Files
nixos-servers/docs/plans/cert-monitoring.md
Torjus Håkestad 21db7e9573 acme: migrate from step-ca to OpenBao PKI
Switch all ACME certificate issuance from step-ca (ca.home.2rjus.net)
to OpenBao PKI (vault.home.2rjus.net:8200/v1/pki_int/acme/directory).

- Update default ACME server in system/acme.nix
- Update Caddy acme_ca in http-proxy and nix-cache services
- Remove labmon service from monitoring01 (step-ca monitoring)
- Remove labmon scrape target and certificate_rules alerts
- Remove alloy.nix (only used for labmon profiling)
- Add docs/plans/cert-monitoring.md for future cert monitoring needs

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-02-07 18:20:10 +01:00

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3.1 KiB
Markdown

# Certificate Monitoring Plan
## Summary
This document describes the removal of labmon certificate monitoring and outlines future needs for certificate monitoring in the homelab.
## What Was Removed
### labmon Service
The `labmon` service was a custom Go application that provided:
1. **StepMonitor**: Monitoring for step-ca (Smallstep CA) certificate provisioning and health
2. **TLSConnectionMonitor**: Periodic TLS connection checks to verify certificate validity and expiration
The service exposed Prometheus metrics at `:9969` including:
- `labmon_tlsconmon_certificate_seconds_left` - Time until certificate expiration
- `labmon_tlsconmon_certificate_check_error` - Whether the TLS check failed
- `labmon_stepmon_certificate_seconds_left` - Step-CA internal certificate expiration
### Affected Files
- `hosts/monitoring01/configuration.nix` - Removed labmon configuration block
- `services/monitoring/prometheus.nix` - Removed labmon scrape target
- `services/monitoring/rules.yml` - Removed `certificate_rules` alert group
- `services/monitoring/alloy.nix` - Deleted (was only used for labmon profiling)
- `services/monitoring/default.nix` - Removed alloy.nix import
### Removed Alerts
- `certificate_expiring_soon` - Warned when any monitored TLS cert had < 24h validity
- `step_ca_serving_cert_expiring` - Critical alert for step-ca's own serving certificate
- `certificate_check_error` - Warned when TLS connection check failed
- `step_ca_certificate_expiring` - Critical alert for step-ca issued certificates
## Why It Was Removed
1. **step-ca decommissioned**: The primary monitoring target (step-ca) is no longer in use
2. **Outdated codebase**: labmon was a custom tool that required maintenance
3. **Limited value**: With ACME auto-renewal, certificates should renew automatically
## Current State
ACME certificates are now issued by OpenBao PKI at `vault.home.2rjus.net:8200`. The ACME protocol handles automatic renewal, and certificates are typically renewed well before expiration.
## Future Needs
While ACME handles renewal automatically, we should consider monitoring for:
1. **ACME renewal failures**: Alert when a certificate fails to renew
- Could monitor ACME client logs (via Loki queries)
- Could check certificate file modification times
2. **Certificate expiration as backup**: Even with auto-renewal, a last-resort alert for certificates approaching expiration would catch renewal failures
3. **Certificate transparency**: Monitor for unexpected certificate issuance
### Potential Solutions
1. **Prometheus blackbox_exporter**: Can probe TLS endpoints and export certificate expiration metrics
- `probe_ssl_earliest_cert_expiry` metric
- Already a standard tool, well-maintained
2. **Custom Loki alerting**: Query ACME service logs for renewal failures
- Works with existing infrastructure
- No additional services needed
3. **Node-exporter textfile collector**: Script that checks local certificate files and writes expiration metrics
## Status
**Not yet implemented.** This document serves as a placeholder for future work on certificate monitoring.