc) |
| Deployment model | Atomic write, post-deploy verify, rollback semantics across all targets |
| Vendor matrix | Tested vendor versions per target connector |
Connectors
The connector index is the canonical catalog (interfaces, registry, scanners, plus an inline reference per built-in). Per-connector deep-dive siblings cover operator-grade material — vendor edges, troubleshooting, rotation playbooks, when-to-use vs alternatives.
Issuers (13 deep-dives): ACME · ADCS · AWS ACM Private CA · DigiCert · EJBCA / Keyfactor · Entrust · GlobalSign Atlas HVCA · Google CAS · Local CA · OpenSSL / Custom CA · Sectigo SCM · step-ca / Smallstep · Vault PKI
Targets (15 deep-dives): Apache · AWS Certificate Manager · Azure Key Vault · Caddy · Envoy · F5 BIG-IP · HAProxy · IIS · Java Keystore · Kubernetes Secrets · NGINX · Postfix / Dovecot · SSH (agentless) · Traefik · Windows Certificate Store
Protocols
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| ACME server | Run certctl as an RFC 8555 + RFC 9773 ARI ACME server |
| ACME server threat model | Security posture for the ACME server endpoint |
| SCEP server | RFC 8894 native SCEP server — RA cert config, multi-profile dispatch, must-staple, mTLS sibling route |
| SCEP for Microsoft Intune | Intune-specific deployment guide — NDES replacement playbook |
| EST server | RFC 7030 EST server — 802.1X / Wi-Fi enrollment, IoT bootstrap, channel binding |
| CRL & OCSP | RFC 5280 CRL + RFC 6960 OCSP responder for relying parties |
| Async CA polling | Bounded polling for async-CA issuer connectors |
Operator
You're running certctl in production and need operational guidance.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Security posture | Auth, rate limits, encryption at rest, key rotation, RBAC + OIDC + sessions + break-glass, bootstrap |
| Secret custody | Where private keys live; FileDriver vs HSM/KMS; encryption wire format; env-seeded vs DB-seeded plaintext policy |
| Observability | Metrics surface, Prometheus exposition vs client_golang, tracing scope, log structure, rate-limit semantics across restarts/replicas |
| RBAC operator reference | Roles, permissions, scopes, scope-down + day-0 bootstrap |
| Auth threat model | API-key + RBAC + OIDC + sessions + break-glass — token forgery, session hijacking, IdP compromise, role-grant abuse, bootstrap-token leak, audit-mutation |
| OIDC / SSO runbooks | Per-IdP setup guides — Keycloak, Authentik, Okta, Auth0, Entra ID, Google Workspace |
| Control plane TLS | Self-signed bootstrap, operator-supplied Secret, cert-manager Certificate CR |
| Database TLS | PostgreSQL transport encryption |
| Approval workflow | Two-person integrity gate for high-stakes issuance + profile-edit closure |
| Helm deployment | Kubernetes installation via the bundled chart |
| Performance baselines | Operator-runnable benchmarks for regression spot checks |
| Auth benchmarks | Session + OIDC validation p99 targets and measured baselines |
| Legacy clients (TLS 1.2) | Reverse-proxy runbook for embedded EST/SCEP clients on TLS 1.2 |
Runbooks
| Runbook | When |
|---|---|
| Cloud targets | AWS ACM + Azure Key Vault deployment, debugging, rollback |
| Expiry alerts | Per-policy multi-channel routing matrix, severity tiers |
| Disaster recovery | CRL cache, OCSP responder cert, CA private-key rotation, Postgres restore |
| Config-encryption upgrade | Force v1/v2 → v3 re-seal across the database; passphrase rotation procedure |
| PostgreSQL backup | Operator-run backup recipe (docker-compose + Kubernetes); recommended cadence; quarterly DR dry-run |
Migration
You're moving from another cert-management tool to certctl, or running both in parallel.
| From | Doc |
|---|---|
| Certbot | migration/from-certbot.md |
| acme.sh | migration/from-acmesh.md |
| cert-manager (coexistence, not replacement) | migration/cert-manager-coexistence.md |
| Caddy ACME (point Caddy at certctl) | migration/acme-from-caddy.md |
| cert-manager ACME (point cert-manager at certctl) | migration/acme-from-cert-manager.md |
| Traefik ACME (point Traefik at certctl) | migration/acme-from-traefik.md |
| API keys → RBAC (v2.0.x → v2.1.0) | migration/api-keys-to-rbac.md — AUDIT YOUR API KEYS post-upgrade |
| Enable OIDC SSO | migration/oidc-enable.md — step-by-step OIDC onboarding for an existing API-key + RBAC deployment |
Contributor
You're contributing to certctl, running tests locally, or trying to understand the CI pipeline.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Testing strategy | What we test and why; per-PR fast gates vs daily deep-scan |
| Test environment | Local environment with real CAs (Pebble, step-ca, etc.) |
| QA prerequisites | Before running QA: stack boot, demo data baseline, env vars |
| QA test suite | qa_test.go reference for release QA |
| GUI QA checklist | Manual GUI verification pass for release |
| Release sign-off | Release-day checklist — code state, automated gates, manual QA, artefact verification |
| CI pipeline | CI shape, regression guards, adding new checks |
| CI guards | Per-class CI guards (code-shape, contract-parity, build/dep, operational); how to add one |
Archive
Historical docs preserved for reference. Most operators don't need these.
| Doc | Why archived |
|---|---|
| Upgrade to TLS (v2.2) | Pre-v2.2 HTTPS-everywhere upgrade procedure |
| Upgrade past v2 JWT removal | G-1 milestone JWT auth removal procedure |
Reading order by role
First-time operator: Concepts → Quickstart → Examples. About 90 minutes end to end.
Production operator: Architecture → Security posture → Control plane TLS → Disaster recovery runbook. About 4 hours end to end.
PKI engineer: ACME server → SCEP server → EST server → Intermediate CA hierarchy. About 6 hours end to end.
Contributor: Architecture → Testing strategy → Test environment → CI pipeline. About 3 hours end to end.