Can't create certs using Apache virtual hosts

I ran this command: sudo certbot --apache -d foo.bar.org

It produced this output: Received 4 certificate(s), first certificate had names “foo.bar.org, www.foo.bar.org

My web server is (include version): Apache 2.4

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Ubuntu 14.04

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

Are the 4 certificates the output refers to those created by certbot while performing challenges? I’ve gone through the logs at /var/log/letsencrypt, and this isn’t clear. I’m especially confused about the reference to www.foo.bar.org, which exists but which I never told certbot to do anything about during this attempt.

Hi @CasminMcMurphy,

The “Received 4 certificates” generally refers to the default certificates that your site sent back in response to the challenge, which were not those created by Certbot (that’s why it was an error). This error occurs when Certbot tries to set up temporary challenge certificates in Apache, but somehow fails to have an effect, and the existing Apache certificate configuration is used instead.

If you’re using an older version of Certbot, this error most often occurs if you have multiple VirtualHosts defined within the same configuration file, which Certbot didn’t know how to deal with properly. Could that apply to your situation?

Yes, I had two virtual hosts in the same config file originally, and one of the virtual hosts had a redirect that was interfering with the challenges. I changed both of those, but I just now figured out that the Apache reload doesn’t seem to be “taking”, so that’s likely the issue. I’ll have to wait until I can do a full restart of the server before trying again.

Thanks for your help, that’s exactly what I needed to know!

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