# Use Official Certificate Authority

In production, ESS should run with certificates from an official Certificate Authority (CA) for all external facing services rather than self-signed certificates.

## Example Customization

The following customization example uses Let’s Encrypt as the Certificate Authority. Specifically, the customization directs all your Ingress resources to use Let’s Encrypt.

1. Go to your ESS installation directory:

   ```sh
   cd ${HOME}/ess
   ```
2. Modify the **`kustomization.yaml`** (i.e., step 3 of the [Applying Your Customizations](/ess/2.4/installation/customize-configurations.md) procedure).\
   Specifically, add the highlighted content to the **`kustomization.yaml`** file under the **`patches`** key:

   {% hint style="info" %} **Tip** If the **`patches`** key does not exist in **`kustomization.yaml`** , add the key **`patches`** as well. {% endhint %}

   ```yaml
   ```

`kustomization.yaml in your ESS installation directory... Preceding content omitted for brevity...`

` patches:`` `` `**`- target: kind: Ingress patch: |- - op: replace path: /metadata/annotations/cert-manager.io~1issuer value: letsencrypt-prod`**

3. Continue with the rest of the [Applying Your Customizations](/ess/2.4/installation/customize-configurations.md) procedure.


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