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Cannot issue wildcard Let's Encrypt certificate in Plesk: DNS problem: NXDOMAIN looking up TXT for _acme-challenge.example.com

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Taras Ermoshin
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Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux
  • Plesk for Windows

Symptoms

Issuing a wildcard Let's Encrypt certificate in Plesk in Domains > example.com > SSL/TLS Certificates > Install fails:

Error: Could not issue a Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate for example.com. Authorization for the domain failed.
Details
Invalid response from https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/authz/zEHPSbB4eUyIomzu9qynFouNGrIgiUlJZ755z_Kx4kY.
Details:
Type: urn:ietf:params:acme:error:dns
Status: 400
Detail: DNS problem: NXDOMAIN looking up TXT for _acme-challenge.example.com

Cause

The TXT DNS record for the hostname _acme-challenge.example.com is not available globally:

# nslookup -type=TXT _acme-challenge.example.com
Server: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53

** server can't find _acme-challenge.example.com: NXDOMAIN

Resolution

  1. Log in to Plesk.

  2. Start issuing a new wildcard Let's Encrypt certificate in Domains > example.com > SSL/TLS Certificates > Install - the following notification screen will appear:

    Let's Encrypt wildcard certificate notification screen

  3. Proceed in accordance with where the domain's DNS zone is hosted:

    DNS zone of the domain is hosted on the Plesk server

    1. Wait until the DNS propagation is completed and the required TXT record for the hostname _acme-challenge.example.com is available globally. The availability of this record can be checked on resources like https://dnschecker.org/.

    2. Press the Reload button in the notification screen from step 2.

    DNS zone of the domain is hosted on external DNS hosting

    1. On the external DNS hosting, add the TXT record for the hostname _acme-challenge.example.com (or just for _acme-challenge on some DNS providers) using the value from the notification screen from step 2.

    2. Wait until the DNS propagation is completed and the required TXT record for the hostname _acme-challenge.example.com is available globally. The availability of this record can be checked on resources like https://dnschecker.org/.

    3. Press the Reload button in the notification screen from step 2.

Comments

3 comments

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  • Avatar
    Alex Laforge

    Having to specifiy the TXT content on the external Name Server each time a renew is required is absolutely impossible, too long, so not a solution.

    We definitely NEED an option in Plesk Obsidian Windows to be able to choose if :

    - Option A : Plesk Let's Encrypt extension will use the method of adding a TXT record in the Plesk DNS Zone

    - Option B : Plesk Let's Encrypt extension will use the method of creating a /.well-known/ file under the domain root. This option will be useful for all the people not using Plesk as their Name Server.

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  • Avatar
    Lev Iurev

    @Alex Laforge As I can see it was figured out in the ticket.

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  • Avatar
    Alex Laforge

    Yes, your technical support solved the situation. In fact, for those who come to this page, you must know that, to issue certificates, Let's Encrypt servers use two types of challenges:

    • HTTP-01 for issuing regular certificates - the token is checked at the URL http://<YOUR_DOMAIN>/.well-known/acme-challenge/<TOKEN>.
    • DNS-01 for issuing wildcard certificates - the token is checked in the DNS TXT record _acme-challenge.<YOUR_DOMAIN>.

    More information are available at this page https://letsencrypt.org/docs/challenge-types/

    I wish that this information would be more clearly displayed inside Plesk, or on the SSL-related Plesk Documentation pages.

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