# Unable to find a virtual host listening on port 80

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [August 31, 2021, 9:08am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912 "2021-08-31T09:08:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zeesteve1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/zeesteve1/32/49911_2.png) [@zeesteve1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/zeesteve1)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 9:08am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/1 "2021-08-31T09:08:43Z")

</div>

My domain is: [pdxwater.org](http://pdxwater.org)

I ran this command: certbot renew

It produced this output: Renewing an existing certificate for [pdxwater.org](http://pdxwater.org)  
Failed to renew certificate pdxwater.org-0001 with error: Unable to find a virtual host listening on port 80 which is currently needed for Certbot to prove to the CA that you control your domain. Please add a virtual host for port 80.

My web server is (include version): apache2

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Ubuntu 20.04

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: [digitalocean.com](http://digitalocean.com)

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): pm2

The version of my client is (e.g. output of `certbot --version` or `certbot-auto --version` if you're using Certbot): certbot 1.18.0

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 9:33am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/2 "2021-08-31T09:33:01Z")

</div>

What's the output of:

```
sudo apachectl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zeesteve1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/zeesteve1/32/49911_2.png) [@zeesteve1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/zeesteve1)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/3 "2021-08-31T09:36:42Z")

</div>

VirtualHost configuration:  
\*:443 is a NameVirtualHost  
port 443 namevhost [www.pdxwater.org](http://www.pdxwater.org) (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org-le-ssl.conf:2)  
port 443 namevhost [pdxwater.org](http://pdxwater.org) (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org-le-ssl.conf:12)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 9:48am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/4 "2021-08-31T09:48:22Z")

</div>

Like the error message from Certbot suggests, you need to keep around a port 80 virtualhost. Otherwise, Certbot doesn't know how to renew the certificate.

If you used to have an `/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org.conf` file and you disabled it or removed it, I suggest bringing it back.

Otherwise, you'll need to create a new one. Even if the only thing it does is redirect users to HTTPS, it needs to be there.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zeesteve1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/zeesteve1/32/49911_2.png) [@zeesteve1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/zeesteve1)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 10:00am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/5 "2021-08-31T10:00:09Z")

</div>

ah, ok, you are correct. It was disabled after the last reboot. I did `a2ensite pdxwater.org` and `apachectl -k graceful` and it got passed that error.

unfortunately I have a new one:

```nohighlight
Successfully received certificate.
Certificate is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/pdxwater.org-0001/fullchain.pem
Key is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/pdxwater.org-0001/privkey.pem
This certificate expires on 2021-11-29.
These files will be updated when the certificate renews.
Certbot has set up a scheduled task to automatically renew this certificate in the background.

Deploying certificate
Successfully deployed certificate for pdxwater.org to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org-le-ssl.conf
Failed redirect for pdxwater.org
Unable to set the redirect enhancement for pdxwater.org.

NEXT STEPS:
- The certificate was saved, but could not be installed (installer: apache). After fixing the error shown below, try installing it again by running:
  certbot install --cert-name pdxwater.org-0001

```

```nohighlight

Unable to find corresponding HTTP vhost; Unable to create one as intended addresses conflict; Current configuration does not support automated redirection

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 10:13am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/6 "2021-08-31T10:13:03Z")

</div>

It might help to post the contents of that vhost file you just enabled, and also the output of `DUMP_VHOSTS` again.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zeesteve1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/zeesteve1/32/49911_2.png) [@zeesteve1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/zeesteve1)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 10:18am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/7 "2021-08-31T10:18:33Z")

</div>

Here is the vhosts dump:

```nohighlight
VirtualHost configuration:
*:443 is a NameVirtualHost
         port 443 namevhost www.pdxwater.org (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org-le-ssl.conf:2)
         port 443 namevhost pdxwater.org (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org-le-ssl.conf:12)
*:80 is a NameVirtualHost
         port 80 namevhost pdxwater.org (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/pdxwater.org.conf:1)
                 alias www.pdxwater.org

```

and here is the contents of that file:

```nohighlight
<VirtualHost *:80>

        ServerAdmin root@pdxwater.org
        DocumentRoot /var/www/pdxwater.org/
        ServerName pdxwater.org
        ServerAlias www.pdxwater.org

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

        Redirect permanent / https://pdxwater.org

        #ProxyRequests On
        #ProxyPass / https://localhost:3000/
        #ProxyPassReverse / localhost:3000/

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.pdxwater.org [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =pdxwater.org
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

```

thanks again for your help so far

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_az](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/22d042/32.png) [@\_az](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/_az)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 10:43am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/8 "2021-08-31T10:43:56Z")

</div>

Hmm. I don't think you need to do anything, except maybe comment out this line, because the rewrite rules act as a better version of the redirect:

```
Redirect permanent / https://pdxwater.org

```

Although Certbot is telling you the installation failed, I think it should be safe to ignore; it shouldn't come up during future renewals.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zeesteve1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/zeesteve1/32/49911_2.png) [@zeesteve1](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/zeesteve1)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 10:50am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/9 "2021-08-31T10:50:15Z")

</div>

Ok, thank you, correct again, despite the error, the certification is working and the site loads with [https://pdxwater.org](https://pdxwater.org).

Thank you very much!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rg305](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/rg305/32/91314_2.png) [@rg305](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/rg305)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 12:45pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/10 "2021-08-31T12:45:42Z")

</div>

One last thing to ensure all is well going forward.  
Please show the output now of:  
`certbot certificates`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/unable-to-find-a-virtual-host-listening-on-port-80/158912/11 "2021-09-30T12:46:38Z")

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