Browsing domain without hostname gets 404

Help
1

My domain is: wcsdg.com

I ran this command: I installed a cert for www.wcsdg.com

When i try to remotely access wcsdg.com, the error I get in nginx access.log is 404 for /

I have this in sites-available/nginx...

server {
server_name www.wcsdg.com;
server_name wcsdg.com;
server_name localhost;
...
}

And certbot added this...

server {
if ($host = www.wcsdg.com) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot

    listen 80;
    server_name www.wcsdg.com;
    server_name wcsdg.com;
    server_name localhost;
return 404; # managed by Certbot

It produced this output: browsing works for http and https for www.wcsdg.com, but gets error 404 for wcsdg.com. i have DNS A record for both www.wcsdg.com AND wcsdg.com. Do I have to get a wildcard certificate, or what am I missing? The error seems to be inside nginx, not dns.

My web server is (include version): nginx 1.18

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): ubuntu 20.04

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: Linode

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know): yes

I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): No

The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you're using Certbot): 1.18

3

Only covers the WWW name.
You can also repeat that for the base domain:

if ($host = wcsdg.com) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # base domain

OR
have it always redirect, with:
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
[removing the IF statement altogether]
If you chose this path, then also remove the line:

1 Like
4

Thank you. I did that, and it works technically, but the user gets a massive warning page to GO BACK because the requested domain name doesn't match the cert.
What is the recommended way to get a certificate for BOTH www.example.com AND example.com?

5

Understood.
Please show the output of:
certbot certificates
& also
sudo nginx -T

6

More or less:
certbot --nginx -d "domain.com,www.domain.com"
[adjust accordingly to as you obtained the single named cert]

Then once you have obtained a cert with both names, we have to ensure nginx is using that new cert.
If so, then we can delete the old single named cert.

1 Like
7

Awesome. Thank you @rg305. certbot --nginx -d "domain.com,www.domain.com" worked brilliantly and instantly! It asked me if I wanted to "expand and replace" the existing certificate.

1 Like
8

Yeah! certbot uses AI from the future and was backported to be used by us mere mortals - LOL
Joking aside, the guys and gals that do the work on certbot are the ones that deserve the real thanks.
I'm just an usher in their show.

Cheers from Miami :beers:

#FreeCUBA

9

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