Is there a way to use certificate created before for my website?

Hi,
I created certificate 5 times in one week. When i try to create another one i get error. I know i can not create certificate more than 5 in one week but is there a way to use created certificate for my website ? because i could not use certificates that i created before because first time i use ssl in my website and i did not notice to limit. If is there a way please help me.
Thank you

My domain is: vultuskjkszpj.online

I ran this command: docker-compose -f docker-compose.deploy.yml run --rm certbot /opt/certify-init.sh

It produced this output:
An unexpected error occurred:
Error creating new order :: too many certificates (5) already issued for this exact set of domains in the last 168 hours: vultuskjkszpj.online, retry after 2022-12-15T19:43:47Z: see Duplicate Certificate Limit - Let's Encrypt
Ask for help or search for solutions at https://community.letsencrypt.org. See the logfile /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log or re-run Certbot with -v for more details.
ERROR: 1

My web server is : nginx:1.23.0-alpine
I used Docker and Nginx with Python project python:3.11.0-slim
The operating system my web server runs on is : nginx:1.23.0-alpine

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

I can login to a root shell on my machine

I'm using a control panel to manage my site

The version of my client is certbot/certbot:v1.27.0

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Yes, we can help you but we need more info. please answer the questions as best you can


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:

I ran this command:

It produced this output:

My web server is (include version):

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

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know):

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 @msozkan, and welcome to the LE community forum :slight_smile:

You need to do your testing against the staging environment.

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Of course there is, if you still have it and its corresponding private key. The cert is easy to get (you can get a copy from crt.sh if you've lost yours), but the private key is, well, private, and if you've destroyed it, the cert that goes with it won't do you any good.

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Hi danb35,
Thanks for answer. I can see my certificate list from crt.sh. but i dont know how to use it. Can you give me more specific detail ?
Thank you

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Do you have any of the private keys?
If not, those public certs are useless.
Otherwise, anyone could use your cert.

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How can I find out if I have private keys?

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Try:
ls -lr /etc/letsencrypt/archive/*

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ls -lr /etc/letsencrypt/archive/* I run this code without archive because no such a file or directory.
When i run the code i get these result
1
If i have private key how can i use with public certs from crt.sh

1 Like

I don't see anywhere for the private key to be.

Do you have a backup or a snapshot that contains that folder?

In a few more hours you will be able to get a new cert.

Before you do that, you should work on your system to make sure it can save the cert.
That the cert can survive a system reboot.
You should also do all your testing on the staging environment - not the live production system.

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I think I deleted it without realizing it :roll_eyes:.
I just asking to learn so next time i can use. If i have private key how can i use the key

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As you would use any cert.
Where you need a private key and a public cert.
The public cert can be made public.
The private key must never be shared.

In nginx [and using certbot] it is usually something like:

ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/<your.domain>/fullchain.pem; 
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/<your.domain>/privkey.pem; 
8 Likes

Thank you so much for everything. Thanks also for the quick and nice explanations.

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