# Failed authorization procedure: Error getting validation data **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [September 8, 2021, 5:56am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404 "2021-09-08T05:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NewZeal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/newzeal/32/52724_2.png) [@NewZeal](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/NewZeal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 5:56am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/1 "2021-09-08T05:56:30Z")
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](https://crt.sh/?q=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: [practice.emotfit.com](http://practice.emotfit.com) I ran this command: sudo certbot certonly --preferred-challenges http --webroot --staging --http-01-port 8000 -d [practice.emotfit.com](http://practice.emotfit.com) It produced this output: Obtaining a new certificate Performing the following challenges: http-01 challenge for [practice.emotfit.com](http://practice.emotfit.com) Input the webroot for [practice.emotfit.com](http://practice.emotfit.com): (Enter 'c' to cancel): /var/www/community/current/html Waiting for verification... Cleaning up challenges Failed authorization procedure. [practice.emotfit.com](http://practice.emotfit.com) (http-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:connection :: The server could not connect to the client to verify the domain :: Fetching [http://practice.emotfit.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/0hlQeijoCxZL0qPRriumwLXlADUXyW\_oDgJt7o7FfKM:](http://practice.emotfit.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/0hlQeijoCxZL0qPRriumwLXlADUXyW_oDgJt7o7FfKM:) Error getting validation data IMPORTANT NOTES: - The following errors were reported by the server: My web server is (include version): Debian 9 (Stretch) The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Apache 2.4 My hosting provider, if applicable, is: Sitehost, self managed 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): certbot 0.28.0 I have already created a number of letsencrypt SSL certs on the same server, including [https://emotfit.com](https://emotfit.com), which is the parent domain of this subdomain. I am running Varnish on port 80, http on 8000 and certbot on 8080. Further to above: I can no longer renew the [emotfit.com](http://emotfit.com) domain; getting the same response. Thanks, Kent ---
**Author:** ![Osiris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/839c29/32.png) [@Osiris](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/Osiris)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 6:01am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/2 "2021-09-08T06:01:03Z")
_Something_ on your server makes your webserver reply with an empty response for paths starting with `/.well-known/acme-challenge/`. Example output: ```nohighlight osiris@erazer ~ $ curl -LIv http://practice.emotfit.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/ * Trying 2403:7000:8000:900::ff:80... * Trying 223.165.64.65:80... * Connected to practice.emotfit.com (2403:7000:8000:900::ff) port 80 (#0) > HEAD /.well-known/acme-challenge/ HTTP/1.1 > Host: practice.emotfit.com > User-Agent: curl/7.77.0 > Accept: */* > * Empty reply from server * Closing connection 0 curl: (52) Empty reply from server osiris@erazer ~ $ ``` IPv4 and IPv6 behave the same, so that's not the issue. The path `/.well-known/` returns a 404 file not found error, so that's also not the issue. But when adding `/acme-challenge/` to the path, it starts replying those empty replies. Does your webserver have a special configuration for `/.well-known/acme-challenge/` set up, so it gets treated differently? ---
**Author:** ![NewZeal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/newzeal/32/52724_2.png) [@NewZeal](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/NewZeal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 7:15am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/3 "2021-09-08T07:15:04Z")
Thanks for your reply. I am not aware of any special configuration. It is a Drupal site so there is a rewrite rule but it should only affect paths for which there is no actual directory present. When I installed certs with letsencrypt on 8 August, the emotfit one resolved no worries. However, I do notice that there is no directory called /.well-known in the html docs directory (webroot). Is that supposed to be the case? As you can see [https://emotfit.com/](https://emotfit.com/) works correctly. I did half a dozen domain names on the same day, and now is the first time I've been back. I have used the same command lines I used previously so nothing changed from last time that I know. Update: Does the certbot create the file temporarily on the server at the location specified, and then separately use the http protocol to attempt to retrieve it? Trying to understand how it works. ---
**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/4 "2021-09-08T07:41:53Z")
I think it's worth trying to rule Varnish out as a potential culprit. First, try requesting to Apache directly: ``` curl -i -H 'Host: practice.emotfit.com' localhost:8000/.well-known/acme-challenge/test ``` Does that produce the "Empty reply from server" error? Then try requesting to Varnish directly: ``` curl -i -H 'Host: practice.emotfit.com' localhost/.well-known/acme-challenge/test ``` Does that produce the "Empty reply from server" error? ---
**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 7:44am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/5 "2021-09-08T07:44:10Z")
> [@NewZeal](#): > > certbot on 8080 If you are expecting Certbot to be running a webserver (and you're going to proxy to Certbot from Varnish or Apache), then you want `--standalone`, not `--webroot`. So you would try instead: ``` certbot certonly -d practice.emotfit.com --standalone --http-01-port 8080 --dry-run ``` ---
**Author:** ![NewZeal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/newzeal/32/52724_2.png) [@NewZeal](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/NewZeal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 7:51am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/6 "2021-09-08T07:51:45Z")
> [@\_az](#): > > `certbot certonly -d practice.emotfit.com --standalone --http-01-port 8080 --dry-run` Dang, so easy! I must have written down the command wrong last time I used it. Thanks very much for the help. I made a good donation to letsencrypt a month ago. I'll keep doing so. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 7:52am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/failed-authorization-procedure-error-getting-validation-data/159404/7 "2021-10-08T07:52:43Z")
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