SSL certificate and domain expiry

Once a day, the Watchman reads each site’s SSL certificate and looks up its domain registration. Both dates show on the site’s Uptime page.

Warnings

• An email and a log entry 14 days before, and again 3 days before, either date.
• While it’s under 14 days, it’s listed under Needs you in your morning report.
• Rules: the trigger An SSL certificate or domain is about to expire fires with each warning.

SSL certificates

Most hosts renew free certificates (Let’s Encrypt) automatically about 30 days before they expire, so a 14-day warning usually means automatic renewal is failing. Check the host’s SSL settings. A paid certificate needs renewing with whoever sold it.

Domains

Domain dates come from the registry’s public RDAP service. Most common endings (.com, .net, .org, .io and many country domains) publish them. If a site shows Registry doesn’t say, its registry doesn’t share expiry dates and you’ll need to track it with the registrar.