"Could not bind TCP port 80 because it is already in use"

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1

Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. crt.sh | example.com), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help.

My domain is: video.lamer-ethos.site

I ran this command: certbot renew --dry-run

It produced this output:

Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/video.lamer-ethos.site.conf
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Simulating renewal of an existing certificate for video.lamer-ethos.site
Failed to renew certificate video.lamer-ethos.site with error: Could not bind TCP port 80 because it is already in use by another process on this system (such as a web server). Please stop the program in question and then try again.

My web server is (include version): nginx 1.22.1-9

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): debian 12

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: vps vendor is geophysical proximity

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): 2.1.0

have attempted to run this command with nginx stopped from systemctl, with the same error plus another error for another domain hosted on the same site.

any help would be appreciated.

2

You should tell certbot to use either --nginx or --webroot, the error you see is certbot trying to use --standalone.

certbot renew --cert-name video.lamer-ethos.site --nginx should work.

What does ss -tlpn src :80 say?

3 Likes
3

thank you for your reply. the command you provided results in a different output.

 certbot renew --cert-name video.lamer-ethos.site --nginx
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

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Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/video.lamer-ethos.site.conf
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Renewing an existing certificate for video.lamer-ethos.site
Encountered exception during recovery: certbot.errors.MisconfigurationError: nginx restart failed:
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:48 [emerg] 35508#35508: still could not bind()
Failed to renew certificate video.lamer-ethos.site with error: nginx restart failed:
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to 0.0.0.0:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: bind() to [::]:8448 failed (98: Address already in use)
2024/07/31 12:12:46 [emerg] 35506#35506: still could not bind()


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All renewals failed. The following certificates could not be renewed:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/video.lamer-ethos.site/fullchain.pem (failure)
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Hook 'post-hook' reported error code 1
Hook 'post-hook' ran with error output:
 Job for nginx.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
 See "systemctl status nginx.service" and "journalctl -xeu nginx.service" for details.
1 renew failure(s), 0 parse failure(s)

here is the result of the second command:

ss -tlpn src :80
State           Recv-Q          Send-Q                   Local Address:Port                   Peer Address:Port         Process                                                                                                                 
LISTEN          0               511                            0.0.0.0:80                          0.0.0.0:*             users:(("nginx",pid=34226,fd=7),("nginx",pid=34225,fd=7),("nginx",pid=34224,fd=7),("nginx",pid=33258,fd=7))            
LISTEN          0               511                               [::]:80                             [::]:*             users:(("nginx",pid=34226,fd=8),("nginx",pid=34225,fd=8),("nginx",pid=34224,fd=8),("nginx",pid=33258,fd=8))

thanks again.

1 Like
4

I'm not sure but it looks like there's more than one ngnix instance running.

There could be several reasons for that, any ideas?

2 Likes
5

Not sure this is happening here but that error can happen if the Certbot --nginx option is used while nginx is not running.

In that case Certbot starts nginx but not using systemd. You can't then stop or control it using normal systemd commands. The easiest way to resolve that is to reboot your server and always make sure nginx is running before using --nginx.

If that's not possible a careful analysis of running pids is needed to kill of the "wrong" nginx processes

3 Likes
6

with this command after rebooting the server the renewal completed!

maybe I entered that commmand after stopping nginx, though I thought I restarted it.

thank you two for your support.

4 Likes
7

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