How To Find Out When Your SSL Certificate Expires on F5 BIG-IP DNS
Notice: This blog post was originally published on Indeni before its acquisition by BlueCat.
The content reflects the expertise and perspectives of the Indeni team at the time of writing. While some references may be outdated, the insights remain valuable. For the latest updates and solutions, explore the rest of our blog
Key takeawaysThis key takeaway was generated through LLMs crawling the page and coming up with an overview of the content.The article addresses the common operational gap of expired or soon-to-expire SSL certificates on F5 BIG-IP LTM deployments and summarizes practical ways to get advance notifications. It explains the technical environment where SSL termination is common on F5 hardware and outlines options—Enterprise Manager, BIG-IQ, custom scripts (DevCentral/SOL15288), or the indeni tool—to detect certificates nearing expiration, reducing service risk. The outcome is that within about 45 minutes you can identify expiring certificates and other configuration issues, and indeni provides alert text and remediation guidance to replace offending certificates and consult the F5 user guide for certificate management.
What methods does the article recommend to get notified about expiring SSL certificates on F5 BIG-IP LTM devices?
The article recommends four practical approaches: use Enterprise Manager (it has a built-in feature for SSL expiration notifications); use BIG-IQ which can also provide certificate notices; write a custom script by consulting DevCentral and SOL15288; or run indeni, which can be obtained with a limited free license. Each method inspects SSL certificates configured on the F5 device to determine upcoming expirations and validity, allowing administrators to proactively identify certificates that need replacement.
How does indeni detect SSL certificate issues on an F5 BIG-IP DNS/LTM device and what information does its alert include?
indeni retrieves the SSL certificates configured on the F5 BIG-IP DNS device and analyzes them by checking expiration dates and validity properties (for example, whether certificates are self-signed or signed by an internal CA). The alert includes a description such as “Some SSL certificates are about to expire or have expired,” a list of certificates with hostnames and expiration dates (e.g., “www.yoursite.com expires on November 30, 2016”), and manual remediation steps advising replacement of the SSL certificates plus a pointer to the F5 user guide section “Managing SSL Certificates for Local Traffic.”
What operational impact and timeline does the article suggest for discovering expiring certificates using these tools?
The article emphasizes that expired or soon-to-expire certificates are pervasive across F5 LTM deployments and can be overlooked, posing operational risk for SSL termination points. It states that by following the recommended approaches—especially running indeni—you can discover which SSL certificates need refresh within about 45 minutes, and that running such checks periodically (for example, every six months) helps ensure the F5 configuration remains in good shape and reduces the likelihood of service disruption due to expired certificates.
Do you know when the SSL certificate expires on your F5 Load balancers?
Every single deployment of LTM ® we’ve encountered has SSL termination included in it. Think about it – it makes sense, it’s one of the strongest advantages of the F5 hardware.
However, every single deployment we’ve encountered also had SSL certificates configured that have expired or were expiring in the next three months. Apparently, staying on top of your SSL certs isn’t as straightforward as you’d want it to be.
So, we thought we’d put in the effort to summarize in a short post how does one get notified, ahead of time, when SSL certificates expire on their F5 BIG-IP DNS LTM:
- Buy Enterprise Manager – it has a built-in feature for doing this.
- Get BIG-IQ, can be done there, too.
- Write a script – read DevCentral and SOL15288.
- Run indeni – you can get a limited license free and easy by going here. Within 45 minutes you can easily know which SSL certs need refresh, as well as hundreds of other possible issues lurking in your F5 configuration. You can even run it every 6 months or so, to make sure you’re in top shape.
For your information, this is how the alert would look like in indeni:
Description:
Some SSL certificates are about to expire or have expired.
Certificates expired or about to expire:
www.yoursite.com expires on November 30, 2016
Manual Remediation Steps:
Replace the SSL certificates with new ones.
For more information on how to manage certificates, refer to Managing SSL Certificates for Local Traffic in the F5 user guide.
How does this alert work?
indeni retrieves the SSL certificates configured on an F5 BIG-IP DNS device and analyzes them: checking their expiration date, their validity (are they self-signed or signed by an internal CA?), etc.
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