Could not retrieve an OCSP response error

Question

Hello everyone and thanks for the help in advance. My Windows Server 2022 webserver inexplicably stopped being able to serve webpages, registering the following error:

Could not retrieve an OCSP response.

   The Failure Reason is: REASON_OCSP_RESPONSE_RETRIEVAL_ERROR
    The OCSP Url is: http://ocsp.godaddy.com/

I have confirmed it has an internet connection and the link displayed in the error message is accessible. I'm not sure where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi @Kmcnet ,

Thanks for sharing your details!

Based on what you’ve described, the OCSP error is happening while Windows is trying to set up the HTTPS connection.

Before IIS serves a page over HTTPS, Windows first checks the SSL certificate (including its revocation status). If that check can’t be completed for any reason, Windows logs REASON_OCSP_RESPONSE_RETRIEVAL_ERROR.

That message doesn’t automatically mean the OCSP server is down or that your certificate is invalid. It simply means the check couldn’t be completed during the HTTPS setup process.

The important clue here is this: When you removed the SSL binding, the OCSP error stopped but the site still didn’t respond.

That strongly suggests the OCSP message may not be the root cause of the outage. It’s likely just the first error Windows reports when HTTPS fails.

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At this point, it helps to separate things into two simple checks:

1) Can IIS serve the site at all?

Before focusing on certificates, please confirm the site responds over plain HTTP (port 80). From the server itself, try:

• [http://localhost]

If that doesn’t load, then the issue isn’t related to SSL yet, it means IIS isn’t successfully handling requests at a basic level, and that needs to be resolved first.

2) If HTTP works, then we focus on HTTPS.

If the site works over HTTP but fails over HTTPS, then we look at:

• The SSL binding configuration
• The certificate installation and chain
• Whether outbound network rules or proxy settings are preventing Windows from completing the revocation check

One additional note: being able to open the OCSP URL in a browser doesn’t fully confirm the check will succeed. Windows performs that validation in the background using system-level settings, which can behave differently from normal browsing.

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For now, the most important step is confirming whether the site responds over plain HTTP from the server itself.