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cert-manager allows you to enable HTTPS on your Coder installation, regardless of whether you're using Let's Encrypt or you have your own certificate authority.

This guide is for Coder v1.21.0 and later, which handle certificates differently from earlier versions of Coder. Ensure that you're reading the docs applicable to your Coder version.

This guide will show you how to install cert-manager and set up your cluster to issue Let's Encrypt certificates for your Coder installation so that you can enable HTTPS on your Coder deployment. It will also show you how to configure your Coder hostname and dev URLs.

We recommend reviewing the official cert-manager documentation if you encounter any issues or if you want info on using a different certificate issuer.

You must have:

A Kubernetes cluster of a supported version with internet connectivity
Installed kubectl
A Cloud DNS account
A GCP Service Account with the dns.admin role

Step 1: Add cert-manager to your Kubernetes cluster

There are two ways to add cert-manager to your Kubernetes cluster.

Option 1: `kubectl apply`

Add cert-manager to your cluster using kubectl apply by running:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.8.0/cert-manager.yaml

Option 2: Helm

Add cert-manager to your cluster using Helm.

First, add the Helm repo:

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io

Then, install cert-manager and create its namespace (check for the latest cert-manager version, since they may change)

helm install \
  cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager \
  --version v1.7.0 \ # update version if necessary
  --create-namespace \
  --set installCRDs=true

You can find additional information in cert-manager's installation docs.

Once you've started the installation process, verify that all the pods are running:

$ kubectl get pods -n cert-manager

NAME                                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
cert-manager-7cd5cdf774-vb2pr              1/1     Running   0          84s
cert-manager-cainjector-6546bf7765-ssxhf   1/1     Running   0          84s
cert-manager-webhook-7f68b65458-zvzn9      1/1     Running   0          84s

Step 2: Get the private key from the service account

You can get the private key from the GCP Service Account using:

gcloud iam service-accounts keys create key.json \
--iam-account <service-account-name>@<project-name>.iam.gserviceaccount.com

The response should look similar to the following:

created key [44...3d] of type [json] as [key.json] for [<service-account-name>@<project-name>.iam.gserviceaccount.com]

Step 3: Configure cluster issuer secret and add it to cert-manager namespace

Next, configure the cluster issuer secret, and add it to cert-manager's namespace:

kubectl -n cert-manager create secret generic \
clouddns-dns01-solver-svc-acct --from-file=./key.json

If successful, you'll see a response similar to:

secret/clouddns-dns01-solver-svc-acct created

Step 4: Create a cluster issuer resource and apply it

Using the text editor of your choice, create a new configuration file called letsencrypt.yaml (you can name it whatever you'd like) that includes your newly created private key:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt
spec:
  acme:
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: gclouddnsissuersecret
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    solvers:
      - dns01:
          cloudDNS:
            # The ID of the GCP project
            project: <project-id>
            # This is the secret used to access the service account
            serviceAccountSecretRef:
              name: clouddns-dns01-solver-svc-acct
              key: key.json

More information on the values in the YAML file above can be found in the dns01 solver configuration documentation.

Apply your configuration changes:

kubectl apply -f letsencrypt.yaml

If successful, you'll see a response similar to:

clusterissuer.cert-manager.io/letsencrypt created

Step 5: Create a certificate

Note: If you are providing an ingress, certificates can be automatically created with an ingress annotation. See the cert-manager docs for details. If you are unsure whether you are using an ingress or not, continue with this step.

In a text editor, create a new file called certificate.yaml and paste the following:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: Certificate
metadata:
  name: coder-certs
  namespace: coder # Your Coder deployment namespace
spec:
  commonName: "*.coder.example.com"
  dnsNames:
    - "coder.example.com"
    - "*.coder.example.com"
  issuerRef:
    kind: ClusterIssuer
    name: letsencrypt
  secretName: coder-certs

Be sure to change coder.example.com to the domain for your Coder deployment. While this example uses a single domain, a separate domain can be created for dev URLs or even omitted if you do not have dev URLs enabled.

Once you're done, deploy the certificates.

kubectl apply -f certificate.yaml

Step 6: Install/upgrade Coder

At this point, you're ready to install Coder. However, to use all of the functionality you set up in this tutorial, use the following command instead:

# be sure to update the `stringValue` placeholder with the
# proper value for your devurlsHostSecretName and hostSecretName

helm upgrade --install coder coder/coder --namespace coder \
  --version=<CODER_VERSION> \
  --set coderd.devurlsHost="*.coder.example.com" \
  --set coderd.tls.devurlsHostSecretName="coder-certs-stringValue" \
  --set coderd.tls.hostSecretName="coder-certs-stringValue" \
  --wait

The cluster-issuer will create the certificates you need, using the values provided in the helm install command for the dev URL and host secret.

There are additional steps to make sure that your hostname and Dev URLs work.

Step 6: Configure DNS resolution

Check the contents of your namespace
```
kubectl get svc -n <your_namespace> -o wide
```
Find the service/coderd line, and copy the external IP value shown.
Return to Google Cloud Platform, navigate to the Cloud DNS Console, and select the Zone that your cluster is in.

Note: You will need to create two A records, one for both the hostname and Dev URLs
Click Add Record Set
Provide your DNS Name

a. If you're configuring the hostname, this value will be a standard domain

b. If you're configuring your dev URLs, this will be a wildcard domain (e.g., *.example.com)
Set the Resource Record Type to A
Copy and paste the external IP address associated with the service/coderd line from your terminal to the IPv4 Address field.
Click Create

At this point, you can return to step 6 of the installation guide to obtain the admin credentials you need to log in.

Troubleshooting

If you are not getting a valid certificate after redeploying, see cert-manager's troubleshooting guide for additional assistance.

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