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Setup

  1. Download the latest release or build it yourself (in that case, refer to build.ps1).
  2. Place the binary into the designated folder.
  3. Create the folders data and data/leafcerts.
  4. Running the binary will create the files certmaker.log and config.yaml. Change configuration values according to your needs. At next startup, all the necessary database tables will be created automatically.
  5. Open your favourite browser and navigate to http://localhost:8880 to access the web UI.
  6. Create a new user with admin flag set.

That's about it for initial setup. Make sure all files and folders can be written and read by the user running the binary.

I strongly suggest you create a separate user account for every app / client that will be using your CertMaker instance.

Command line flags

There are a few command line flags you can modify the binary's behaviour with. This can be used with either one or two dashes and with or without equal sign between name and value.

  1. ./certmaker --config="/some/path/to/configfile.yaml" allows you to change the path to the configuration file. Make sure the user has read access. The default value is config.yaml.

  2. ./certmaker --logfile="/other/path/to/certmaker-logfile" changes the path to the CertMaker log file. Make sure the user has write access. The default value is certmaker.log.

  3. ./certmaker --port=1234 With this flag, you can change the port your CertMaker instance will run at. The default port is 8880.

  4. ./certmaker --ui=false With this parameter you can disable the Web UI (headless). Default value is true.

  5. ./certmaker --debug=true Runs the app in debug mode. That means the log formatter will be text-based instead of JSON-based. Also, log entries with level TRACE and higher will be display, instead of INFO and higher. No log entry will be written to the log file, just shown on the console. Default value is false.

Those command line parameters can be combined as necessary.

Setup as a linux service

With a little initial handiwork, you can easily run CertMaker as a linux service. This is an example for Debian-based operating systems.

Place the following file content into the file /etc/systemd/system/certmaker.service:

[Unit]
Description=CertMaker (The Dead-Simple Certificate Authority)
After=network.target
Wants=mysql.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/certmaker/bin/certmaker
WorkingDirectory=/home/certmaker/bin
User=certmaker
Group=certmaker
Restart=always
RestartSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

In this example the system user/group certmaker is running the CertMaker instance from the homedir's subfolder bin. Also, the service will wait for MySQL to be started first. Change that according to your requirements. ExecStart is the exact path to the binary while WorkingDirectory is the exact path to the directory containing the binary.

Afterwards, reload the systemctl daemon, enable and start the new service:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable certmaker.service
$ sudo systemctl start certmaker.service

Your CertMaker instance should now start whenever the server starts, e.g. after reboot.