Unable to renew SSL certificate using certbot

I'm trying to renew my SSL certificate in my AWS EC2 server but I'm getting the following error so after a lot of research I couldn't find the solution.

I ran this command:

$ sudo certbot renew --dry-run

It produced this output:

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

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Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/mydomain.com.conf
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Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing...
Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx
Renewing an existing certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for mydomain.com
Using default addresses 80 and [::]:80 ipv6only=on for authentication.
Waiting for verification...
Challenge failed for domain mydomain.com
http-01 challenge for mydomain.com
Cleaning up challenges
Attempting to renew cert (mydomain.com) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/prod-mydomain.conf produced an unexpected error: Some challenges have failed.. Skipping.
All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain.com/fullchain.pem (failure)

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All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain.com/fullchain.pem (failure)
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1 renew failure(s), 0 parse failure(s)

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - The following errors were reported by the server:

   Domain: mydmain.com
   Type:   unauthorized
   Detail: 2.211.168.8: Invalid response from
   http://mydoamin.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/ov6EBHInETwkZZ-oqLNI908jFXvN7PFK86ZCJYcdrtA:
   404

   To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was
   entered correctly and the DNS A/AAAA record(s) for that domain
   contain(s) the right IP address.

My domain is: prod-backend.alectify.com

The operating system my web server runs on is: Ubuntu 20.4

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: godady and using route 53

I can login to a root shell on my machine: yes

I'm using the terminal to login into my server

The version of my client is: 0.40.0

Hi @zainkhan, and welcome to the LE community forum :slight_smile:

You have not provided enough information for anyone to help you with.


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. https://crt.sh/?q=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:

It produced this output:

My web server is (include version):

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

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know):

I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel):

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

8 Likes

Hi @rg305, I've updated my question

2 Likes

We need to have a look at the renewal conf and the certificates:
cat /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/prod-*
certbot certificates

8 Likes
# renew_before_expiry = 30 days
version = 0.40.0
archive_dir = /etc/letsencrypt/archive/prod-backend.alectify.com
cert = /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/cert.pem
privkey = /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/privkey.pem
chain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/chain.pem
fullchain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/fullchain.pem

# Options used in the renewal process
[renewalparams]
account = ef20bbb8bca7d645438e5368b9048dee
authenticator = nginx
installer = nginx
server = https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

Show:
certbot certificates

7 Likes
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Found the following certs:
  Certificate Name: prod-backend.alectify.com
    Domains: prod-backend.alectify.com
    Expiry Date: 2022-07-03 23:52:05+00:00 (INVALID: EXPIRED)
    Certificate Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/fullchain.pem
    Private Key Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/privkey.pem
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Let's have a look at:
nginx -T

7 Likes
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
# configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
	worker_connections 768;
	# multi_accept on;
}

http {

	##
	# Basic Settings
	##

	sendfile on;
	tcp_nopush on;
	tcp_nodelay on;
	keepalive_timeout 200;
	types_hash_max_size 2048;
	# server_tokens off;

	# server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
	# server_name_in_redirect off;

	include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
	default_type application/octet-stream;

	##
	# SSL Settings
	##

	ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
	ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

	##
	# Logging Settings
	##

	access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
	error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

	##
	# Gzip Settings
	##

	gzip on;

	# gzip_vary on;
	# gzip_proxied any;
	# gzip_comp_level 6;
	# gzip_buffers 16 8k;
	# gzip_http_version 1.1;
	# gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

	##
	# Virtual Host Configs
	##

	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#	# See sample authentication script at:
#	# http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# 
#	# auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#	# pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#	# imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# 
#	server {
#		listen     localhost:110;
#		protocol   pop3;
#		proxy      on;
#	}
# 
#	server {
#		listen     localhost:143;
#		protocol   imap;
#		proxy      on;
#	}
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-image-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_image_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-xslt-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_xslt_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-mail.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_mail_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-stream.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_stream_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types:

types {
    text/html                             html htm shtml;
    text/css                              css;
    text/xml                              xml;
    image/gif                             gif;
    image/jpeg                            jpeg jpg;
    application/javascript                js;
    application/atom+xml                  atom;
    application/rss+xml                   rss;

    text/mathml                           mml;
    text/plain                            txt;
    text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor      jad;
    text/vnd.wap.wml                      wml;
    text/x-component                      htc;

    image/png                             png;
    image/tiff                            tif tiff;
    image/vnd.wap.wbmp                    wbmp;
    image/x-icon                          ico;
    image/x-jng                           jng;
    image/x-ms-bmp                        bmp;
    image/svg+xml                         svg svgz;
    image/webp                            webp;

    application/font-woff                 woff;
    application/java-archive              jar war ear;
    application/json                      json;
    application/mac-binhex40              hqx;
    application/msword                    doc;
    application/pdf                       pdf;
    application/postscript                ps eps ai;
    application/rtf                       rtf;
    application/vnd.apple.mpegurl         m3u8;
    application/vnd.ms-excel              xls;
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject         eot;
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint         ppt;
    application/vnd.wap.wmlc              wmlc;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml  kml;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kmz      kmz;
    application/x-7z-compressed           7z;
    application/x-cocoa                   cco;
    application/x-java-archive-diff       jardiff;
    application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp;
    application/x-makeself                run;
    application/x-perl                    pl pm;
    application/x-pilot                   prc pdb;
    application/x-rar-compressed          rar;
    application/x-redhat-package-manager  rpm;
    application/x-sea                     sea;
    application/x-shockwave-flash         swf;
    application/x-stuffit                 sit;
    application/x-tcl                     tcl tk;
    application/x-x509-ca-cert            der pem crt;
    application/x-xpinstall               xpi;
    application/xhtml+xml                 xhtml;
    application/xspf+xml                  xspf;
    application/zip                       zip;

    application/octet-stream              bin exe dll;
    application/octet-stream              deb;
    application/octet-stream              dmg;
    application/octet-stream              iso img;
    application/octet-stream              msi msp msm;

    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document    docx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet          xlsx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation  pptx;

    audio/midi                            mid midi kar;
    audio/mpeg                            mp3;
    audio/ogg                             ogg;
    audio/x-m4a                           m4a;
    audio/x-realaudio                     ra;

    video/3gpp                            3gpp 3gp;
    video/mp2t                            ts;
    video/mp4                             mp4;
    video/mpeg                            mpeg mpg;
    video/quicktime                       mov;
    video/webm                            webm;
    video/x-flv                           flv;
    video/x-m4v                           m4v;
    video/x-mng                           mng;
    video/x-ms-asf                        asx asf;
    video/x-ms-wmv                        wmv;
    video/x-msvideo                       avi;
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:
##
# You should look at the following URL's in order to grasp a solid understanding
# of Nginx configuration files in order to fully unleash the power of Nginx.
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/config_pitfalls/
# https://wiki.debian.org/Nginx/DirectoryStructure
#
# In most cases, administrators will remove this file from sites-enabled/ and
# leave it as reference inside of sites-available where it will continue to be
# updated by the nginx packaging team.
#
# This file will automatically load configuration files provided by other
# applications, such as Drupal or Wordpress. These applications will be made
# available underneath a path with that package name, such as /drupal8.
#
# Please see /usr/share/doc/nginx-doc/examples/ for more detailed examples.
##

# Default server configuration
#
server {

	# SSL configuration
	#
	# listen 443 ssl default_server;
	# listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
	#
	# Note: You should disable gzip for SSL traffic.
	# See: https://bugs.debian.org/773332
	#
	# Read up on ssl_ciphers to ensure a secure configuration.
	# See: https://bugs.debian.org/765782
	#
	# Self signed certs generated by the ssl-cert package
	# Don't use them in a production server!
	#
	# include snippets/snakeoil.conf;

	root /var/www/html;

	# Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
	index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

	server_name prod-backend.alectify.com;

	client_max_body_size 64M;

#	location / {
#		# First attempt to serve request as file, then
#		# as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
#		try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#	}
location / {
		proxy_pass http://localhost:80;
		proxy_set_header Host $host;
		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
		proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
		client_max_body_size 64M;
	}
	# pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server
	#
	#location ~ \.php$ {
	#	include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
	#
	#	# With php-fpm (or other unix sockets):
	#	fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
	#	# With php-cgi (or other tcp sockets):
	#	fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
	#}

	# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
	# concurs with nginx's one
	#
	#location ~ /\.ht {
	#	deny all;
	#}

    listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}


# Virtual Host configuration for example.com
#
# You can move that to a different file under sites-available/ and symlink that
# to sites-enabled/ to enable it.
#
#server {
#	listen 80;
#	listen [::]:80;
#
#	server_name example.com;
#
#	root /var/www/example.com;
#	index index.html;
#
#	location / {
#		try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#	}
#}

server {
    if ($host = prod-backend.alectify.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


	listen 8080 default_server;
	listen [::]:8080 default_server;

	server_name prod-backend.alectify.com;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot


}

# configuration file /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf:
# This file contains important security parameters. If you modify this file
# manually, Certbot will be unable to automatically provide future security
# updates. Instead, Certbot will print and log an error message with a path to
# the up-to-date file that you will need to refer to when manually updating
# this file.

ssl_session_cache shared:le_nginx_SSL:10m;
ssl_session_timeout 1440m;
ssl_session_tickets off;

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA";

There is no port 80 HTTP server block.
HTTP authentication requires one.

9 Likes

ooh man, thank you so much for the guidance. The issue has been fixed now after adding port 80.

2 Likes

after the renewal of SSL, my site is still showing not secure. Do you know the reason?

The cert being served expired more than one day ago.

Please show:
certbot certificates

7 Likes

Found the following certs:
Certificate Name: prod-backend.alectify.com
Domains: prod-backend.alectify.com
Expiry Date: 2022-07-03 23:52:05+00:00 (INVALID: EXPIRED)
Certificate Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/fullchain.pem
Private Key Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/privkey.pem


Then the cert hasn't been renewed yet.

Try this again (and show the result):

6 Likes

Also, I do see some certs being issued today by Amazon:
crt.sh | prod-backend.alectify.com

8 Likes

Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/prod-backend.alectify.com.conf


Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing...
Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx
Renewing an existing certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for prod-backend.alectify.com
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges


new certificate deployed with reload of nginx server; fullchain is
/etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/fullchain.pem



** DRY RUN: simulating 'certbot renew' close to cert expiry
** (The test certificates below have not been saved.)

Congratulations, all renewals succeeded. The following certs have been renewed:
/etc/letsencrypt/live/prod-backend.alectify.com/fullchain.pem (success)
** DRY RUN: simulating 'certbot renew' close to cert expiry
** (The test certificates above have not been saved.)


OK, then get an actual cert with:
sudo certbot renew

8 Likes

it's done, thank you so much. God bless you :heart:

2 Likes

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