Certbot was unable to confirm ownership or management of one or more of the domains we specified when applying for or renewing an SSL/TLS certificate, as indicated by the error message “Certbot failed to authenticate some domains” with Apache. As part of our Server Management Service, Bobcares provides answers to all of your Apache questions.

Fixing “certbot failed to authenticate some domains” in Apache

When Certbot returns the error message “certbot failed to authenticate some domains” with Apache, it signifies that ownership or management of one or more of the domains we indicated when obtaining or renewing an SSL/TLS certificate could not be established. Here are steps to diagnose and resolve this problem, which can happen for a number of reasons:

1. When using Certbot, make sure we’ve typed the domain names accurately. As the authentication could fail with even a little misspelling.

2. Make sure the domain names don’t contain any extra spaces or unusual characters.

3. Verify that the DNS records referring to the server where Certbot is executing are accurate for the domains we are attempting to secure.

4. The propagation of DNS updates could take some time. If we recently made modifications, also, ensure the full propagation of the DNS records.

5. Check that the domains listed in the virtual hosts match the domains we are attempting to secure using Certbot and that the Apache virtual host parameters are accurate.

6. Make sure that the ServerName and ServerAlias directives are properly configured, and that the virtual hosts are listening on ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS).

7. If we are behind a router or firewall, check the setup of the server’s firewall and make sure ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) are open and correctly forwarded to the server.

8. It may be necessary to set up certain cloud providers’ firewalls in order to permit traffic on these ports.

9. Ensure that port 80 of the Apache web server is also open and accepting HTTP queries.

10. Recognize the rate restrictions of Let’s Encrypt. We are only permitted to request certificates for the same set of domains a certain number of times per hour. So, we will have to wait before obtaining certificates again if we’ve exceeded these caps.

11. Lastly, examine the Certbot log files, which can offer more specific details regarding the error.

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Conclusion

In this article, we can see 11 different ways from our Support team to fix the “certbot failed to authenticate some domains” in Apache.