Freenom domain management¶

Freenom is a provider that offers free domain names, which can be managed and secured using various DevOps tools.^[free-domain.md]

Domain Registration and Management¶

Users can register for these free domains using a Google account^[free-domain.md]. Once registered, active management of DNS records is often handled by web servers such as Nginx or Traefik^[free-domain.md].

Automated Renewal¶

Because free domains typically require periodic renewal to remain valid, automation is a common practice. A dedicated tool is available to handle Freenom domain name renewal automatically, ensuring the domains do not expire unexpectedly^[free-domain.md]. This tool can be deployed via Docker, streamlining the maintenance process^[free-domain.md].

Security Implementation¶

Securing traffic on these domains involves the use of [[TLS]] and [[SSL]] certificates.

Certificate Management¶

Administrators can manage SSL certificates manually using files such as certificate.crt, ca_bundle.crt, and private.key^[free-domain.md]. To facilitate server configuration, these files can be merged or converted into different formats.

For instance, a full certificate chain can be created by concatenating the certificate and the CA bundle^[free-domain.md]:

cat certificate.crt ca_bundle.crt > full_chain.crt

Additionally, a PKCS12 format keystore (.pfx) can be generated for use with servers like [[Tomcat]]^[free-domain.md]:

[OpenSSL](<./openssl.md>) pkcs12 -export -out tls.pfx -inkey private.key -in certificate.crt -certfile ca_bundle.crt

Automated Validation¶

For automated certificate provisioning and validation (e.g., using [[Let's Encrypt]]), a specific directory structure must be exposed on the web server^[free-domain.md]. The validation path typically follows the format: http://example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/

[[Docker]]
[[Let's Encrypt]]
[[Nginx]]
Traefik

Sources¶

free-domain.md