Letsencyrpt setup fails for host with internal IP address

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A user, noodle, is experiencing issues with Let’s Encrypt setup on their Discourse installation due to using an internal IP address for the hostname. They followed instructions from a tutorial but encountered an error during the SSL generation step, which they suspect is caused by the internal IP address.

noodle found a relevant article but is unsure how to proceed. Remah responded by explaining that Let’s Encrypt needs to access the IP address from the internet, which is not possible with an internal IP address. Remah provided links to three potential solutions involving HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt behind a VPN, adding a DNS name to an IP-based install, and using a certificate with Discourse behind a reverse proxy.

1

Hi, I am attempting to set up discourse on an ubuntu machine for first time. The intent is that the platform will only be accessible from within our company network, hence the IP address for the hostname registered with our DNS provider is an internal IP.

I am using instructions from How to Install Discourse Forum with Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

I have successfully bootstrapped and launched. However step 3 is failing (Generate SSL Letsencrypt) with following error:

Failed authorization procedure. (http-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:dns :: No valid IP addresses found for

nslookup on the machine can find the IP address from the hostname, and I can also ping the hostname

I think it has something to do with the fact the the IP address for the host is an internal address. I found this article but I’m not sure how to proceed. No valid IP addresses found for (my domain) - #8 by _az - Help - Let's Encrypt Community Support

2

Let’s Encrypt needs to access the your IP address from the Internet.

The following topics/posts may help you:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-a-dns-name-to-an-ip-based-install/102898/2?u=remah