Topic: apache2 restart fails

[cearlp]

Trying to restart Apache2 after insatalling SSL certificate fails. Following the comments on the failure I get the following -------
The command systemctl status apache2.service returns:

× apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2026-03-04 17:00:31 MST; 53s ago
Duration: 1h 14min 38.410s
Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
Process: 21239 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 20ms

Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: Starting apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server...
Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited, sta>
Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: Failed to start apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server.

The command journalctl -xeu apache2.service returns:

░░ The job identifier is 14360.
Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited, sta>
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit apache2.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 1.
Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ The unit apache2.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 04 17:00:31 mail.sigmadeltapi.club systemd[1]: Failed to start apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit apache2.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit apache2.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 14360 and the job result is failed.

The config file is :<VirtualHost *:80>
# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
# the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
# redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
# specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
# match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
# value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
# However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
ServerName www.sigmadeltapi.club

ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html

# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
# modules, e.g.
#LogLevel info ssl:warn

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName www.sigmadeltapi.club
DocumentRoot /var/www/html

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/www_sigmadeltapi_club.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/sigmadeltapi-club.key
SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/www_sigmadeltapi_club.ca
</VirtualHost>

One suggestion was that port 80 was being used by some other process, but nothing was using that port or even port 443.
Can anyone offer any other things that I can do to solve this situation?

[James Blond]

run

[cearlp]

Already did an ss -tulpn and no port 80 or 443 appeared in the list.
As for the apache2ctl command it shows the configuration file but no errors are shown.
An apache2ctl -t returns Syntax OK.

[James Blond]

-t only parses the httpd.conf file while -S parses the include files as well. Please do that.

Also, you may share the errors from your Apache error log from this event.