# Cannot get certificate with custom Nginx config **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [December 25, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899 "2018-12-25T18:06:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jwodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/jwodder/32/28447_2.png) [@jwodder](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/jwodder)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899/1 "2018-12-25T18:06:44Z")
My domain is: [wheelodex.org](http://wheelodex.org) I ran this command: ``` sudo certbot run \ --nginx \ --rsa-key-size 4096 \ --expand \ --cert-name wheelodex \ --email REDACTED \ --domains www.wheelodex.org,wheelodex.org \ --non-interactive \ --agree-tos ``` It produced this output: ``` Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing... Renewing an existing certificate Performing the following challenges: http-01 challenge for wheelodex.org http-01 challenge for www.wheelodex.org nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "wheelodex.org" on 0.0.0.0:80, ignored nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "www.wheelodex.org" on 0.0.0.0:80, ignored nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "wheelodex.org" on [::]:80, ignored nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "www.wheelodex.org" on [::]:80, ignored Waiting for verification... Cleaning up challenges Failed authorization procedure. www.wheelodex.org (http-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Invalid response from http://www.wheelodex.org/.well-known/acme-challenge/dLKv4nsTNS7d80I4G934B1XM5vrchidJl_lVdbnH9Ds: "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN\">\\n<title>404 Not Found</title>\\n<h1>Not Found</h1>\\n<p>The requested URL was" IMPORTANT NOTES: - The following errors were reported by the server: Domain: www.wheelodex.org Type: unauthorized Detail: Invalid response from http://www.wheelodex.org/.well-known/acme-challenge/dLKv4nsTNS7d80I4G934B1XM5vrchidJl_lVdbnH9Ds: "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN\">\\n<title>404 Not Found</title>\\n<h1>Not Found</h1>\\n<p>The requested URL was To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was entered correctly and the DNS A/AAAA record(s) for that domain contain(s) the right IP address. ``` My web server is (include version): nginx-full 1.14.0-0ubuntu1.2 The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Ubuntu Bionic 18.04.1 My hosting provider, if applicable, is: DigitalOcean 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 * * * My site is configured via an Ansible playbook that runs the command listed above every time it’s run in order to ensure a certificate is present, and I trust certbot’s systemd files to take care of certificate renewals. The last time the above command was run successfully was 2018 Nov 14. Today, I got an e-mail that my site’s cert was about to expire, and the systemd logs showed that the renewal job was failing for some unspecified reason. I tried running `sudo certbot renew`, but that failed with the output: ``` Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/wheelodex.conf - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing... Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx Renewing an existing certificate Performing the following challenges: tls-sni-01 challenge for wheelodex.org tls-sni-01 challenge for www.wheelodex.org Waiting for verification... Cleaning up challenges Attempting to renew cert (wheelodex) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/wheelodex.conf produced an unexpected error: Failed authorization procedure. www.wheelodex.org (tls-sni-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Incorrect validation certificate for tls-sni-01 challenge. Requested 0f441e7c6ddafce814f175c886c06ea5.053d4ebc12491e1f302f6f72e26fb1f6.acme.invalid from [2604:a880:800:a1::c5d:8001]:443. Received 1 certificate(s), first certificate had names "30cbd04dcd1f74c6151b25ba6ebdb445.ccc945d59857aa9580a9d5e58881ac25.acme.invalid, dummy". Skipping. All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed: /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/fullchain.pem (failure) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed: /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/fullchain.pem (failure) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 renew failure(s), 0 parse failure(s) IMPORTANT NOTES: - The following errors were reported by the server: Domain: www.wheelodex.org Type: unauthorized Detail: Incorrect validation certificate for tls-sni-01 challenge. Requested 0f441e7c6ddafce814f175c886c06ea5.053d4ebc12491e1f302f6f72e26fb1f6.acme.invalid from [2604:a880:800:a1::c5d:8001]:443. Received 1 certificate(s), first certificate had names "30cbd04dcd1f74c6151b25ba6ebdb445.ccc945d59857aa9580a9d5e58881ac25.acme.invalid, dummy" To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was entered correctly and the DNS A/AAAA record(s) for that domain contain(s) the right IP address. ``` After some Googling, I then tried `sudo certbot renew --preferred-challenges http` with the result: ``` Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/wheelodex.conf - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing... Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx Renewing an existing certificate Performing the following challenges: http-01 challenge for wheelodex.org http-01 challenge for www.wheelodex.org nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "www.wheelodex.org" on 0.0.0.0:80, ignored nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "wheelodex.org" on 0.0.0.0:80, ignored nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "www.wheelodex.org" on [::]:80, ignored nginx: [warn] conflicting server name "wheelodex.org" on [::]:80, ignored Waiting for verification... Cleaning up challenges Attempting to renew cert (wheelodex) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/wheelodex.conf produced an unexpected error: Failed authorization procedure. www.wheelodex.org (http-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Invalid response from http://www.wheelodex.org/.well-known/acme-challenge/fFdwvIwNBSCByd4u5acHyrjLl9tLld5fsCvF3DBIsvE: "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN\">\n<title>404 Not Found</title>\n<h1>Not Found</h1>\n<p>The requested URL was". Skipping. All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed: /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/fullchain.pem (failure) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed: /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/fullchain.pem (failure) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 renew failure(s), 0 parse failure(s) **IMPORTANT NOTES:** - The following errors were reported by the server: Domain: www.wheelodex.org Type: unauthorized Detail: Invalid response from http://www.wheelodex.org/.well-known/acme-challenge/fFdwvIwNBSCByd4u5acHyrjLl9tLld5fsCvF3DBIsvE: "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN\">\n<title>404 Not Found</title>\n<h1>Not Found</h1>\n<p>The requested URL was" To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was entered correctly and the DNS A/AAAA record(s) for that domain contain(s) the right IP address. ``` I then ran `sudo apt-get install` to upgrade various Certbot packages: - `certbot` — upgraded from 0.26.1-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+2 to 0.28.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+4 - `python-certbot-nginx` — upgraded from 0.25.0-2+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+1 to 0.28.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+3 - `python3-acme` — upgraded from 0.26.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+1 to 0.28.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+3 - `python3-certbot` — upgraded from 0.26.1-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+2 to 0.28.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+4 - `python3-certbot-nginx` — upgraded from 0.25.0-2+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+1 to 0.28.0-1+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+3 - `python3-josepy` — upgraded from 1.1.0-1 to 1.1.0-2+ubuntu18.04.1+certbot+1 and then tried running my Ansible playbook, which failed with the error message listed in the section above. Past experience with running my Ansible playbook has led me to believe that Certbot edits the Nginx configuration in some manner in order to ensure things work (I don’t know how it edits them, since the configuration is immediately overwritten with my configuration by a subsequent Ansible task); however, based on filestamps, it appears that today’s Certbot runs are leaving the Nginx config alone, which may be behind the failures. (Incidentally, my Nginx config redirects everything to [https://www.wheelodex.org](https://www.wheelodex.org), which is then handled by uWSGI; this may be another reason why everything is failing.) How do I get Certbot to work again? ---
**Author:** ![mnordhoff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mnordhoff/32/22583_2.png) [@mnordhoff](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/mnordhoff)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899/2 "2018-12-25T18:16:33Z")
The duplicate virtual hosts might be the culprit – if Certbot edits one `server` block, but Nginx ignores it and uses the other, validation will fail. Can you try fixing that issue? And if it doesn’t help, post the Nginx configuration, which can be shown by “`sudo nginx -T`”? ---
**Author:** ![jwodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/jwodder/32/28447_2.png) [@jwodder](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/jwodder)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899/3 "2018-12-25T18:22:47Z")
> [@mnordhoff](#): > > The duplicate virtual hosts might be the culprit – if Certbot edits one `server` block, but Nginx ignores it and uses the other, validation will fail. > > Can you try fixing that issue? Fix it how? By reducing the number of `server {}` blocks? I don't know how to do that while preserving the redirection behavior. Plus, as I said, part of the problem appears to be that Certbot isn't editing any `server {}` blocks in the first place. Regardless, the full Nginx config: ``` # configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf: user www-data; worker_processes auto; pid /run/nginx.pid; include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf; events { worker_connections 768; # multi_accept on; } http { ## # Basic Settings ## sendfile on; tcp_nopush on; tcp_nodelay on; keepalive_timeout 65; types_hash_max_size 2048; # server_tokens off; # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64; # server_name_in_redirect off; include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; ## # SSL Settings ## ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; ## # Logging Settings ## access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; ## # Gzip Settings ## gzip on; # gzip_vary on; # gzip_proxied any; # gzip_comp_level 6; # gzip_buffers 16 8k; # gzip_http_version 1.1; # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript; ## # Virtual Host Configs ## include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; } #mail { # # See sample authentication script at: # # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript # # # auth_http localhost/auth.php; # # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER"; # # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS"; # # server { # listen localhost:110; # protocol pop3; # proxy on; # } # # server { # listen localhost:143; # protocol imap; # proxy on; # } #} # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-auth-pam.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_auth_pam_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-dav-ext.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_dav_ext_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-echo.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_echo_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-geoip.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-image-filter.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_image_filter_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-subs-filter.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_subs_filter_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-upstream-fair.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_upstream_fair_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-xslt-filter.conf: load_module modules/ngx_http_xslt_filter_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-mail.conf: load_module modules/ngx_mail_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-stream.conf: load_module modules/ngx_stream_module.so; # configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types: types { text/html html htm shtml; text/css css; text/xml xml; image/gif gif; image/jpeg jpeg jpg; application/javascript js; application/atom+xml atom; application/rss+xml rss; text/mathml mml; text/plain txt; text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor jad; text/vnd.wap.wml wml; text/x-component htc; image/png png; image/tiff tif tiff; image/vnd.wap.wbmp wbmp; image/x-icon ico; image/x-jng jng; image/x-ms-bmp bmp; image/svg+xml svg svgz; image/webp webp; application/font-woff woff; application/java-archive jar war ear; application/json json; application/mac-binhex40 hqx; application/msword doc; application/pdf pdf; application/postscript ps eps ai; application/rtf rtf; application/vnd.apple.mpegurl m3u8; application/vnd.ms-excel xls; application/vnd.ms-fontobject eot; application/vnd.ms-powerpoint ppt; application/vnd.wap.wmlc wmlc; application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml kml; application/vnd.google-earth.kmz kmz; application/x-7z-compressed 7z; application/x-cocoa cco; application/x-java-archive-diff jardiff; application/x-java-jnlp-file jnlp; application/x-makeself run; application/x-perl pl pm; application/x-pilot prc pdb; application/x-rar-compressed rar; application/x-redhat-package-manager rpm; application/x-sea sea; application/x-shockwave-flash swf; application/x-stuffit sit; application/x-tcl tcl tk; application/x-x509-ca-cert der pem crt; application/x-xpinstall xpi; application/xhtml+xml xhtml; application/xspf+xml xspf; application/zip zip; application/octet-stream bin exe dll; application/octet-stream deb; application/octet-stream dmg; application/octet-stream iso img; application/octet-stream msi msp msm; application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document docx; application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet xlsx; application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation pptx; audio/midi mid midi kar; audio/mpeg mp3; audio/ogg ogg; audio/x-m4a m4a; audio/x-realaudio ra; video/3gpp 3gpp 3gp; video/mp2t ts; video/mp4 mp4; video/mpeg mpeg mpg; video/quicktime mov; video/webm webm; video/x-flv flv; video/x-m4v m4v; video/x-mng mng; video/x-ms-asf asx asf; video/x-ms-wmv wmv; video/x-msvideo avi; } # configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wheelodex.conf: server { listen *:80; listen *:443 ssl; listen [::]:80; listen [::]:443 ssl; server_name wheelodex.org; ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/privkey.pem; ssl_session_timeout 5m; ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; ssl_ciphers "EECDH+ECDSA+AESGCM EECDH+aRSA+AESGCM EECDH+ECDSA+SHA384 EECDH+ECDSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+SHA384 EECDH+aRSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+RC4 EECDH !EDH+aRSA !RC4 !aNULL !eNULL !LOW !3DES !MD5 !EXP !PSK !SRP !DSS"; return 301 https://www.wheelodex.org$request_uri; } server { listen *:80 default_server; listen [::]:80 default_server; server_name www.wheelodex.org; return 301 https://www.wheelodex.org$request_uri; } server { listen *:443 ssl; listen [::]:443 ssl; server_name www.wheelodex.org; ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/wheelodex/privkey.pem; ssl_session_timeout 5m; ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; ssl_ciphers "EECDH+ECDSA+AESGCM EECDH+aRSA+AESGCM EECDH+ECDSA+SHA384 EECDH+ECDSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+SHA384 EECDH+aRSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+RC4 EECDH !EDH+aRSA !RC4 !aNULL !eNULL !LOW !3DES !MD5 !EXP !PSK !SRP !DSS"; root /var/www/html; location / { if (-f $document_root/active_maintenance.html) { return 503; } try_files $uri @wheelodex; } location @wheelodex { include uwsgi_params; uwsgi_pass unix:/tmp/wheelodex.sock; } error_page 503 /active_maintenance.html; location = /active_maintenance.html { } } # configuration file /etc/nginx/uwsgi_params: uwsgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string; uwsgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method; uwsgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type; uwsgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length; uwsgi_param REQUEST_URI $request_uri; uwsgi_param PATH_INFO $document_uri; uwsgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $document_root; uwsgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol; uwsgi_param REQUEST_SCHEME $scheme; uwsgi_param HTTPS $https if_not_empty; uwsgi_param REMOTE_ADDR $remote_addr; uwsgi_param REMOTE_PORT $remote_port; uwsgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port; uwsgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name; ``` ---
**Author:** ![mnordhoff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mnordhoff/32/22583_2.png) [@mnordhoff](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/mnordhoff)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899/4 "2018-12-25T18:41:07Z")
> [@jwodder](#): > > Fix it how? By reducing the number of `server {}` blocks? By removing any duplicate server blocks, but you don't seem to have any... > [@jwodder](#): > > Plus, as I said, part of the problem appears to be that Certbot isn’t editing any `server {}` blocks in the first place. For the validation step, Certbot makes temporary changes to the Nginx configuration, and then removes them a few seconds later. What it was up to should be logged in `/var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log`. If you run Certbot without `--non-interactive` and with `--debug-challenges`, it will pause in the middle so you can examine the configuration. If it successfully obtains a certificate, for the installation step, it makes permanent changes to the configuration to use the certificate. But since your configuration already does, it shouldn't have anything left to do (other than reload Nginx). > [@jwodder](#): > > ```nohighlight > # configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wheelodex.conf: > server { > listen *:80; > listen *:443 ssl; > listen [::]:80; > listen [::]:443 ssl; > server_name wheelodex.org; > > ssl on; > > ``` You need to remove "`ssl on;`" -- it's deprecated, and it enables SSL on all ports in the `server` block, which in this case includes port 80. Port 80 should be really malfunctioning right now. (You already have `ssl` on the appropriate `listen` directives, so you don't need to do anything else.) I dunno if it's causing any of the problems you have now, but it should cause a bunch of other problems at the least. ---
**Author:** ![jwodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/jwodder/32/28447_2.png) [@jwodder](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/jwodder)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899/5 "2018-12-25T18:48:42Z")
Removing `ssl on` seems to have been sufficient to get Certbot working again. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/cannot-get-certificate-with-custom-nginx-config/80899/6 "2019-01-24T19:01:02Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.