How to enable and configure Virtual hosts, vhosts, in Apache2.

Virtual hosts or vhosts enable you to host multiple domain names on one IP address. The configuration is Apache2 looks a little more complicated at first because it is spread out over so many files.

The configuration options explained below are written for a SuSE 10 installation with Apache2. Other distros might have a different configuration layout. Use

Command: skylinux@2of9:/etc/apache2> grep -H "OptionName" *

to find an option within any file inside the current directory. Replace OptionName with the string you are looking for. Please inform me of any special requirements your Linux distro might have. Click To Update.

This Guide assumes that you have Apache2 installed and configured for Single domain use. If you enter the server's IP/domain into your browser you should see the Apache2 generated test page or your website. If not, check Virtual Brain Online for suggestions.

I strongly recommend that you make a backup before you begin
A simple tar backup of your config folder will do

Command: 2of9:/ # tar -zcvf apache2_config_backup_pre_virutalhost.tar.gz /etc/apache2/

Your backup file is now called apache2_config_backup_pre_virutalhost.tar.gz and contains all your config files under /etc/apache2.

Since I'm using SuSE 10 on my server, I double checked the settings in /etc/sysconfig/apache2

Now we need to make sure that Apache2 will actually listen for a connection to one of it's VirtualHosts.
Open listen.conf and change

#NameVirtualHost *:80
to
NameVirtualHost *:80

Next, open the default-server.conf, which is located in /etc/apache2/default-server.conf in SuSE Linux
The default-server.conf contains all the default server settings. This is also the place where I give permission to browse my server root. Adjust the configuration options below to match your own setup.

DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/network-technologies.org/
<Directory "/mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/">
	Order allow,deny
	DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
	IndexOptions FancyIndexing HTMLTable VersionSort
	UseCanonicalName off
	Allow from all
</Directory>

All that's left now is to create the virtual hosts configuration file, apache2 wants all VirtualHost configuration stored in the directory apache2/vhosts.d/
I would recommend that you create one file per parent domain and one catch all file, this will make maintenance a lot simpler. At the time of writing, I have three files in my vhosts.d directory.

2of9:/etc/apache2/vhosts.d # ls -l
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  292 Nov 26 10:26 catch_all.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  645 Nov 26 10:22 mirkokaiser.com.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1468 Nov 26 10:20 network-technologies.org.conf

And each file contains:

File: Filename: mirkokaiser.com.conf <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/mirkokaiser.com/ ServerName www.mirkokaiser.com ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/mirkokaiser.com-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/mirkokaiser.com-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/mirkokaiser.com/ ServerName mirkokaiser.com ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/mirkokaiser.com-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/mirkokaiser.com-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost>

File: Filename: network-technologies.org.conf <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/network-technologies.org/ ServerName www.network-technologies.org ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologies.org-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologies.org-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/network-technologies.org/ ServerName network-technologies.org ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologies.org-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologies.org-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/network-technologies.org/ ServerName www.network-technologie.org ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologie.org-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologie.org-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/network-technologies.org/ ServerName network-technologie.org ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologie.org-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/network-technologie.org-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost>

File: Filename: catch_all.conf <VirtualHost _default_:80> DocumentRoot /mnt/raid5/srv/www/htdocs/network-technologies.org/ ServerAdmin spam@some_email_addess ServerSignature On CustomLog /var/log/apache2/catch_all-access.log combined ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/catch_all.org-error.log LogLevel warn </VirtualHost>

Restart your server, give it a try and let me know how it went.

Originally Posted by Skylinux @ 2005-11-26 10:46:40
Bug Fix in BB Tags
Last update by Skylinux @ 2005-11-26 17:08:45

Make sure that the configuration file ends with .conf or apache will not read it from your virtual hosts folder.
Last update by Skylinux @ 2005-12-28 21:50:46

 

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