# Sudo letsencrypt renew -\> unexpected error: 'server'. Skipping **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [January 5, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150 "2017-01-05T18:08:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MrAndyStorey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mrandystorey/32/10389_2.png) [@MrAndyStorey](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MrAndyStorey)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/1 "2017-01-05T18:08:09Z")
hi I use Let’s Encrypt on a few websites hosted on Digital Ocean running apache and Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.4.0-57-generic x86\_64) I used a previous version of letsencrypt to getting SSL working on apache for the following two domains for my droplet. These now only have 23 days remaining. > **[An introduction to our collection of old wool and team cycling jerseys](https://cycling-jersey-collection.com/)** > > An interesting collection of iconic team cycle jerseys made from wool and polyester all displayed online for you to discover! > **[An introduction to our collection of old wool and team cycling jerseys](https://cycling-jersey-collection.uk/)** > > An interesting collection of iconic team cycle jerseys made from wool and polyester all displayed online for you to discover! I recently upgrades a number of packages - as recommended in DO’s tutorial before getting a new SSL cert for > **[On the Rivet Chamois Cream 200ml: £9.99 + post free](https://ontherivet.store/)** > > Our anti-bacterial Chamois cream is made using natural ingredients, reducing friction and chaffing so you can enjoy your rides! And now the following command returns the following errors: $ sudo letsencrypt renew Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/cycling-jersey-collection.uk.conf 2017-01-05 10:58:55,499:WARNING:letsencrypt.cli:Attempting to renew cert from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/cycling-jersey-collection.uk.conf produced an unexpected error: ‘server’. Skipping. Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/cycling-jersey-collection.com.conf 2017-01-05 10:58:56,563:WARNING:letsencrypt.cli:Attempting to renew cert from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/cycling-jersey-collection.com.conf produced an unexpected error: ‘server’. Skipping. Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/ontherivet.store.conf The following certs are not due for renewal yet: /etc/letsencrypt/live/ontherivet.store/fullchain.pem (skipped) All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed: /etc/letsencrypt/live/cycling-jersey-collection.uk/fullchain.pem (failure) /etc/letsencrypt/live/cycling-jersey-collection.com/fullchain.pem (failure) 2 renew failure(s), 0 parse failure(s) Can you please advise a suitable course of action? Many thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Osiris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/839c29/32.png) [@Osiris](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/Osiris)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/2 "2017-01-05T18:26:44Z")
Check the `server` directive in the mentioned `.conf` files for strange characters. ---
**Author:** ![schoen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/schoen/32/79_2.png) [@schoen](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/schoen)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/3 "2017-01-05T23:06:37Z")
I believe this problem usually happens when initially installing Certbot or letsencrypt from git or letsencrypt-auto, and then “upgrading” to an Ubuntu OS package. Is that perhaps what you did in this case? The trouble is that the Ubuntu package is actually an _older_ version of the client, and the renewal configuration files aren’t backwards-compatible. ---
**Author:** ![MrAndyStorey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mrandystorey/32/10389_2.png) [@MrAndyStorey](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MrAndyStorey)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 9:55am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/4 "2017-01-06T09:55:25Z")
Dear Seth Many thanks for taking the time to reply. You are absolutely right, I used the following command: $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install python-letsencrypt-apache So the question is what do I do now? Is there a nice why of upgrading the Ubuntu OS package back to where I was so that I can ensure all three domains are renewable? OR Can I re-create the .conf files by hand? The format of the two types of file is vastly different **ontherivet.store:** cert = /etc/letsencrypt/live/ontherivet.store/cert.pem privkey = /etc/letsencrypt/live/ontherivet.store/privkey.pem chain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/ontherivet.store/chain.pem fullchain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/ontherivet.store/fullchain.pem # Options and defaults used in the renewal process [renewalparams] no\_self\_upgrade = False apache\_enmod = a2enmod no\_verify\_ssl = False ifaces = None apache\_dismod = a2dismod register\_unsafely\_without\_email = False apache\_handle\_modules = True uir = None installer = apache config\_dir = /etc/letsencrypt text\_mode = False func = \ staging = False dry\_run = False work\_dir = /var/lib/letsencrypt [36%] **[cycling-jersey-collection.com](http://cycling-jersey-collection.com):** # renew\_before\_expiry = 30 days version = 0.9.3 cert = /etc/letsencrypt/live/cycling-jersey-collection.com/cert.pem privkey = /etc/letsencrypt/live/cycling-jersey-collection.com/privkey.pem chain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/cycling-jersey-collection.com/chain.pem fullchain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/cycling-jersey-collection.com/fullchain.pem # Options used in the renewal process [renewalparams] authenticator = apache installer = apache account = 971f6841a0be2e3599f2e130e320accc [100%] Thanks! Andy ---
**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 6, 2017, 10:23am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/5 "2017-01-06T10:23:02Z")
I think the easiest is to start with a clean configuration > mv /etc/letsencrypt /etc/letsencrypt.old and then re-issue all certificates. ---
**Author:** ![MrAndyStorey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mrandystorey/32/10389_2.png) [@MrAndyStorey](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MrAndyStorey)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 11:17am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/6 "2017-01-06T11:17:23Z")
SUCCESS! I re-wrote the old .conf files based on the ontherivet.store.conf and all is well! Happy Days… Andy ---
**Author:** ![MitchellK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mitchellk/32/18339_2.png) [@MitchellK](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MitchellK)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/7 "2017-01-06T15:15:27Z")
Installing from Ubuntu and other Distro’s repositories is generally not advised as they are not updated frequently enough. Ubuntu’s repo has a version that’s anywhere between 0.2.0-4 and 0.4.1-1. However the latest official client Certbot is at 0.9.3. Only Ubuntu 16.10 gives you a later version 0.8.1-2 (still outdated) and Ubuntu Zesty (amazingly) has 0.9.3-1 in their repo. Best still is to clone the repo from Github into /opt/certbot and always be up to date. ---
**Author:** ![Osiris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/839c29/32.png) [@Osiris](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/Osiris)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/8 "2017-01-06T17:48:01Z")
> [@MitchellK](#): > > Best still is to clone the repo from Github into /opt/certbot and always be up to date If you're using `certbot-auto` afterwards, it's better to just download [https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto](https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto), make it executable and run it. Cloning the whole github shebang and not using it for coding is rather unusual if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![MitchellK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/mitchellk/32/18339_2.png) [@MitchellK](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/MitchellK)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/9 "2017-01-07T12:43:39Z")
Yes indeed @Osiris … my bad, still stuck with git clone in my head. Will update all my articles to note this that only the script is needed. Thanks for the reminder 👍 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/sudo-letsencrypt-renew-unexpected-error-server-skipping/25150/10 "2017-02-06T12:43:53Z")
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