Install Certbot Apache plugin in CentOS Stream 8

Question: I had followed your guide to install Certbot in CentOS Stream 8. However, the certbot --apache command fails with an error message ‘The requested apache plugin does not appear to be installed‘. – Sathish.

# certbot --apache
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
The requested apache plugin does not appear to be installed

Install Certbot apache plugin in CentOS

The error message clearly says that Certbot requires an apache plugin to be installed. Though you have Apache and Certbox installed, you need certbot apache plugin to fetch the certificate and install it automatically on the Apache webserver.

List certbot plugins:

# certbot plugins
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* standalone
Description: Spin up a temporary webserver
Interfaces: Authenticator, Plugin
Entry point: standalone = certbot._internal.plugins.standalone:Authenticator

* webroot
Description: Place files in webroot directory
Interfaces: Authenticator, Plugin
Entry point: webroot = certbot._internal.plugins.webroot:Authenticator
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The above output confirms that the Apache plugin is not installed and you need to install one as shown below.

Install certbot apache plugin

# dnf install python3-certbot-apache
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


Installed:
python3-augeas-0.5.0-12.el8.noarch python3-certbot-apache-1.22.0-1.el8.noarch

Complete!

Check if the plugin is installed properly.

# certbot plugins
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* apache
Description: Apache Web Server plugin
Interfaces: Installer, Authenticator, Plugin
Entry point: apache = certbot_apache._internal.entrypoint:ENTRYPOINT

* standalone
Description: Spin up a temporary webserver
Interfaces: Authenticator, Plugin
Entry point: standalone = certbot._internal.plugins.standalone:Authenticator

* webroot
Description: Place files in webroot directory
Interfaces: Authenticator, Plugin
Entry point: webroot = certbot._internal.plugins.webroot:Authenticator
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Now the plugin is installed, you are ready to fetch the certificate and install it on the Apache webserver.

#certbot --apache

That’s it! Learn more about Let’s Encrypt certificates.