I saw that this error was discussed already a few times, but those threads were locked, and the solutions don't apply to me. This is a brand new VPS, fresh after install - literally first thing I did was change ssh port to something not obvious, then enabled ufw, then I tried to get certs for my domain.
My domain is:
orthoboard.xyz
I ran this command:
sudo certbot certonly --cert-name shared --standalone -d orthoboard.xyz --email <my-email-goes-here> --test-cert --agree-tos
It produced this output:
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Requesting a certificate for orthoboard.xyz
Certbot failed to authenticate some domains (authenticator: standalone). The Certificate Authority reported these problems:
Identifier: orthoboard.xyz
Type: unauthorized
Detail: The key authorization file from the server did not match this challenge. Expected "11VuAiVIvlN2AOC7k6eZ3YxnFCxZQzfuFrxfPcaRAyk.LhHWGl356I9mNyuFncMErWewPEcRGfBT9_D58ghk0BI" (got "11VuAiVIvlN2AOC7k6eZ3YxnFCxZQzfuFrxfPcaRAyk.4E3VCTFsySjUrqnCg0ooULx-3kbdPBygi0aWkvg5Gd8")
Hint: The Certificate Authority failed to download the challenge files from the temporary standalone webserver started by Certbot on port 80. Ensure that the listed domains point to this machine and that it can accept inbound connections from the internet.
Some challenges have failed.
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
My web server is (include version): didn't use one (using --standalone for now)
The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): ubuntu 26.04
My hosting provider, if applicable, is: it's a VPS so... irrelevant?
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 5.6.0 installed via snap