# Expanding the cert?

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/expanding-the-cert/8810>\
**Category:** Server\
**Created:** [January 13, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/expanding-the-cert/8810 "2016-01-13T20:53:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cindylo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@cindylo](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/cindylo)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/expanding-the-cert/8810/1 "2016-01-13T20:53:39Z")

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So I was going to try and renew the cert for my server till I ran the command and got a box saying this.  
Do you want to expand and replace this existing certificate with the new certificate?

What happens if I hit expand and can I just renew for the domains I requested the cert for anyway? Cause I always get this box, doesn’t matter what I do.

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**Author:** ![effg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/effg/32/4617_2.png) [@effg](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/effg)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/expanding-the-cert/8810/2 "2016-01-13T20:58:41Z")

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@cindylo have you defined new domains? You can expand the certs with additional domains and LE will generate new certificates which will be valid for all your newly added domains + the known domains.

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**Author:** ![serverco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/serverco/32/4251_2.png) [@serverco](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/serverco)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/expanding-the-cert/8810/3 "2016-01-13T21:55:25Z")

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Remember there is a rate limit of 5 certs/ domain / 7 days. If you are adding more domains, and including the same domains, you can easily reach this limit if unaware.

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**Author:** ![cindylo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@cindylo](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/cindylo)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/expanding-the-cert/8810/4 "2016-01-13T22:41:58Z")

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Ah ok, I didn’t know it would generate certs for the new domains, and yes there a few more since I got the cert.