Rebuilding existing server

[johnlongland]

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: N/A

It produced this output: N/A

My web server is (include version):
nginx 1.14.0

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version):
Ubuntu 18.04

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:
Self hosting on Digital Ocean vps

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 --version 1.25.0

Good day all.
For my existing server installation I used the following install command:
sudo apt-get remove certbot
sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install core
sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
sudo certbot --nginx

My server is running fine ... no problem. I have to however do a major upgrade which may
render the server useless if the upgrade goes wrong. If I have to re-create the server from scratch
and want to use lets-encrypt again on the same domain, will the lets-encrypt allow me to register
again with a domain previously used for a server ?

[mcpherrinm]

It will be fine to reissue new certificates if you have to rebuild the server.

There are rate limits to prevent abuse, and in particular there’s a limit of 5 of the exact same certificate per week. If you rebuild your server multiple times it is possible you run into that.

You can read more read more about rate limits.

[9peppe]

If you do not downgrade Certbot you can move the entire /etc/letsencrypt directory from one server to another without issue.

[Osiris]

@9peppe

you can move the entire /etc/letsencrypt directory from one server to another without issue

Just use the correct tool and options to that tool to keep the permissions and symbolic links intact.

[johnlongland]

Thank you @mcpherrinm , @9peppe , @Osiris for your prompt messages and indeed to take the
time to look at my concern.

It puts my mind at ease that it should not be a big problem to re-instate my certificates once my
servers are running again. I am currently busy with the upgrade of the servers and once that is
done, I shall attend to my certificates.

Much appreciated.