# Problems renewing Let's Encrypt Certificate **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [October 4, 2022, 11:39am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618 "2022-10-04T11:39:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/21 "2022-10-04T14:09:57Z")
keith looks fine. What is contents of n8 ```nohighlight /etc/apache2/sites-available/n8.conf ``` ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:11pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/22 "2022-10-04T14:11:09Z")
this was a test (once), I'll delete that site is it ok to do a2dissite n8.conf? ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/23 "2022-10-04T14:12:34Z")
> [@erik1](#): > > is it ok to do a2dissite n8.conf? Yes, if it is not used that is good idea. To the next one. What is this ```nohighlight /etc/apache2/sites-available/nietmetmij-le-ssl.conf ``` ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/24 "2022-10-04T14:15:56Z")
that file is empty now (it says 0 bytes, it wasn't empty a couple hours ago) I don't know what I did wrong, but the site is not working anymore atm, probably because the apache restart I did, just before you said shoudn't restart (yet). ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/25 "2022-10-04T14:18:01Z")
No, the restart should not have done that. Could you have spelled it wrong? What does this show? ```nohighlight ls -l /etc/apache2/sites-available/n* ``` ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/26 "2022-10-04T14:23:41Z")
no, because I'm using Midnight Commander, I really see the files in the folder (and nietmetmij-le-ssl.conf sais 0 bytes) ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:24pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/27 "2022-10-04T14:24:43Z")
> [@MikeMcQ](#): > > `ls -l /etc/apache2/sites-available/n*` Your command says: -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1846 mrt 21 2022 /etc/apache2/sites-available/n8.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2084 mrt 17 2022 /etc/apache2/sites-available/nietmetmij.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 okt 4 15:14 /etc/apache2/sites-available/nietmetmij-le-ssl.conf ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:27pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/28 "2022-10-04T14:27:24Z")
Do you have a backup of that file? Because it was not zero bytes about an hour ago in your post #7. Apache does not update config files it only reads them. Also, you previously had a file named `notariaatnijlen.conf`. That now seems missing. Did you do that on purpose? ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/29 "2022-10-04T14:28:11Z")
that notariaatfile is a copy/paste so I didn't paste it in the last post ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/30 "2022-10-04T14:28:57Z")
but, in the meantime I created a nietmetmij-le-ssl.conf (a mix od nietmetmij.conf and keith-le-ssl.conf ) ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:29pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/31 "2022-10-04T14:29:37Z")
```nohighlight # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless. # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly. #ServerName www.example.com ServerName nietmetmij.be ServerAlias www.nietmetmij.be DocumentRoot /var/www/nietmetmij WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/nietmetmij/flask/my_flask_app.wsgi Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted Options ExecCGI SetHandler cgi-script Options +ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script .py # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn, # error, crit, alert, emerg. # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular # modules, e.g. #LogLevel info ssl:warn ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf". #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf RewriteEngine on # Some rewrite rules in this file were disabled on your HTTPS site, # because they have the potential to create redirection loops. # RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =nietmetmij.be [OR] # RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.nietmetmij.be # RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent] Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/nietmetmij.be/fullchain.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/nietmetmij.be/privkey.pem ``` ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/32 "2022-10-04T14:33:55Z")
> [@erik1](#): > > ```nohighlight > SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/nietmetmij.be/fullchain.pem > SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/nietmetmij.be/privkey.pem > > ``` OK, good you recovered the file but the cert file names are wrong. If you look back at the certbot certificates output this cert has a "-0001" in the name. So, you need to change these to: ```nohighlight SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/nietmetmij.be-0001/fullchain.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/nietmetmij.be-0001/privkey.pem ``` Something must have gone slightly wrong when creating certs for this domain earlier. I am not worried about that right now. Just want to get your sites running right now. We might come back to that later. When that is done, please show contents of ```nohighlight /etc/apache2/sites-available/notariaatnijlen.conf ``` Want to see this even though it has no cert. Want to ensure no interference with others. ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:35pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/33 "2022-10-04T14:35:05Z")
> [@MikeMcQ](#): > > `-0001` I'll adissite notariaat.conf too ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/34 "2022-10-04T14:37:11Z")
OK for notaria, just the last one and we'll test config Show: ```nohighlight /etc/apache2/sites-available/vectrex-le-ssl.conf ``` ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/35 "2022-10-04T14:37:20Z")
a2dissite notariaat.conf is done and the -0001 was added in the nietmetmij-le-ssl.conf ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/36 "2022-10-04T14:38:44Z")
again, vectrex-le-ssl.conf is an empty file ! (it seems my computer knows what was important for me and decided to delete these files, well not delete, but they are empty ..) ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/37 "2022-10-04T14:39:24Z")
OK, well, I guess you need to make that one too. Ouch. I'll wait ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/38 "2022-10-04T14:44:02Z")
```nohighlight # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless. # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly. #ServerName www.example.com ServerName vectrex.be ServerAlias www.vectrex.be DocumentRoot /var/www/vectrex DirectoryIndex index.html AllowOverride All Order allow,deny Allow from all Options ExecCGI SetHandler cgi-script Options +ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script .py # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn, # error, crit, alert, emerg. # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular # modules, e.g. #LogLevel info ssl:warn ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf". #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf RewriteEngine on RewriteEngine on # Some rewrite rules in this file were disabled on your HTTPS site, # because they have the potential to create redirection loops. # RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =vectrex.be [OR] # RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.vectrex.be # RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent] Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/vectrex.be/fullchain.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/vectrex.be/privkey.pem ``` ---
**Author:** ![MikeMcQ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mikemcq/32/52772_2.png) [@MikeMcQ](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MikeMcQ)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/39 "2022-10-04T14:45:20Z")
Hurray! Looks good. Now let's see if the config is OK. Still, do not restart Apache yet though. Just this test. ```nohighlight sudo apache2ctl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS ``` ---
**Author:** ![erik1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8e8cbc/32.png) [@erik1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/erik1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618/40 "2022-10-04T14:47:02Z")
> [@MikeMcQ](#): > > `sudo apache2ctl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS` root@h2955757:/etc/apache2/sites-available# sudo apache2ctl -t -D DUMP\_VHOSTS VirtualHost configuration: \*:443 is a NameVirtualHost default server blijf-in-uw-kot.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/biuk-le-ssl.conf:2) port 443 namevhost blijf-in-uw-kot.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/biuk-le-ssl.conf:2) alias www.blijf-in-uw-kot.be port 443 namevhost keith.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/keith-ssl.conf:2) alias www.keith.be port 443 namevhost nietmetmij.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/nietmetmij-le-ssl.conf:2) alias www.nietmetmij.be port 443 namevhost vectrex.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/vectrex-le-ssl.conf:2) alias www.vectrex.be \*:80 is a NameVirtualHost default server [h2955757.stratoserver.net](http://h2955757.stratoserver.net) (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1) port 80 namevhost [h2955757.stratoserver.net](http://h2955757.stratoserver.net) (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1) port 80 namevhost blijf-in-uw-kot.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/biuk.conf:1) alias www.blijf-in-uw-kot.be port 80 namevhost nietmetmij.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/nietmetmij.conf:1) alias www.nietmetmij.be port 80 namevhost vectrex.be (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/vectrex.conf:1) alias www.vectrex.be [Previous page](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618.md?page=1) [Next page](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/problems-renewing-lets-encrypt-certificate/185618.md?page=3)