Unable to find a virtual host listening on port 80

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Error Message from Certbot

This post is base on Amazon Linux 2023.

When requesting a certificate for example.com, you might see an error similar to this:

Requesting a certificate for example.com
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.
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.

Steps to Create an Apache Virtual Host for Port 80

Step 1: Open or Create the Virtual Host Configuration File

Navigate to the directory where Apache stores its configuration files. On Amazon Linux, this is usually located in /etc/httpd/conf.d/. Create a new configuration file for your domain:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/example.com.conf

Step 2: Add the VirtualHost Configuration

In the file, add the following configuration for your domain:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    <Directory /var/www/html>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace /var/www/html with the correct document root for your site if it’s different.

Step 3: Save and Exit the Editor

In nano, press Ctrl + X, then Y to confirm, and Enter to save.

Step 4: Restart Apache

Apply the new configuration by restarting Apache:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 5: Verify Apache is Listening on Port 80

Check that Apache is now configured to listen on port 80:

sudo netstat -tuln | grep 80

Once this is complete, you can retry Certbot to obtain your SSL certificate. Apache should now be configured properly to listen on port 80 for example.com.

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