{"id":12108,"date":"2022-03-21T05:57:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T09:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/?p=12108"},"modified":"2022-03-21T05:57:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T09:57:49","slug":"another-instance-of-certbot-is-already-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/another-instance-of-certbot-is-already-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing Another Instance of Certbot is Already Running"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This is a quick solution to solve the error &#8220;Another instance of Certbot is already running&#8221;. This error is usually encountered when you attempt to create a new or to renew an <a href=\"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/tag\/ssl\">SSL<\/a> certificate on your <a href=\"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/tag\/linux\">Linux<\/a> systems such as Ubuntu, CentOS, <a href=\"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/tag\/debian\">Debian<\/a>, Fedora, or other common server distros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This message can be posted when you try to run Let\u2019s Encrypt Certbot. The cause could step from any situation that causes one to end up back on the terminal&#8217;s command prompt while there is an active instance of Certbot running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeing that Let\u2019s Encrypt Certbot can only have one instance running at a time, you would need to kill the current instance before trying to invoke another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Fix &#8220;Another Instance of Certbot is Already Running&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Kill the Let\u2019s Encrypt Certbot process by doing either of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">a) Reboot Your Linux System<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This solution may not be practical on a live server so here is a better option:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">b) Kill the Certbot Process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Find the Certbot process using the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-prismatic-blocks\"><code class=\"language-bash\">$ ps -ef | grep certbot\n\nOutput\nbrightwhiz      368020  367989  0 09:27 pts\/1    00:00:00 sudo certbot --apache certonly\nbrightwhiz      368023  368020 11 09:27 pts\/1    00:00:03 \/usr\/bin\/python3 \/usr\/bin\/certbot --apache certonly<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The process ID is the first number after the user. In the above example that would be (368020 and 368023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kill the process(es) using this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-prismatic-blocks\"><code class=\"language-bash\">$ sudo kill 368020<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Replacing 368020 with your actual process ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Run the Certbot command again and you should be able to use it as expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What if the Above Fails<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In cases where your server may have rebooted unexpectedly during the renewal process, it could be that Certbot is not running but it left some .certbot.lock files behind. Let&#8217;s see if they exist and if they do, we remove the lock files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check whether there are .certbot.lock files in your system using this command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-prismatic-blocks\"><code class=\"language-bash\">$ find \/ -type f -name &quot;.certbot.lock&quot;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>If there are, you can remove them using this command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-prismatic-blocks\"><code class=\"language-bash\">$ sudo find \/ -type f -name &quot;.certbot.lock&quot; -exec rm {} \\;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the sure methods you can use to fix the &#8220;Another instance of Certbot is already running&#8221; error message you get when you try to renew an SSL using Let\u2019s Encrypt Certbot on your Linux systems such as <a href=\"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/tag\/ubuntu\">Ubuntu<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/tag\/centos\">CentOS<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a quick solution to solve the error &#8220;Another instance of Certbot is already running&#8221;. This error is usually encountered when you attempt to create a new or to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,27,16,18],"tags":[106,121,193,313,320,354,433,471,526,555,573,591,598,635,638],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>[Solved] Another Instance of Certbot is Already Running<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is how to fix the &quot;Another Instance of Certbot is Already Running&quot; error that can occur when you renew Let\u2019s Encrypt certificates\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/local.brightwhiz\/another-instance-of-certbot-is-already-running\/\" \/>\n<meta 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