# acme_inspect – Send direct requests to an ACME server

New in version 2.8.

- Synopsis
- Requirements
- Parameters
- Notes
- See Also
- Examples
- Return Values
- Status

## Synopsis

- Allows to send direct requests to an ACME server with the ACME protocol, which is supported by CAs such as Let’s Encrypt.
- This module can be used to debug failed certificate request attempts, for example when acme_certificate fails or encounters a problem which you wish to investigate.
- The module can also be used to directly access features of an ACME servers which are not yet supported by the Ansible ACME modules.

## Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

- python >= 2.6
- either openssl or cryptography >= 1.5

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---

account_key_content
string
added in 2.5

Content of the ACME account RSA or Elliptic Curve key.
Mutually exclusive with `account_key_src`.
Required if `account_key_src` is not used.
Warning: the content will be written into a temporary file, which will be deleted by Ansible when the module completes. Since this is an important private key — it can be used to change the account key, or to revoke your certificates without knowing their private keys —, this might not be acceptable.
In case `cryptography` is used, the content is not written into a temporary file. It can still happen that it is written to disk by Ansible in the process of moving the module with its argument to the node where it is executed.

account_key_src
path

Path to a file containing the ACME account RSA or Elliptic Curve key.
RSA keys can be created with `openssl genrsa ...`. Elliptic curve keys can be created with `openssl ecparam -genkey ...`. Any other tool creating private keys in PEM format can be used as well.
Mutually exclusive with `account_key_content`.
Required if `account_key_content` is not used.
aliases: account_key

account_uri string added in 2.7 |  | If specified, assumes that the account URI is as given. If the account key does not match this account, or an account with this URI does not exist, the module fails.

acme_directory
string

Default:
"https://acme-staging.api.letsencrypt.org/directory"

The ACME directory to use. This is the entry point URL to access CA server API.
For safety reasons the default is set to the Let's Encrypt staging server (for the ACME v1 protocol). This will create technically correct, but untrusted certificates.
For Let's Encrypt, all staging endpoints can be found here: https://letsencrypt.org/docs/staging-environment/. For Buypass, all endpoints can be found here: https://community.buypass.com/t/63d4ay/buypass-go-ssl-endpoints
For Let's Encrypt, the production directory URL for ACME v1 is https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory, and the production directory URL for ACME v2 is https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory.
For Buypass, the production directory URL for ACME v2 and v1 is https://api.buypass.com/acme/directory.
Warning: So far, the module has only been tested against Let's Encrypt (staging and production), Buypass (staging and production), and Pebble testing server.

acme_version
integer
added in 2.5

Choices:
- 1 ←
- 2

The ACME version of the endpoint.
Must be 1 for the classic Let's Encrypt and Buypass ACME endpoints, or 2 for standardized ACME v2 endpoints.

content string |  | An encoded JSON object which will be sent as the content if method is `post`. Required when method is `post`, and not allowed otherwise.

fail_on_acme_error
boolean

Choices:
- no
- yes ←

If method is `post` or `get`, make the module fail in case an ACME error is returned.

method
string

Choices:
- get ←
- post
- directory-only

The method to use to access the given URL on the ACME server.
The value `post` executes an authenticated POST request. The content must be specified in the content option.
The value `get` executes an authenticated POST-as-GET request for ACME v2, and a regular GET request for ACME v1.
The value `directory-only` only retrieves the directory, without doing a request.

select_crypto_backend
string
added in 2.7

Choices:
- auto ←
- cryptography
- openssl

Determines which crypto backend to use.
The default choice is `auto`, which tries to use `cryptography` if available, and falls back to `openssl`.
If set to `openssl`, will try to use the `openssl` binary.
If set to `cryptography`, will try to use the cryptography library.

url string |  | The URL to send the request to. Must be specified if method is not `directory-only`.

validate_certs
boolean
added in 2.5

Choices:
- no
- yes ←

Whether calls to the ACME directory will validate TLS certificates.
Warning: Should only ever be set to `no` for testing purposes, for example when testing against a local Pebble server.

## Notes

Note

- The account_uri option must be specified for properly authenticated ACME v2 requests (except a `new-account` request).
- Using the `ansible` tool, acme_inspect can be used to directly execute ACME requests without the need of writing a playbook. For example, the following command retrieves the ACME account with ID 1 from Let’s Encrypt (assuming `/path/to/key` is the correct private account key): `ansible localhost -m acme_inspect -a "account_key_src=/path/to/key acme_directory=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory acme_version=2 account_uri=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/1 method=get url=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/1"`
- If a new enough version of the `cryptography` library is available (see Requirements for details), it will be used instead of the `openssl` binary. This can be explicitly disabled or enabled with the `select_crypto_backend` option. Note that using the `openssl` binary will be slower and less secure, as private key contents always have to be stored on disk (see `account_key_content`).
- Although the defaults are chosen so that the module can be used with the Let’s Encrypt CA, the module can in principle be used with any CA providing an ACME endpoint, such as Buypass Go SSL.

## See Also

See also

Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME)
  The specification of the ACME protocol (RFC 8555).
ACME TLS ALPN Challenge Extension
  The specification of the `tls-alpn-01` challenge (RFC 8737).

## Examples

    - name: Get directory
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        method: directory-only
      register: directory

    - name: Create an account
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        url: "{{ directory.newAccount}}"
        method: post
        content: '{"termsOfServiceAgreed":true}'
      register: account_creation
      # account_creation.headers.location contains the account URI
      # if creation was successful

    - name: Get account information
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        url: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        method: get

    - name: Update account contacts
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        url: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        method: post
        content: '{{ account_info | to_json }}'
      vars:
        account_info:
          # For valid values, see
          # https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8555#section-7.3
          contact:
          - mailto:me@example.com

    - name: Create certificate order
      acme_certificate:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        csr: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
        fullchain_dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-fullchain.crt
        challenge: http-01
      register: certificate_request

    # Assume something went wrong. certificate_request.order_uri contains
    # the order URI.

    - name: Get order information
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        url: "{{ certificate_request.order_uri }}"
        method: get
      register: order

    - name: Get first authz for order
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        url: "{{ order.output_json.authorizations[0] }}"
        method: get
      register: authz

    - name: Get HTTP-01 challenge for authz
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        url: "{{ authz.output_json.challenges | selectattr('type', 'equalto', 'http-01') }}"
        method: get
      register: http01challenge

    - name: Activate HTTP-01 challenge manually
      acme_inspect:
        acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
        acme_version: 2
        account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
        account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
        url: "{{ http01challenge.url }}"
        method: post
        content: '{}'

## Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key | Returned | Description
--- | --- | ---

directory
dictionary

always

The ACME directory's content
Sample:
{ "a85k3x9f91A4": "https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/adding-random-entries-to-the-directory/33417", "keyChange": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/key-change", "meta": { "caaIdentities": [ "letsencrypt.org" ], "termsOfService": "https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf", "website": "https://letsencrypt.org" }, "newAccount": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/new-acct", "newNonce": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/new-nonce", "newOrder": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/new-order", "revokeCert": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/revoke-cert" }

headers
dictionary

always

The request's HTTP headers (with lowercase keys)
Sample:
{ "boulder-requester": "12345", "cache-control": "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store", "connection": "close", "content-length": "904", "content-type": "application/json", "cookies": {}, "cookies_string": "", "date": "Wed, 07 Nov 2018 12:34:56 GMT", "expires": "Wed, 07 Nov 2018 12:44:56 GMT", "link": "<https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf>;rel="terms-of-service"", "msg": "OK (904 bytes)", "pragma": "no-cache", "replay-nonce": "1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGH", "server": "nginx", "status": 200, "strict-transport-security": "max-age=604800", "url": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/46161", "x-frame-options": "DENY" }

output_json dictionary | if output can be parsed as JSON | The output parsed as JSON Sample: [{'id': 12345}, {'key': [{'kty': 'RSA'}, '...']}]
output_text string | always | The raw text output Sample: { "id": 12345, "key": { "kty": "RSA", ...

## Status

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)

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