Problem Description
- You set a domain in Plesk to forward to another domain
- When using that forward, you receive an error (typically in Chrome) about the SSL certificate
Underlying Issue
1) If you're using Plesk 18.0.34 or later (if you're using our shared hosting - you are) then you may just need to issue a SSL certificate for your forwarding domain.
2) Earlier versions of Plesk have an issue where their "forwarding" doesn't allow for SSL certificates, as Domain Aliases do, so connecting to the forwarding domain by https:// will cause a SSL certificate error.
Problem Resolution
1) To fix this issue on Plesk 18.0.34 or later - such as Websavers' Shared Web Hosting or a managed VPS service:
- Go to the forwarding domain in Plesk
- Click on “SSL/TLS Certificates”
- Click Get it free under “Entry-level protection”.
- Specify the email address that will be used for urgent notices and lost key recovery.
- Select what you want to secure in addition to the main domain: If you have the www subdomain, select the “Include a “www” subdomain for the domain.
- If you are presented with the option to secure webmail, make sure not to enable it. Our webmail config redirects to a central system that does not require your SSL certificate.
- Click Get it free.
2) To fix this issue on an older version of Plesk:
- Remove the forward and instead set the domain to "Website Hosting" or "Web Hosting".
- Go to Plesk's File Manager for the domain
- Click "New" and "New File"
- Name the file ".htaccess"
- Copy and paste the below code into the file; replacing "example.com" with the domain you'd like to forward to.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.well-known/acme-challenge
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]The issue should now be resolved.
