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Apache2 Virtual Hosts

Apache defaults to serving webpages from /var /www / and often that is good enough. But sometimes we need to host multiple sites on one server, and that can get a little tricky. This guide was developed and tested with recent Debian and Ubuntu (Hardy and Lenny) releases.

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177 views

Apache2 Virtual Hosts

Apache defaults to serving webpages from /var /www / and often that is good enough. But sometimes we need to host multiple sites on one server, and that can get a little tricky. This guide was developed and tested with recent Debian and Ubuntu (Hardy and Lenny) releases.

Uploaded by

pantopita
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Apache Virtual Host Configuration

The Foolproof Guide to:


Apache Virtual Host Configuration
Disclaimer: No warranties are made or implied.
This guide was developed and tested with recent Debian and Ubuntu (Hardy and Lenny) releases.
License: This Document may be used and copied under the same terms as Apache:
(http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/license.html).

Apache defaults to serving webpages from /var/www/ and often that is good enough. But sometimes we need to host
multiple sites on one server, and that can get a little tricky.

Preparation:
The list below may seem obvious, use it as a checklist.
1. Check Your Hostname
/etc/hostname should contain a single line with the Fully Qualified Domain Name of your Server, that is the box,
not necessarily any website it may host. The same hostname should be returned by the hostname command. If
you need to change /etc/hostname, you should reboot for the change to take effect.
2. Check your Hosts File.
The first two entries in your hosts file should be something like this:
# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.10.62 userv1.brain.demo userv1
If you have a dynamic address and the second line isn’t present, don’t add it manually.
3. Confirm that you have a static IP Address. You can do this one of two ways:

• On a Debian Type Distribution look for /etc/network/interfaces, on Red Hat try /etc/sysconfig/network-
scripts/ifcfg-eth? where ? is the interface you wish to configure. Make sure that they are set with a Static
Address.

• Reserve an IP Address in your DHCP server(s), leaving your web server configured to obtain an address
through DHCP. If you do this confirm that your server always receives the assigned address.
4. Create Entries in DNS for each Virtual Host you wish to have, you should use an alias (CNAME) for each virtual
host that points to the primary hostname of your server. The advantage of the Alias is that should you ever
change the ip address of your host, the virtual hosts will not need to be updated. If you have not set a static
address (or reserved), you must use an alias because your host could change its’ IP address unexpectedly.
5. Test DNS. Make sure that on your host all of the hostnames resolve correctly, ping and nslookup are good tools
for this. Test it on at least one other machine, ideally from someplace else on the network and/or Internet,
depending on the nature of the website(s).

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Apache Virtual Host Configuration

Install Apache.
Install and test apache as appropriate for your distribution. The default configuration should serve an “it works” page
from /var/www.
Create a directory for each of your virtual hosts, and put a placeholder index.html page in each so you can confirm apache
is serving the correct page, something like
<html><head><title>schooner.brain.demo</title></head>
<body><h1>The Temporary Page for: schooner.brain.demo</h1></body></html>

In the directory /etc/apache2/ copy httpd.conf, apache2.conf, and ports.conf (for vendor sample files like this I use the
extension.sam, other people might choose .backup or .original). apache2.conf is the main configuration file, I have a
working one at the end of the document, it is likely that your default one does not need much changing. On
Debian/Ubuntu you can safely comment out the include line for httpd.conf (it is available if you are re-using older
configurations) but you will also need ports.conf file (or to place its’ commands in apache2.conf).

ports.conf
NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80
<IfModule mod_ssl.c> # virtual hosts do not currently support ssl
Listen 443 # you could comment this section out if you’re not using ssl.
</IfModule>

NameVirtualHost tells apache that you have virtual hosts, *:80 says all ip addresses port 80. In a more complex
configuration you may specify the ip address and alternate ports. If specifying multiple IP address and port combinations
you can use multiple NameVirtualHost Statements.
Listen 80 is necessary because by default apache doesn’t listen on any ports.

Word of Warning.
There is one very important thing about NameVirtualHost that the Apache manpage forgets to mention. Each
NameVirtualHost statement should only appear once in your configuration and it should be in ports.conf (or
apache2.conf if you don’t use ports.conf).
Many items on the web make it look like it belongs in your Virtual Host file.
In etc/apache2 run grep –R NameVirtualHost * to make sure you haven’t made this mistake.
Some Administrators avoid modifying the vendor provided default files to avoid complications from future upgrades,
they create an extra configuration file just to hold their NameVirtualHosts directives, which they include by either
adding an explicit include for it or by placing it in sites-enabled. If you are one of them, this is equally valid, so long as
you obey the Foolproof Advice of placing them all in one specific place.

Virtual Hosts Definitions.


Underneath /etc/apache2/ there are two directories: sites-available and sites-enabled. Virtual Hosts definitions files are
placed in sites-available. It is likely that you already have a default site defined in a file titled default. The document below
is my default which hasn’t been changed much since the install. For now using the default configuration should be fine.

© 2010 John Karr. 10 March 2010 Page 2 of 6


Apache Virtual Host Configuration

sites-available/default
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName userv2.brainbuz.org
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/
<Directory /var/www/>
DirectoryIndex index.html /var/www/index.html
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /var/www/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
ServerSignature On
</VirtualHost>

If you intend to actually host something there, using the default may not be fine. Consider the AllowOverride None
directive, it means that subordinate configurations will be ignored, without it, the default is to permit subordinate
configurations. My advice is to build your own Virtual Host file up, check the values in examples you’re using against the
documentation to see if what they suggest is appropriate for what you want. To add your own virtual host, open a new
file in a text editor, and save it in sites-available, though not mandatory, I recommend having the filename match the
website name.

A virtual host configuration file ( sites-available/schooner.brain.demo ).


# schooner.brain.demo
<VirtualHost *:80 >
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ServerName schooner.brain.demo
DocumentRoot /var/www/schooner/
<Directory /var/www/schooner/ >
DirectoryIndex index.html /var/www/schooner/index.html
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin /var/www/schooner/cgi-bin
<Directory /var/www/schooner/cgi-bin >
Options +ExecCGI
Order allow,deny

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Apache Virtual Host Configuration

AllowOverride None
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

The enclosing tag is VirtualHost, in the opening tag *:80 matches an existing NameVirtualHosts directive .Most of the
remaining values should be self-explanatory. The Internal Directory Tags allow setting of options for a directory. My
example shows a documents directory, the Directory Index sets the default document. Placing the NameVirtualHosts
directive in the same file will sometimes work but can cause grief later on. Multiple copies of the same NameVirtualHosts
directive and incorrect matching by the VirtualHost tag are easy errors to make that will make you not happy.

Enabling Your Virtual Hosts


By default only the default site is going to be enabled for you. To enable a site you simply create a link in sites-enabled. To
make this even easier there are two scripts a2ensite and a2dissite which will prompt you with a list of sites that can be
enabled or disabled. Then use ‘/etc/init.d/apache2 reload’ to activate.

Userv1:/etc/apache2# a2ensite
Your choices are: default default-ssl dhingy.brain.demo schooner.brain.demo
sloop.brain.demo yacht.brain.demo
Which site(s) do you want to enable (wildcards ok)?
schooner.brain.demo
Enabling site schooner.brain.demo.
Run '/etc/init.d/apache2 reload' to activate new configuration!

Serving up a script instead of a page


It is common practice today to have an entire site run by a script. Drupal, Joomla, Django and Catalyst all operate in this
manner. The following configuration changes my default site to serve a simple cgi script which tells me which page I’ve
arrived at.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(/cgi-bin/index\.cgi/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cgi-bin/index\.cgi/$1 [PT,L]
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

The key here is the rewrite engine, which is turned off by default. To enable the rewrite engine use the command
a2enmod. Just like a2ensite, a2enmod will prompt you with a list of available modules, both also let you use a wildcard or

© 2010 John Karr. 10 March 2010 Page 4 of 6


Apache Virtual Host Configuration

enter an item directly on the command line. To activate the module you will need to restart Apache with
‘/etc/init.d/apache2 restart’.
#!/usr/bin/perl
# index.cgi
use CGI ;
use strict ;
my $query = CGI->new ;
my $url = $query->url() ;
print $query->header ;
print $query->start_html( -title=>'The Page You Have Arrived At', -BGCOLOR=>'cyan') ;
print $query->h1("You are at $url") ;
print $query->end_html ;

Appendix: sample apache2.conf


ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"
LockFile /var/lock/apache2/accept.lock

PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}
Timeout 300
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 15

<IfModule mpm_prefork_module>
StartServers 5
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 10
MaxClients 150
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

<IfModule mpm_worker_module>
StartServers 2
MaxClients 150
MinSpareThreads 25
MaxSpareThreads 75
ThreadsPerChild 25
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

# These need to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars


User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}

AccessFileName .htaccess

<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>

© 2010 John Karr. 10 March 2010 Page 5 of 6


Apache Virtual Host Configuration

DefaultType text/plain
HostnameLookups Off
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
LogLevel warn

# Include module configuration:


Include /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.load
Include /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.conf

# Include all the user configurations:


# Include /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

# Include ports listing


Include /etc/apache2/ports.conf

#
# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
# a CustomLog directive (see below).
LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

# Define an access log for VirtualHosts that don't define their own logfile
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/other_vhosts_access.log vhost_combined

# Include generic snippets of statements


Include /etc/apache2/conf.d/

# Include the virtual host configurations:


Include /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

Tips and Credits


When looking for answers to Apache questions the two best places to look are the Apache Documentation itself and the
Apache Wiki. The Apache Wiki may not have what you’re looking for, but unlike a lot of other resources answering
Apache questions out on the web, it will generally be correct.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/
http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/FrontPage
This document was written by John Karr: http://brainbuz.org/techinfo.
Technical reviewers: Chris J. Fearnley and J.P. Vossen.

© 2010 John Karr. 10 March 2010 Page 6 of 6

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