NginxPM fails to run after adding 1 SSL Cert for 1 website

[Theknight2015]

So I have a weird issue. I'm using cloudflare to proxy all my websites. I have never had an issue in the past with website proxy-ing through cloudflare with NginxPM to my cloudpanel website server.

Here is how everything is setup:
ProxMox v8.... server up and running
Ubuntu v22.04.01 Virtual Machine on ProxMox running CloudPanel for my websites
Ubuntu v24.04.01LTS Virtual Machine on ProxMox (CPU set to Host for virtualization support)
DockerDesktop Installed and running on Ubuntu 24.04.01 VM
NginxPM Installed in docker desktop based on Full Setup Instructions from https://nginxproxymanager.com/setup/ Here
Add Proxy Host in NginxPM to point to Internal IP of CloudPanel Server

Everything works as it should right up until I add a SSL Cert. using NginxPM. Once I add an SSL cert NginxPM will no longer come up. I go into the logs and it says there is a problem with "Setting Ownership" and gives several lines that say something like "chown ...(some file location for a .pem key file) operation not permitted" but I don't have the slightest clue as to why.

Here is the testing steps I went through. (IE: When you see "Restarted Everything" it means I stopped the container, quit docker desktop, rebooted the Ubuntu 24.04.01 LTS Install that Docker Desktop is running on, opened Docker Desktop, Went to NginxPM WebGUI and checked the NginxPM app-1 logs to make sure everything came back up)

• Nuked all Docker Desktop and NginxPM VM's currently in use (because this issue was occurring on them and I wanted to start fresh)
• Re-installed new VM of Ubuntu v24.04.01 for Docker and NginxPM
• Installed DockerDektop on new VM
• Used Full Setup Instructions to create a docker-compose.yml file
• Placed docker-compose.yml file in /home/Nginx_PM/ folder and then navigated to folder using terminal (Nginx_PM is a folder I created with "mkdir Nginx_PM from the terminal then "cd Nginx_PM")
• Ran "docker compose up -d" inside Nginx_PM folder where docker-compose.yml file was now located which works to bring up a new install of NginxPM and I can access it
• Went through initial setup steps of changing username, email and pwd
• Added 1 (and only 1) site called mywebsite.com (not my actual site name) as a proxy host. Set up everything but SSL Cert. (I did click block common exploits and allow websockets so those were turned on)
• Restarted everything to verify NginxPM would still come up without the SSL cert and it does come up correctly
• Added SSL cert (No Domain challenge , No force SSL or anything just requested a basic cert for my one website)
• Cert issued and can access website so I know it works directly after creation
• Restart everything
• NginxPM no longer comes up. Error logs show issues with .pem key chown operation not permitted and hangs at "chown ...(some file location for a .pem key) operation not permitted"

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I have absolutely no idea why it's doing this.

Only thing I can think of is that the Nginx_PM folder in my /home directory is not where the docker-compose.yml or NginxPM files are supposed to go but there is no clarification on this anywhere that I can find. Also if that is the case, maybe the full setup guide should be updated or something because it doesn't say anything about where the files go.

[Theknight2015]

Ended up finding a solution to this problem after consulting with several other guides for other OS's online and piecing together information on them.

Basically it's a permissions issue with Docker and NginxPM and how they run and how they store keys.

What I did was nuke the entire Nginx_PM folder in my documents folder and recreated a new folder called "nginx_pm" in the /var/lib/ directory. I used terminal to issue the commands after navigating to the lib folder in file browser and right clicking and selecting "open in terminal". The commands I issued are as follows:
mkdir nginx_pm
cd nginx_pm
nano docker-compose.yml
Once this file is open, paste in the docker-compose.yml example from the Full Setup guide linked above in the question
hit the control key and "O" key at the same time then press enter. Then hit the control key and "X" key at the same time
Now you're back in the terminal window and still in the nginx_pm folder in terminal.
issue this command "docker compose up -d" then close terminal and file browser.
You'll now see that the nginx_pm muli-container is now in your docker desktop window. Expand it and you'll see the app-1 container. Both containers should have green dots to the left and the square stop Icon should be visible. Click on the app-1 container name which will bring you to the logs. One of the lines you see should say something about the backend being started. Navigate to the ip address of your docker system like this "http://my-docker-system-ip:81/" and you should be greeted with the NginxPM login window. enter the default creds of "[email protected]" as the username/email and "changeme" as the password then run through the setup prompts.

Should be good to go now. All my .pem keys work now even after reboot.