Auto-renew AWS certificates with Slack approval workflow

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) Auto-Renew with Slack notify & approval

Who’s it for - SRE/DevOps teams managing many ACM certs. - Cloud ops who want hands-off renewals with an approval step in Slack. - MSPs that need auditable reminders and renewals on schedule.

How it works / What it does 1. Schedule Trigger – runs daily (or your cadence). 2. Get many certificates – fetches ACM certs (paginate if needed). 3. Filter: expiring in next 7 days – keeps items where: - NotAfter before today + 7d - NotBefore before today (already valid) 4. Send message and wait for response (Slack) – posts a certificate summary and pauses until Approve/Reject. 5. Renew a certificate – on Approve, calls the renew action for the item.

How to set up 1. Credentials - AWS in n8n with permissions to list/read/renew certs. - Slack OAuth (bot in the target channel). 2. Schedule Trigger - Set to run once per day (e.g., 09:00 local). 3. Get many certificates - Region: your ACM region(s). - If you have several regions, loop regions or run multiple branches. 4. Filter (IF / Filter node) - Add these two conditions (AND): - {{ $json.NotAfter.toDateTime('s') }} is before {{ $today.plus(7,'days') }} - {{ $json.NotBefore.toDateTime('s') }} is before {{ $today }} 5. Slack → Send & Wait - Message (text input): :warning: ACM Certificate Expiry Alert :warning:

Domain: {{ $json.DomainName }} SANs: {{ $json.SubjectAlternativeNameSummaries }} ARN: {{ $json.CertificateArn }} Algo: {{ $json.KeyAlgorithm }} Status: {{ $json.Status }} Issued: {{ $json.IssuedAt | toDate | formatDate("YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm") }} Expires: {{ $json.NotAfter | toDate | formatDate("YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm") }}

Approve to start renewal. - Add two buttons: Approve / Reject (the node will output which was clicked). 6. Renew a certificate - Map the CertificateArn from the Slack Approved branch.

Requirements - n8n (current version with Slack Send & Wait). - AWS IAM permissions (read + renew ACM), e.g.: - acm:ListCertificates, acm:DescribeCertificate, acm:RenewCertificate (plus region access). - Slack bot with permission to post & use interactivity in the target channel.

How to customize the workflow - Window size: change 7 to 14 or 30 days in the filter. - Catch expired: add an OR path {{ $json.NotAfter.toDateTime('s') }} is before {{ $today }} → send a red Slack alert. - Auto-renew w/o approval: bypass Slack and renew directly for low-risk domains. - Multiple regions/accounts: iterate over a list of regions or assume roles per account. - Logging: add a Google Sheet/DB append after Slack click with user, time, result. - Escalation: if no Slack response after N hours, ping @oncall or open a ticket.