diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5bce80b..84e16b2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -20,6 +20,44 @@ The variable `certbot_install_from_source` controls whether to install Certbot f
 
 By default, this role configures a cron job to run under the provided user account at the given hour and minute, every day. The defaults run `certbot renew` (or `certbot-auto renew`) via cron every day at 03:30:00 by the user you use in your Ansible playbook. It's preferred that you set a custom user/hour/minute so the renewal is during a low-traffic period and done by a non-root user account.
 
+### Automatic Certificate Generation
+
+Currently there is one built-in method for generating new certificates using this role: `standalone`. Other methods (e.g. using nginx or apache and a webroot) may be added in the future.
+
+**For a complete example**: see the fully functional test playbook in [tests/test-standalone-nginx-aws.yml](tests/test-standalone-nginx-aws.yml).
+
+    certbot_create_if_missing: no
+    certbot_create_method: standalone
+
+Set `certbot_create_if_missing` to `yes` or `True` to let this role generate certs. Set the method used for generating certs with the `certbot_create_method` variable—current allowed values include: `standalone`.
+
+    certbot_admin_email: email@example.com
+
+The email address used to agree to Let's Encrypt's TOS and subscribe to cert-related notifications. This should be customized and set to an email address that you or your organization regularly monitors.
+
+    certbot_certs: []
+      # - email: janedoe@example.com
+      #   domains:
+      #     - example1.com
+      #     - example2.com
+      # - domains:
+      #     - example3.com
+
+A list of domains (and other data) for which certs should be generated. You can add an `email` key to any list item to override the `certbot_admin_email`.
+
+    certbot_create_command: "{{ certbot_script }} certonly --standalone --noninteractive --agree-tos --email {{ cert_item.email | default(certbot_admin_email) }} -d {{ cert_item.domains | join(',') }}"
+
+The `certbot_create_command` defines the command used to generate the cert.
+
+#### Standalone Certificate Generation
+
+    certbot_create_standalone_stop_services:
+      - nginx
+
+Services that should be stopped while `certbot` runs it's own standalone server on ports 80 and 443. If you're running Apache, set this to `apache2` (Ubuntu), or `httpd` (RHEL), or if you have Nginx on port 443 and something else on port 80 (e.g. Varnish, a Java app, or something else), add it to the list so it is stopped when the certificate is generated.
+
+These services will only be stopped the first time a new cert is generated.
+
 ### Source Installation from Git
 
 You can install Certbot from it's Git source repository if desired. This might be useful in several cases, but especially when older distributions don't have Certbot packages available (e.g. CentOS < 7, Ubuntu < 16.10 and Debian < 8).
@@ -51,9 +89,13 @@ None.
       roles:
         - geerlingguy.certbot
 
-### Creating certificates with certbot
+See other examples in the `tests/` directory.
+
+### Manually creating certificates with certbot
+
+_Note: You can have this role automatically generate certificates; see the "Automatic Certificate Generation" documentation above._
 
-After installation, you can create certificates using the `certbot` (or `certbot-auto`) script (use `letsencrypt` on Ubuntu 16.04, or use `/opt/certbot/certbot-auto` if installing from source/Git. Here are some example commands to configure certificates with Certbot:
+You can manually create certificates using the `certbot` (or `certbot-auto`) script (use `letsencrypt` on Ubuntu 16.04, or use `/opt/certbot/certbot-auto` if installing from source/Git. Here are some example commands to configure certificates with Certbot:
 
     # Automatically add certs for all Apache virtualhosts (use with caution!).
     certbot --apache
@@ -61,15 +103,15 @@ After installation, you can create certificates using the `certbot` (or `certbot
     # Generate certs, but don't modify Apache configuration (safer).
     certbot --apache certonly
 
-If you want to fully automate the process of adding a new certificate, you can do so using the command line options to register, accept the terms of service, and then generate a cert using the standalone server:
+If you want to fully automate the process of adding a new certificate, but don't want to use this role's built in functionality, you can do so using the command line options to register, accept the terms of service, and then generate a cert using the standalone server:
 
-  1. Make sure any services listening on port 80 (Apache, Nginx, Varnish, etc.) are stopped.
+  1. Make sure any services listening on ports 80 and 443 (Apache, Nginx, Varnish, etc.) are stopped.
   2. Register with something like `certbot register --agree-tos --email [your-email@example.com]`
     - Note: You won't need to do this step in the future, when generating additional certs on the same server.
   3. Generate a cert for a domain whose DNS points to this server: `certbot certonly --noninteractive --standalone -d example.com -d www.example.com`
-  4. Re-start whatever was listening on port 80 before.
+  4. Re-start whatever was listening on ports 80 and 443 before.
   5. Update your webserver's virtualhost TLS configuration to point at the new certificate (`fullchain.pem`) and private key (`privkey.pem`) Certbot just generated for the domain you passed in the `certbot` command.
-  6. Restart your webserver so it uses the new HTTPS virtualhost configuration.
+  6. Reload or restart your webserver so it uses the new HTTPS virtualhost configuration.
 
 ### Certbot certificate auto-renewal
 
diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 395b47d..2e79029 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,23 @@ certbot_auto_renew_hour: 3
 certbot_auto_renew_minute: 30
 certbot_auto_renew_options: "--quiet --no-self-upgrade"
 
+# Parameters used when creating new Certbot certs.
+certbot_create_if_missing: no
+certbot_create_method: standalone
+certbot_admin_email: email@example.com
+certbot_certs: []
+  # - email: janedoe@example.com
+  #   domains:
+  #     - example1.com
+  #     - example2.com
+  # - domains:
+  #     - example3.com
+certbot_create_command: "{{ certbot_script }} certonly --standalone --noninteractive --agree-tos --email {{ cert_item.email | default(certbot_admin_email) }} -d {{ cert_item.domains | join(',') }}"
+certbot_create_standalone_stop_services:
+  - nginx
+  # - apache
+  # - varnish
+
 # To install from source (on older OSes or if you need a specific or newer
 # version of Certbot), set this variable to `yes` and configure other options.
 certbot_install_from_source: no
diff --git a/meta/main.yml b/meta/main.yml
index aa00a88..e9b4a60 100644
--- a/meta/main.yml
+++ b/meta/main.yml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ galaxy_info:
   description: "Installs and configures Certbot (for Let's Encrypt)."
   company: "Midwestern Mac, LLC"
   license: "license (BSD, MIT)"
-  min_ansible_version: 2.0
+  min_ansible_version: 2.4
   platforms:
     - name: EL
       versions:
diff --git a/tasks/create-cert-standalone.yml b/tasks/create-cert-standalone.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b92faec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tasks/create-cert-standalone.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+---
+- name: Check if certificate already exists.
+  stat:
+    path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/{{ cert_item.domains | first }}/cert.pem
+  register: letsencrypt_cert
+
+- name: Stop services to allow certbot to generate a cert.
+  service:
+    name: "{{ item }}"
+    state: stopped
+  when: not letsencrypt_cert.stat.exists
+  with_items: "{{ certbot_create_standalone_stop_services }}"
+
+- name: Generate new certificate if one doesn't exist.
+  shell: "{{ certbot_create_command }}"
+  when: not letsencrypt_cert.stat.exists
+
+- name: Start services after cert has been generated.
+  service:
+    name: "{{ item }}"
+    state: started
+  when: not letsencrypt_cert.stat.exists
+  with_items: "{{ certbot_create_standalone_stop_services }}"
diff --git a/tasks/main.yml b/tasks/main.yml
index 5324ff9..680aeda 100644
--- a/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/tasks/main.yml
@@ -1,11 +1,19 @@
 ---
-- include: include-vars.yml
+- import_tasks: include-vars.yml
 
-- include: install-with-package.yml
+- import_tasks: install-with-package.yml
   when: not certbot_install_from_source
 
-- include: install-from-source.yml
+- import_tasks: install-from-source.yml
   when: certbot_install_from_source
 
-- include: renew-cron.yml
+- include_tasks: create-cert-standalone.yml
+  with_items: "{{ certbot_certs }}"
+  when:
+    - certbot_create_if_missing
+    - certbot_create_method == 'standalone'
+  loop_control:
+    loop_var: cert_item
+
+- import_tasks: renew-cron.yml
   when: certbot_auto_renew
diff --git a/tests/requirements.yml b/tests/requirements.yml
index 6208520..0b31312 100644
--- a/tests/requirements.yml
+++ b/tests/requirements.yml
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 ---
 - src: geerlingguy.git
+- src: geerlingguy.nginx
diff --git a/tests/test-standalone-nginx-aws.yml b/tests/test-standalone-nginx-aws.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a546169
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test-standalone-nginx-aws.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,178 @@
+---
+# To run:
+#   1. Ensure Ansible and Boto are installed (pip install ansible boto).
+#   2. Ensure you have AWS credentials stored where Boto can find them, and they
+#      are under the profile 'mm'.
+#   3. Ensure you have a pubkey available at ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
+#   3. Run the playbook: ansible-playbook test-standalone-nginx-aws.yml
+
+# Play 1: Provision EC2 instance and A record.
+- hosts: localhost
+  connection: local
+  gather_facts: no
+
+  tasks:
+    - name: Configure EC2 Security Group.
+      ec2_group:
+        profile: mm
+        name: certbot_test_http
+        description: HTTP security group for Certbot testing.
+        region: "us-east-1"
+        state: present
+        rules:
+          - proto: tcp
+            from_port: 80
+            to_port: 80
+            cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0
+          - proto: tcp
+            from_port: 443
+            to_port: 443
+            cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0
+          - proto: tcp
+            from_port: 22
+            to_port: 22
+            cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0
+        rules_egress: []
+
+    - name: Add EC2 Key Pair.
+      ec2_key:
+        profile: mm
+        region: "us-east-1"
+        name: certbot_test
+        key_material: "{{ item }}"
+      with_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
+
+    - name: Provision EC2 instance.
+      ec2:
+        profile: mm
+        key_name: certbot_test
+        instance_tags:
+          Name: "certbot-standalone-nginx-test"
+        group: ['default', 'certbot_test_http']
+        instance_type: t2.micro
+        image: ami-02e98f78 # CentOS Linux 7 x86_64 HVM EBS
+        region: "us-east-1"
+        wait: yes
+        wait_timeout: 500
+        exact_count: 1
+        count_tag:
+          Name: "certbot-standalone-nginx-test"
+      register: created_instance
+
+    - name: Add A record for the new EC2 instance IP in Route53.
+      route53:
+        profile: mm
+        command: create
+        zone: servercheck.in
+        record: certbot-test.servercheck.in
+        type: A
+        ttl: 300
+        value: "{{ created_instance.tagged_instances.0.public_ip }}"
+        wait: yes
+        overwrite: yes
+
+    - name: Add EC2 instance to inventory groups.
+      add_host:
+        name: "certbot-test.servercheck.in"
+        groups: "aws,aws_nginx"
+        ansible_ssh_user: centos
+        host_key_checking: False
+      when: created_instance.tagged_instances.0.id is defined
+
+# Play 2: Configure EC2 instance with Certbot and Nginx.
+- hosts: aws_nginx
+  gather_facts: yes
+  become: yes
+
+  vars:
+    certbot_admin_email: https@servercheck.in
+    certbot_create_if_missing: yes
+    certbot_create_standalone_stop_services: []
+    certbot_certs:
+      - domains:
+          - certbot-test.servercheck.in
+    nginx_vhosts:
+      - listen: "443 ssl http2"
+        server_name: "certbot-test.servercheck.in"
+        root: "/usr/share/nginx/html"
+        index: "index.html index.htm"
+        state: "present"
+        template: "{{ nginx_vhost_template }}"
+        filename: "certbot_test.conf"
+        extra_parameters: |
+          ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/certbot-test.servercheck.in/fullchain.pem;
+          ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/certbot-test.servercheck.in/privkey.pem;
+          ssl_protocols       TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
+          ssl_ciphers         HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
+
+  pre_tasks:
+    - name: Update apt cache.
+      apt: update_cache=yes cache_valid_time=600
+      when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'
+      changed_when: false
+
+    - name: Install dependencies (RedHat).
+      yum: name={{ item }} state=present
+      when: ansible_os_family == 'RedHat'
+      with_items:
+        - cronie
+        - epel-release
+
+    - name: Install cron (Debian).
+      apt: name=cron state=present
+      when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'
+
+  roles:
+    - geerlingguy.certbot
+    - geerlingguy.nginx
+
+  tasks:
+    - name: Flush handlers in case any configs have changed.
+      meta: flush_handlers
+
+    - name: Test secure connection to SSL domain.
+      uri:
+        url: https://certbot-test.servercheck.in/
+        status_code: 200
+      delegate_to: localhost
+      become: no
+
+# Play 3: Tear down EC2 instance and A record.
+- hosts: localhost
+  connection: local
+  gather_facts: no
+
+  tasks:
+    - name: Destroy EC2 instance.
+      ec2:
+        profile: mm
+        instance_ids: ["{{ created_instance.tagged_instances.0.id }}"]
+        region: "us-east-1"
+        state: absent
+        wait: yes
+        wait_timeout: 500
+
+    - name: Delete Security Group.
+      ec2_group:
+        profile: mm
+        name: certbot_test_http
+        region: "us-east-1"
+        state: absent
+
+    - name: Delete Key Pair.
+      ec2_key:
+        profile: mm
+        name: certbot_test
+        region: "us-east-1"
+        state: absent
+
+    - name: Delete Route53 record.
+      route53:
+        profile: mm
+        state: delete
+        zone: servercheck.in
+        record: certbot-test.servercheck.in
+        type: A
+        ttl: 300
+        # See: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/32297
+        value: []
diff --git a/tests/test.yml b/tests/test.yml
index 217fc45..a242a3e 100644
--- a/tests/test.yml
+++ b/tests/test.yml
@@ -7,9 +7,12 @@
       when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'
       changed_when: false
 
-    - name: Install cron (RedHat).
-      yum: name=cronie state=present
+    - name: Install dependencies (RedHat).
+      yum: name={{ item }} state=present
       when: ansible_os_family == 'RedHat'
+      with_items:
+        - cronie
+        - epel-release
 
     - name: Install cron (Debian).
       apt: name=cron state=present