Did your free SSL certificate fail to install or renew automatically? And did you try to manually run AutoSSL within cPanel using the steps I shared here, but still things failed to work out? Well, you are not alone. It has happened to many.
In this article, I will show you the little things you need to check to confirm why your free SSL Certificate is not installing or renewing, and how to fix them.
But before discovering the problem and how to fix it, let's first understand how the free SSL certificate is actually issued and installed.
Free SSL Validation, Issuance, and Installation Process
Let me briefly walk you through the process of validation, issuance and installation of your free SSL Certificate. Then we shall know where issues normally originate from and how to fix them.
1. Domain Ownership Validation
Before any SSL Certificate is issued for a domain name, there must be some form of domain ownership validation. This validation can be Domain Validation (DV), Organisation Validation, or Extended Validation (EV). We shall look at these in detail in a separate article or articles.
The free SSL Certificate uses domain validation, and specifically, http-based domain validation. Let me talk about this particular one briefly.
In the HTTP-based DV process, a small file generated by the Certificate Authority (CA) is stored in your domain's document root. Normally, in the folder named .well-known. This file must be publicly accessible via your domain. Therefore, if your domain is mydomain.com, and the generated file is caabcd456, then the file should be accessible via http://mydomain.com/.well-known/caabcd456. You get it?
Now, after the file is generated and stored in your document root, the certificate authority will attempt to access it via your domain using HTTP. Once the CA is able to reach the file, the http-based DV process is completed.
2. SSL Certificate Issuance
Once the domain ownership validation is complete, the CA issues the SSL certificate.
3. SSL Certificate Installation
For the free SSL Certificate, once the certificate is issued, cPanel will automatically install it on the server. Your domain can now be accessible via https.
Why the Free SSL May Not Install or Renew and How to Fix
Looking at the three stages of validation, issuance and validation above tells us something very critical: For the SSL certificate to be issued and installed, the domain must be active and able to directly resolve to its hosting account. Therefore, if your free SSL certificate is not installing or renewing, you will need to check the following and ensure all is well:
1. Domain is Active
Make sure the domain is registered and fully propagated. If the domain has been around for some time, make sure it has not expired and is not disabled or suspended.
2. Domain is Directly Pointing to Our Servers
Make sure your domain is pointing to our server IP addresses and nameservers. The public A record for your domain must match your hosting account's shared or dedicated IP address as seen through your cPanel.
In addition, if you are a shared web hosting client, the nameservers for your domain should be ns1.jubileewebhost.com, ns2.jubileewebhost.com, ns3.jubileewebhost.com, and ns4.jubileewebhost.com.
On the other hand, if you are a reseller client, your domain should either be pointing to our default reseller nameservers or your registered private/child nameservers. Our reseller default nameservers are ns1.siteserverconfig.com, ns2.siteserverconfig.com, ns3.siteserverconfig.com, and ns4.siteserverconfig.com.
Using CloudFlare?
If you are using CloudFlare, please read this article to find a solution to your free SSL certificate installation failure.
