Apache2 failure to start - apache

Question

I've been googling for the past few hours, but no matter what I cannot seem to get Apache to start.
My server has been running perfectly fine previously, but today I tried to renew my SSL certificate via LetsEncrypt certbot.
Certbot ran into issues and could not issue a new cert, I then ran apt-update and upgrade to make sure all things were updated.
Certbot now throws this message
Error while running apache2ctl graceful.
httpd not running, trying to start
Action 'graceful' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/var/lib/letsencrypt/tls_sni_01_page/] does not exist
AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/var/lib/letsencrypt/tls_sni_01_page/] does not exist
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Cleaning up challenges
Error while running apache2ctl graceful.
httpd not running, trying to start
Action 'graceful' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Encountered exception during recovery
Error while running apache2ctl graceful.
httpd not running, trying to start
Action 'graceful' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/certbot/error_handler.py", line 99, in _call_registered
self.funcs[-1]()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/certbot/auth_handler.py", line 284, in _cleanup_challenges
self.auth.cleanup(achalls)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 1908, in cleanup
self.restart()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 1797, in restart
self._reload()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 1808, in _reload
raise errors.MisconfigurationError(str(err))
MisconfigurationError: Error while running apache2ctl graceful.
httpd not running, trying to start
Action 'graceful' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Attempting to renew cert from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/theophilus.info.conf produced an unexpected error: Error while running apache2ctl graceful.
httpd not running, trying to start
Action 'graceful' failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/var/lib/letsencrypt/tls_sni_01_page/] does not exist
AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/var/lib/letsencrypt/tls_sni_01_page/] does not exist
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
. Skipping.
I've tried doing a service apache2 reload but it throws an error too: apache2.service is not active, cannot reload. and I cannot seem to force it to start.
apachectl configtest returns OK.
and the apache error logs show this:
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.592975 2017] [ssl:warn] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] AH01906: 049c3654bd7b2cb0c25c64edf8684054.6925964ede44d9a18fbfb14b594d7962.acme.invalid:443:0 server certificate is a CA certificate (BasicConstraints: CA == TRUE !?)
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.593452 2017] [ssl:warn] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] AH01906: b2b22f2da6be44b9c877de0023471d83.b28583f983e83310d53608e52837a448.acme.invalid:443:0 server certificate is a CA certificate (BasicConstraints: CA == TRUE !?)
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.593710 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] AH02572: Failed to configure at least one certificate and key for theophilus.info:443
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.593731 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] SSL Library Error: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line (Expecting: DH PARAMETERS) -- Bad file contents or format - or even just a forgotten SSLCertificateKeyFile?
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.593741 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] SSL Library Error: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line (Expecting: EC PARAMETERS) -- Bad file contents or format - or even just a forgotten SSLCertificateKeyFile?
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.593769 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] SSL Library Error: error:140A80B1:SSL routines:SSL_CTX_check_private_key:no certificate assigned
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.593778 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1725:tid 140604874876800] AH02311: Fatal error initialising mod_ssl, exiting. See /var/log/apache2/error.log for more information
AH00016: Configuration Failed
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.723479 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1732:tid 140027013269376] AH02572: Failed to configure at least one certificate and key for theophilus.info:443
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.723551 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1732:tid 140027013269376] SSL Library Error: error:140A80B1:SSL routines:SSL_CTX_check_private_key:no certificate assigned
[Sat Jul 15 16:03:36.723559 2017] [ssl:emerg] [pid 1732:tid 140027013269376] AH02311: Fatal error initialising mod_ssl, exiting. See /var/log/apache2/error.log for more information
AH00016: Configuration Failed
running Ubuntu 16.04

Answer 1

I had the same problem. This worked for me:
sudo certbot --authenticator webroot --webroot-path /var/www/sample --installer apache -d domain