How to prevent AutoSSL from following redirects in Apache includes

Introduction

When using an Apache include to redirect a site's traffic, additional customization is required to enable AutoSSL's DCV checks to succeed.  The following procedure adds a redirect exclusion for AutoSSL to the Apache include file.

Procedure

1. Access the server's command line as the 'root' user via SSH or "Terminal" in WHM.
2. Open the site's include file in your preferred text editor.

3. Add the following lines to the top of the file.

   <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
   # Global DCV Exclude - Rewrites
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/.+$ [OR]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$ [OR]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/\.well-known/pki-validation/(?:\ Ballot169)? [OR]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$ [OR]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Sectigo\ DCV)?$
   
   # Exclude proxy subdomains as we need rewrites to capture the DCV requests
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(?:autoconfig|autodiscover|cpanel|cpcalendars|cpcontacts|webdisk|webmail|whm)\.
   RewriteRule ^ - [END]
   </IfModule>

4. Save the changes and exit the file.

5. Rebuild the Apache configuration.

   /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf

6. Restart Apache.

   /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_httpd 

Additional resources

How to use Apache includes to add configuration directives to a specific domain's virtualhost

Where would I add customizations to Apache?