Trouble installing EFF Certbot

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Hello Folks

I would like to secure an company-internal apache webserver on licenced RHEL8 and was enticed by the automatic-certificate-management tool 'certbot'

The instructions for RHEL8 over at EFF are simple:
https://certbot.eff.org/instructions

  1. enable EPEL
  2. install the EPEL provided 'snapd'
  3. use snapd to install 'certbot'
  4. and then a simple cerbot --apache should take care of the rest.

I completed in install on Ubuntu 20 and things worked as advertised but on RHEL8, the install fails at "c".

If any of you have seen this error and know of a fix, please let me know. Maybe I shouldn't use the 'snap' version of certbot? Is there a better automatic-certificate approach?

Thank You

Aug 18 11:20:19 mbtools snapd[1089359]: api_snaps.go:317: Installing snap "certbot" revision unset
Aug 18 11:20:23 mbtools systemd[1]: Reloading.
Aug 18 11:20:23 mbtools systemd[1]: Mounting Mount unit for certbot, revision 2192...
-- Subject: Unit var-lib-snapd-snap-certbot-2192.mount has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit var-lib-snapd-snap-certbot-2192.mount has begun starting up.
Aug 18 11:20:23 mbtools kernel: loop2: detected capacity change from 0 to 45985792
Aug 18 11:20:23 mbtools systemd[1]: Mounted Mount unit for certbot, revision 2192.
-- Subject: Unit var-lib-snapd-snap-certbot-2192.mount has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit var-lib-snapd-snap-certbot-2192.mount has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is done.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: Reloading.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: Reloading.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: Started Timer renew for snap application certbot.renew.
-- Subject: Unit snap.certbot.renew.timer has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit snap.certbot.renew.timer has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is done.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: Started snap.certbot.hook.configure.adc3e2a7-bfbd-4f1b-80e2-22616089a850.scope.
-- Subject: Unit snap.certbot.hook.configure.adc3e2a7-bfbd-4f1b-80e2-22616089a850.scope has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit snap.certbot.hook.configure.adc3e2a7-bfbd-4f1b-80e2-22616089a850.scope has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is done.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools snapd[1089359]: taskrunner.go:271: [change 9 "Run configure hook of \"certbot\" snap if present" task] failed: run hook "configure": cannot create user data directory: /root/snap/certbot/2192: Not a directory
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: snap.certbot.hook.configure.adc3e2a7-bfbd-4f1b-80e2-22616089a850.scope: Succeeded.
-- Subject: Unit succeeded
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- The unit snap.certbot.hook.configure.adc3e2a7-bfbd-4f1b-80e2-22616089a850.scope has successfully entered the 'dead' state.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: snap.certbot.renew.timer: Succeeded.
-- Subject: Unit succeeded
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- The unit snap.certbot.renew.timer has successfully entered the 'dead' state.
Aug 18 11:20:24 mbtools systemd[1]: Stopped Timer renew for snap application certbot.renew.
-- Subject: Unit snap.certbot.renew.timer has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit snap.certbot.renew.timer has finished shutting down.
Aug 18 11:20:25 mbtools snapd[1089359]: services.go:909: RemoveSnapServices - timer snap.certbot.renew.timer
Aug 18 11:20:25 mbtools snapd[1089359]: services.go:919: RemoveSnapServices - disabling snap.certbot.renew.service
Aug 18 11:20:25 mbtools systemd[1]: Reloading.
Aug 18 11:20:26 mbtools snapd[1089359]: copydata.go:91: Cannot remove data directories for "certbot": unlinkat /root/snap/certbot/2192/bin: read-only file system
Aug 18 11:20:26 mbtools snapd[1089359]: taskrunner.go:271: [change 9 "Copy snap \"certbot\" data" task] failed: unlinkat /root/snap/certbot/2192/bin: read-only file system
Aug 18 11:20:26 mbtools systemd[1]: var-lib-snapd-snap-certbot-2192.mount: Succeeded.
-- Subject: Unit succeeded
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- The unit var-lib-snapd-snap-certbot-2192.mount has successfully entered the 'dead' state.
Aug 18 11:20:26 mbtools systemd[1]: Reloading.
Aug 18 11:20:26 mbtools systemd[1]: Starting dnf makecache...
-- Subject: Unit dnf-makecache.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit dnf-makecache.service has begun starting up.
Aug 18 11:20:26 mbtools snapd[1089359]: handlers.go:661: Reported install problem for "certbot" as already-reported
Aug 18 11:20:27 mbtools dnf[1093676]: Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Aug 18 11:20:28 mbtools dnf[1093676]: Metadata cache refreshed recently.
Aug 18 11:20:28 mbtools systemd[1]: dnf-makecache.service: Succeeded.
-- Subject: Unit succeeded
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- The unit dnf-makecache.service has successfully entered the 'dead' state.
Aug 18 11:20:28 mbtools systemd[1]: Started dnf makecache.
-- Subject: Unit dnf-makecache.service has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://access.redhat.com/support
--
-- Unit dnf-makecache.service has finished starting up.
--
-- The start-up result is done.
James Scott Hunter's picture

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