Caddy generating a certificate again

1. The problem I’m having:

I’m testing Caddy to generate certificates for multiple domains.
I have Caddy deployed in HA, by using 2 docker containers and having TLS certificates stored in Redis, using github.com/pberkel/caddy-storage-redis.
I also run a http-challenge API endpoint to check a couple of things before replying 200 OK to Caddy to issue the certificate.
I tested the following:

$ curl https://localhost -k
Ok
# the above works as expected
$ curl https://localhost -k
Ok
# the above goes to the second Caddy server which contacts the http challenge server.

I was expecting the second Caddy server to check Redis and serve the request, instead of checking with the http challenge server.

What’s the flow Caddy’s doing? How can I avoid this behavior?

2. Error messages and/or full log output:

httpchallenge-1  | [2024-05-09 13:10:12] INFO Received TLS certificate request for localhost
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.5371542,"logger":"tls.on_demand","msg":"obtaining new certificate","remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29736","server_name":"localhost"}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.5388484,"logger":"tls.obtain","msg":"acquiring lock","identifier":"localhost"}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.539165,"logger":"tls.obtain","msg":"lock acquired","identifier":"localhost"}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.5395622,"logger":"tls.obtain","msg":"obtaining certificate","identifier":"localhost"}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.5423813,"logger":"tls.obtain","msg":"certificate obtained successfully","identifier":"localhost"}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.5424857,"logger":"tls.obtain","msg":"releasing lock","identifier":"localhost"}
caddy-1  | {"level":"warn","ts":1715260212.5436988,"logger":"tls","msg":"stapling OCSP","error":"no OCSP stapling for [localhost]: no OCSP server specified in certificate","identifiers":["localhost"]}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260212.596209,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29736","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000130959,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260215.5124705,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29737","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000089417,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260216.3046443,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29738","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.00007275,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260216.9100282,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29739","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000097042,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260217.5609527,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29740","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000065416,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260218.129712,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29741","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000091667,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260218.8676667,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29742","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"Accept":["*/*"],"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000124875,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"],"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"],"Server":["Caddy"]}}
caddy-1  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260219.5251272,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29743","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000068083,"size":7,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"],"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"]}}
httpchallenge-2  | [2024-05-09 13:10:20] INFO Received TLS certificate request for localhost
caddy-2  | {"level":"warn","ts":1715260220.1596973,"logger":"tls","msg":"stapling OCSP","error":"no OCSP stapling for [localhost]: no OCSP server specified in certificate","identifiers":["localhost"]}
caddy-2  | {"level":"info","ts":1715260220.165014,"logger":"http.log.access.log0","msg":"handled request","request":{"remote_ip":"192.168.65.1","remote_port":"29750","client_ip":"192.168.65.1","proto":"HTTP/2.0","method":"GET","host":"localhost","uri":"/","headers":{"User-Agent":["curl/8.4.0"],"Accept":["*/*"]},"tls":{"resumed":false,"version":772,"cipher_suite":4867,"proto":"h2","server_name":"localhost"}},"bytes_read":0,"user_id":"","duration":0.000032833,"size":6,"status":200,"resp_headers":{"Content-Type":["text/plain; charset=utf-8"],"Server":["Caddy"],"Alt-Svc":["h3=\":443\"; ma=2592000"]}}

3. Caddy version:

caddy:2.7.6-builder docker container.

4. How I installed and ran Caddy:

Docker containers.

a. System environment:

Docker

b. Command:

docker-compose up

c. Service/unit/compose file:

services:
  caddy-1:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./caddy/caddy.Dockerfile
    container_name: caddy-1
    environment:
      - REDIS_HOST=redis
      - REDIS_PORT=6379
      - REDIS_USERNAME=default
      - REDIS_PASSWORD=redis
      - HTTP_CHALLENGE_SERVER=http-challenge-1
    volumes:
      - ./caddy/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile

  caddy-2:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./caddy/caddy.Dockerfile
    container_name: caddy-2
    environment:
      - REDIS_HOST=redis
      - REDIS_PORT=6379
      - REDIS_USERNAME=default
      - REDIS_PASSWORD=redis
      - HTTP_CHALLENGE_SERVER=http-challenge-2
    volumes:
      - ./caddy/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro

  http-challenge-1:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile
    container_name: http-challenge-1

  http-challenge-2:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile
    container_name: http-challenge-2

  redis:
    image: redis:7
    container_name: redis
    restart: always
    command: sh -c redis-server --requirepass "$${REDIS_PASSWORD}"
    ports:
     - 6379:6379
    environment:
     - REDIS_PASSWORD=redis

d. My complete Caddy config:

{
	on_demand_tls {
		ask http://{$HTTP_CHALLENGE_SERVER}/ask
	}
	storage redis {
		host {$REDIS_HOST}
		port {$REDIS_PORT}
		username {$REDIS_USERNAME}
		password {$REDIS_PASSWORD}
	}
}

https://* {
	tls internal {
		on_demand
	}
	handle /* {
		respond Ok
	}
	respond 404
}

5. Links to relevant resources:

This isn’t quite right – Using * only matches exactly one label, so only a domain like localhost but not example.com. Remove the * here. (Obviously it works right now because you’re using localhost but it won’t in production).

Caddy will always hit the ask endpoint before reading from storage. This is because some storage implementations perform pretty poorly to being hit every time a cert needs to be loaded, but the ask endpoint by design must be very fast. But after the first request hitting that instance, the cert will be loaded in memory so ask won’t be hit again (until the cert is about to expire and needs renewal, or Caddy is restarted which wipes the in-memory cache obviously).

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