{"id":3847,"date":"2013-06-10T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T14:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodhost.com\/kb\/?p=3847"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:04:32","slug":"apache-fails-to-start-because-of-missing-sslcacertificatefile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bodhost.com\/kb\/apache-fails-to-start-because-of-missing-sslcacertificatefile\/","title":{"rendered":"Apache Fails to Start: Because of Missing SSLCACertificateFile"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This tutorial is applicable for:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">* Parallels Plesk Panel 11.x for Linux<br \/>* Parallels Plesk Panel 10.x for Linux<br \/>* Parallels Plesk Panel 9.x for Linux\/Unix<br \/>* Parallels Plesk Panel 8.x for Linux\/Unix<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Warning sign<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"># \/etc\/init.d\/httpd restart<br \/>Stopping httpd: [FAILED]<br \/>Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 39 of<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\/var\/www\/vhosts\/domain.tld\/conf\/13418207440.81148700_httpd.include:<br \/>SSLCACertificateFile: file &#8216;\/usr\/local\/psa\/var\/certificates\/cert-cwJPGJ&#8217; does not exist or is empty<br \/>[FAILED]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are receiving the above error message when you try to restart Apache. It means the certificate file for your domain name is missing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Solution<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First of all, start Apache. Generally, a lot of customers express their frustration when Apache goes down. To get Apache up, check the certificate files:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>For example:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"># cd \/usr\/local\/psa\/var\/certificates\/<br \/># ls -la<br \/>total 28<br \/>dr-x&#8212;&#8212; 2 root root 4096 Jun 1 07:41.<br \/>drwxr-xr-x 11 psaadm psaadm 4096 Jun 13 05:02 ..<br \/>-r&#8212;&#8212;&#8211; 1 root root 3625 Jun 7 20:10 cert-a3byPq<br \/>-r&#8212;&#8212;&#8211; 1 root root 3046 Jun 5 12:32 certGdzxcfT<br \/>-r&#8212;&#8212;&#8211; 1 root root 2710 Jun 9 09:00 cert-YbKPly<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You will find the default certificate with no dashes in its name. Copy that certificate to the file name of the missing certificate:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"># cp certGdzxcfT cert-cwJPGJ<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember, you should change both file names to match the ones on your server.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Restart Apache:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"># \/etc\/init.d\/httpd restart<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everything is fine now, but the problem domain\u2019s SSL may give a certificate warning to website users. So we need to re-upload the domain\u2019s certificate to the control panel, for the proper file to get generated:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>In case you do not have the certificate data, then you can get it from the control panel, it should be there. Save it for re-uploading.<\/li>\r\n<li>Also delete the problem certificate from its repository.<\/li>\r\n<li>Upload the certificate again.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This will fix your problem completely.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This tutorial is applicable for: * Parallels Plesk Panel 11.x for Linux* Parallels Plesk Panel 10.x for Linux* Parallels Plesk Panel 9.x for Linux\/Unix* Parallels Plesk Panel 8.x for Linux\/Unix&hellip;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bodhost.com\/kb\/apache-fails-to-start-because-of-missing-sslcacertificatefile\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[864],"tags":[492,381],"class_list":["post-3847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ssl","tag-apache-web-server","tag-ssl-certificate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Apache Fails to Start: Because of Missing SSLCACertificateFile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to troubleshoot Apache failing to start due to a missing SSLCACertificateFile. 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