Entrust offers automatic renewal functionality for Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs). This feature is exclusive to Entrust customers that procure VMCs using the subscription licensing model and that use Entrust hosting to host their certificate and logo.
How do you opt into auto-renewal?
To enable auto-renewal, select the ‘Entrust Hosted’ checkbox at the time of creating a new certificate or manually renewing an existing certificate. Note that, with the Entrust hosted selection, the option to choose a custom expiry date will be hidden and a default expiry date will be assigned to the certificate. Additionally, the option to add a new CSR will be hidden. If you wish to provide a new key, you’ll need to opt out of Entrust hosting, and thereby opt out of auto-renewal.
How does auto-renewal work?
Entrust will attempt to automatically renew the certificate 91 days in advance of the certificate expiry, contingent upon good standing verification and sufficient inventory in your account. Early renewal of the certificate does not result in loss of value due to the license-recycling nature of a subscription product. Instead this allows for early identification of any issues that may prevent auto-renewal.
If verification fails or there is insufficient inventory in the account, the super-admins listed for the account will receive a notification from Entrust, outlining the reasons for failure. In this case, the customer will need to manually renew their certificate after rectifying the issue. If the auto-renewal is successful, Entrust will host the renewed certificate in the same hosting location. This ensures a no-hassle approach for the customer as no updates are required to their DNS TXT records.
Opting in to auto-renewal can save your customer (or more likely you if you are provisioning on their behalf) time and hassle and ensure that VMCs remain up-to-date and valid. Obtaining VMC certificates on subscription brings its own benefits such as cost savings over individual annual certificates, multi-year renewals, new certificates are pro-rated to end of subscription term and certificates can be revoked and reissued in the event of a Domain or branding change.
