So you might remember me posting about using the Let’s Encrypt site extension for Azure App Services, called Azure Let’s Encrypt, created by SJKP.

This has quite well for over a year now and even works for Function Apps.

However, last month I got notified my SSL certificate was expired on one of my sites. Strange, as an automated job should just handle this for me. I thought the job probably didn’t execute because of some glitch in the matrix. Therefore I logged in manually, started the site extension wizard again and was stuck on this screen.

The reason I was stuck was because the ClientId and ClientSecret didn’t work anymore. As these settings hadn’t changed since I started using this extension I found it quite strange.

Apparently, the Server Principal, which I had created last year, somehow had changed and I didn’t know how to change it back. Lucky for me, managing the AAD isn’t very hard to do nowadays. With a bit of trial and error I was able to create a new SNP and use these details on the Let’s Encrypt site extension.

Creating a new application in AAD

First thing you need to do is add a new Appliction to your AAD. Be sure to pick the option App registrations over here and press the New application registration.

Using certificates to secure, sign and validate information has become a common practice in the past couple of years. Therefore, it makes sense to use them in combination with Azure Functions as well.

As Azure Functions are hosted on top of an Azure App Service this is quite possible, but you do have to configure something before you can start using certificates.

Adding your certificate to the Function App

Let’s just start at the beginning, in case you are wondering on how to add these certificates to your Function App. Adding certificates is ‘hidden’ on the SSL blade in the Azure portal. Over here you can add SSL certificates, but also regular certificates

Keep in mind though, if you are going to use certificates in your own project, please just add them to Azure Key Vault in order to keep them secure. Using the Key Vault is the preferred way to work with certificates (and secrets).

For the purpose of this post I’ve just pressed the Upload Certificate-link, which will prompt you with a new blade from which you can upload a private or public certificate.

You will be able to see the certificate’s thumbprint, name and expiration date on the SSL blade if it has been added correctly.