SSL issue with multiple virtual hosts on apache

Question

I'm trying to renew the certificate for a second web serviced identified by a virtual host, call it “mysubdomain2.mydomain2.com”.

I've generated all the required files (mysubdomain2.crt mysubdomain2.mydomain.com.key ca.pem sub.class1.server.ca.pem).

Note that I recently successfully renewed the certificate for mysubdomain1.crt.

Here's the virtual host entry in apache:

<VirtualHost *:443>
  ServerName mysubdomain2.mydomain.com
  ServerAdmin myname@mycomp.com


   SSLEngine on
   SSLProtocol all -SSLv2
   SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT:!SSLv2:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM

   SSLCertificateFile /disk2/certificates/ssl/mysubdomain2.crt
   SSLCertificateKeyFile /disk2/certificates/ssl/mysubdomain.mydomain.com.key
   SSLCertificateChainFile /disk2/certificates/ssl/sub.class1.server.ca.pem
   SSLCACertificateFile /disk2/certificates/startssl/ca.pem
   SSLOptions StrictRequire
   SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown

   CustomLog /var/log/apache2/ssl_request_log "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

#</VirtualHost>

But when I restart apache, it shuts down with this error message:

“caught SIGTERM, shutting down
[Tue Jan 13 13:59:16 2015] [warn] Init: Name-based SSL virtual hosts only work for clients with TLS server name indication support (RFC 4366)
[Tue Jan 13 13:59:17 2015] [warn] Init: Name-based SSL virtual hosts only work for clients with TLS server name indication support (RFC 4366)
[Tue Jan 13 13:59:17 2015] [notice] Apache/2.2.16 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.3.3-1ubuntu9.5 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.16 OpenSSL/0.9.8o configured -- resuming normal operations

Additionally, from this link:

https://wiki.apache.org/httpd/NameBasedSSLVHostsWithSNI

it's clear that this installation of apache has SNI installed. It seems that apache should at least start, as these are supposed to be just warning messages.

The problem SNI is supposed to solve is that without it, the host name doesn't get communicated until after the SSL connection is established, meaning that apache doesn't know which certificate to use.

But, at this point, it's simply not starting at all. I'm thinking to try regenerating the certificate and key and pem files, but I was pretty careful doing that in the first place. I'd like to understand what the real problem is.

Answer 1

I must have done something wrong when decrypting the secret key. I tried it again, and everything was fine.