Challenge failed for domain newzroomafrika.tv

I am working in a new Ubunut VM with a NodeJS and Express server, there is no Apache or NGINX but someone created the VM for me to deploy this application.

The is a Google analytics script on the index.html, could that be the cause?

My domain is: newzroomafrika.tv

I ran this command: sudo certbot-auto certonly --standalone -d newzroomafrika.tv -d www.newzroomafrika.tv

It produced this output:

Challenge failed for domain newzroomafrika.tv
Challenge failed for domain www.newzroomafrika.tv
http-01 challenge for newzroomafrika.tv
http-01 challenge for www.newzroomafrika.tv

Type: unauthorized
Detail: Invalid response from
http://newroomafrika.tv/.well-known/acme-challenge/xxxxxxxxxx: “<!doctype htmp…>”

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):

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version):
Ubuntu 16

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

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):

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

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Hi @Thabo

that's curious. There is a check of your domain - ten minutes old - https://check-your-website.server-daten.de/?q=newzroomafrika.tv#url-checks

http + /.well-known/acme-challenge/random-filename answers with a http status 200, not with the expected result http status 404 - Not Found.

But if you use --standalone, you must stop your port 80, so --standalone is able to start an own webserver.

Looks like that doesn't work. Did you stop your webserver manual before starting Certbot?

Normally, Certbot + --standalone wouldn't work because port 80 isn't free.

And: There is a cPanel-certificate:

Issuer not before not after Domain names LE-Duplicate next LE
cPanel, Inc. Certification Authority 2019-12-10 2020-03-09 cpanel.ngwatonkosi.com, mail.newzroomafrika.tv, mail.ngwatonkosi.com, newzroomafrika.tv, ngwatonkosi.com, webdisk.ngwatonkosi.com, webmail.ngwatonkosi.com, www.newzroomafrika.tv, www.ngwatonkosi.com - 9 entries

Is there another instance that blocks?

Where did you run that certbot?

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Hi @JuergenAuer,

Thank you for the quick reply,

Looks like that doesn’t work. Did you stop your webserver manual before starting Certbot?
Yes I did

Is there another instance that blocks?
I'm not certain because the machine I am working on was setup by the person responsible for the cpanel.

Where did you run that certbot?
I ran the certbot in the root folder of the NodeJS's server source files.

And: There is a cPanel-certificate:
Could this be the possible cause?
I do not have full access to all the ENV setup, I do have a root user in the Ubuntu machine.
I am rather clueless what is happening now.
There is this on the output from https://check-your-website.server-daten.de/?q=newzroomafrika.tv

Could it be the http-equiv?
Or something from the cpanel side?
Thank you

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Ok, that explains why Certbot doesn't show an error opening port 80.

But then: What's the content of

Normally, --standalone should have a timeout - or should work.

Looks like there is another instance (proxy or something else), that answers.

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Here is the output
Maybe I should try making certain that I have stopped the server before creating the certificate.
I will have to do it when I am at the office because I am restricted to using the IP from there,

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There you see the problem.

It’s the same content listet in your check - https://check-your-website.server-daten.de/?q=newzroomafrika.tv#url-checks

<!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js)

So you have stopped your Node-Server, but the answer comes from another server.

You must stop that server and you must run Certbot there.

Or you must find a solution so you can use another authenticator, not --standalone.

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Do you mean the problem comes from here?

Or you must find a solution so you can use another authenticator, not --standalone .
I am not getting this part

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You have an Express-Server, that answers.

Where runs that server? There you must stop your Express and run Certbot.

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Okay thank you @JuergenAuer.
I will do that, I hope you will be available in case I face some issues.
But in any case thank you for your time and assistance, I appreciate it.

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I am getting a different error now. Is it the firewall?

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I don't know. Do you run Certbot on the same server where the Express runs?

If not, that can't work.

Perhaps it's easier if you check the documentation of that Express. So you can use that Express directly to create a Letsencrypt certificate, so you don't need to stop it.

I don’t know. Do you run Certbot on the same server where the Express runs?

Yes

Hey @JuergenAuer,

I have managed to get it to work, thank you so much, it was because of the VM, it had old certificates.
Thank you.

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