How To Set Up Apache Virtual Hosts On Debian 8

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TUTORIAL
How To Set Up Apache Virtual Hosts on Debian 8

Apache Debian DNS Deployment
By Brian Hogan
Published on February 6, 2017 ! 175.3k
Not using Debian 8?

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Introduction
The Apache web server is the most popular way of serving web content on the internet. It
accounts for more than half of all active websites on the internet and is extremely
powerful and flexible.
Apache breaks its functionality and components into individual units you can customize
independently. The basic unit that describes an individual site or domain is called a virtual
host.
Using virtual hosts, you can use one server to host multiple domains or sites off of a
single interface or IP by using a matching mechanism. You configure a request for a
domain to direct the visitor to a specific directory holding that site’s information. In other
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In this tutorial, you’ll set up two Apache virtual hosts on a Debian 8 server, serving
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domain
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Prerequisites
To complete this tutorial, you will need:
• A Debian 8 server with a non-root user with sudo privileges. You can set up a user with
these privileges in our Initial Server Setup with Debian 8 guide.
• Apache installed and configured, as shown in How To Install Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
(LAMP) Stack on Debian 8.
In this guide, we’ll create virtual hosts for example.com and test.com , but you can
substitute your own domains or values while following along. To point your domain names
at your server, follow our tutorial How To Set Up a Host Name with DigitalOcean.
If you don’t have domains available to play with, you can use example.com and
test.com and follow Step 5 of this tutorial to configure your local hosts file to map those
domains to your server’s IP address. This will allow you to test your configuration from
your local computer.
Step 1 — Creating the Directory Structure

The first step that we are going to take is to make a directory structure that will hold the
site data that we will be serving to visitors.
Our document root, the top-level directory that Apache looks at to find content to serve,
will be set to individual directories under the /var/www directory. We will create a
directory for each of the virtual hosts we’ll configure.
Within each of these directories, we’ll create a folder called public_html that will hold
the web pages we want to serve. This gives us a little more flexibility in how we deploy
more complex web applications in the future; the public_html folder will hold web
content
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Create the directories using the following commands:

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$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ example.com /public_html

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ test.com /public_html
Since we created the directories with sudo , they are owned by our root user. If we want
our regular user to be able to modify files in our web directories, we change the
ownership, like this:
$ sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/ example.com /public_html

$ sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/ test.com /public_html
The $USER variable uses the value of the user you are currently logged in as when you
press ENTER . By doing this, our regular user now owns the public_html subdirectories
where we will be storing our content.
We should also modify our permissions a little bit to ensure that read access is permitted
to the general web directory and all of the files and folders it contains so that pages can
be served correctly. Execute this command to change the permissions on the /var/www
folder and its children:
$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www
If you’re new to managing permissions on Linux, see this tutorial.
Your web server should now have the permissions it needs to serve content, and your
user should be able to create content within the necessary folders. Let’s create an HTML
file for each site.
We have our directory structure in place. Let’s create some content to serve.
Step 2 — Creating Default Pages for Each Virtual Host

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Let’s create
website, a simple
you agree use of cookies.page for each site. This will help us ensure that our
to ourindex.html
virtual hosts are configured properly later on.
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Let’s start with the page for example.comSign
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a new index.html file with the following
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command:
$ nano /var/www/ example.com /public_html/index.html
In this file, create a simple HTML document that indicates that the visitor is looking at
example.com ’s home page:
/var/www/example.com/public_html/index.html
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to Example.com !</title>
</head>
<body>
<h11>Success! The example.com virtual host is working!</h1
1>
</body>
</html>
Save and close the file when you are finished.
Now copy this file to the test.com site:
$ cp /var/www/ example.com /public_html/index.html /var/www/ test.com /public_html/index.ht
Then open the file in your editor:
$ nano /var/www/ test.com /public_html/index.html
Change the file so it references test.com instaed of example.com :
/var/www/test.com/public_html/index.html
We<html>
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</head>
<body> <h1 1>Success! The test.com virtual host is working!</h1 1>
</body>
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Save and close this file. You now have the pages necessary to test the virtual host
configuration. Next, let’s configure the virtual hosts.
Step 3 — Create New Virtual Host Files

Virtual host files specify the actual configuration of our virtual hosts and dictate how the
Apache web server will respond to various domain requests.
Apache comes with a default virtual host file called 000-default.conf that you can use
as a jumping off point. Copy this file for the first domain:
$ sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/
Note: The default Apache configuration in Debian 8 requires that each virtual host file end
in .conf .
Open the new file in your editor:
$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/ example.com .conf
The file will look something like the following example, with some additional comments:
/etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf
<VirtualHost *:80
0>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
of
</VirtualHost>
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This virtual host matches any requests that are made on port 80 , the default HTTP port.
Let’s make a few changes to this configuration, and add a few new directives.
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First, change the ServerAdmin directive to an email that the site administrator can
receive emails through.
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
Next, we need to add two new directives. The first, called ServerName , establishes the
base domain for this virtual host definition. The second, called ServerAlias , defines
further names that should match as if they were the base name. This is useful for
matching additional hosts you defined, so both example.com and www.example.com both
work, provided both of these hosts point to this server’s IP address.
Add these two directives to your configuration file, right after the ServerAdmin line:
<VirtualHost *:80
0>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
...
Next, change the location of the document root for this domain by altering the
DocumentRoot directive to point to the directory you created for this host:
DocumentRoot /var/www/ example.com /public_html
Once you’ve made these changes, your file should look like this:
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<VirtualHost *:800>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.comI understand
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DocumentRoot /var/www/ example.com /public_html
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</VirtualHost>
Save and close the file.
Then create the second configuration file by creating a copy of this file:
$ sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/ example.com .conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/
Open the new file in your editor:
$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/ test.com .conf
Then change the relevant settings to reference your second domain. When you are
finished, your file will look like this:
/etc/apache2/sites-available/test.com.conf
<VirtualHost *:80
0>
ServerAdmin admin@test.com
ServerName test.com
ServerAlias www.test.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/ test.com /public_html
</VirtualHost>
Save and close the file.
Now that we have created our virtual host files, we can enable them.
Step 4 — Enabling the New Virtual Host Files

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You’ve created the folders and the virtual host configuration files, but Apache won’t use
×
them until you activate them. You can use the a2ensite tool to enable each of your sites.
Activate the first site: I understand

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$ sudo a2ensite example.com .conf
You’ll see the following output if there were no syntax errors or typos in your file:
Output
Enabling site example.com.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
service apache2 reload
In order for your changes to take effect, you have to reload Apache. But before you do,
enable the other site:
$ sudo a2ensite test.com .conf
You’ll see a similar message indicating the site was enabled:
Output
Enabling site test.com.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
service apache2 reload
Next, disable the default site defined in 000-default.conf by using the a2dissite
command:
$ sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
Now, restart Apache:
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

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The sites are now configured. Let’s test them out. If you’re using real domains configured
×
to point to your server’s IP address, you can skip the next step. But if your domains
haven’t propogated yet, or if you’re just testing, read on to learn how to test this setup
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Step 5 — Setting Up Local Hosts File (Optional)

If you haven’t been using actual domain names that you own to test this procedure and
have been using some example domains instead, you can at least test the functionality of
this process by temporarily modifying the hosts file on your local computer.
This will intercept any requests for the domains that you configured and point them to
your VPS server, just as the DNS system would do if you were using registered domains.
This will only work from your computer though, and is only useful for testing purposes.
Make sure you follow these steps on your local computer, and not your VPS server. You
will also need to know the local computer’s administrative password or be a member of
the administrative group.
If you are on a Mac or Linux computer, edit your local file with administrative privileges by
typing:
$ sudo nano /etc/hosts
If you’re on Windows, open a Command Prompt with administrative privileges and type:
c:\> notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Once you have the file open, add a line that maps your server’s public IP address to each
domain name, as shown in the following example:
/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
...
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111.111.111.111 test.com
This will direct any requests for example.com and test.com on your computer and send
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them to your server at 111.111.111.111 .
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Save and close the file. Now you can test out your setup. When you’re confident things
are working, remove the two lines from the file.
Step 6 — Testing Your Results

Now that you have your virtual hosts configured, you can test your setup easily by going
to the domains that you configured in your web browser. Visit the first site at
http://example.com and you’ll see a page that looks like this:
Likewise, if you can visit your second host at http://test.com , you’ll see the file you
created for your second site:
If both of these sites work well, you’ve successfully configured two virtual hosts on the
same server.
Note:If you adjusted your home computer’s hosts file as shown in Step 5, you may want to
delete the lines you added now that you verified that your configuration works. This will
prevent your hosts file from being filled with entries that are not actually necessary.
Conclusion
You now have a single server handling two separate domain names. You can expand this
process by following these steps to add additional virtual hosts.
There
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To use Apache to serve secure content, follow the tutorial How To Secure Apache with
Let’s Encrypt on Debian 8. To use Apache in front of your web application, follow How To
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Use Apache as a Reverse Proxy with mod_proxy on Debian 8.
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About the authors
Brian Hogan
I manage the Write for DOnations
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Comments
6 C o m m e n ts
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Grafu August 24, 2017
0 Does not work. Entering my own domain and still opens the default index page.
Reply Report
bhogan * August 24, 2017

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could be a couple of issues.
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First, did you remember to disable the default site with
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf ?
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Second, when you restarted Apache, did you see any messages indicating there were
typos in your configuration files?
Finally, you may need to clear your browser’s cache.

Reply Report
Grafu August 24, 2017
1
Yeah, it was the browser’s cache. Restarted the browser and it worked. Thanks :)
Reply Report
iamgonge August 30, 2017
0 Hello, I’m trying to use this for Debian 9 and am having some trouble. i followed every step
but so far its not working correctly. Currently localhost shows the index.html from site1,
trying to replace localhost in the browser with either site1 or site2 results in a This site
cannot be reached error. Before I started this tutorial /var/www/html was my localhost, now
localhost returns site1 /index which sits at /var/www/site1. What should localhost return?
What could cause localhost to equal site1 and not site2? I did disable 000-default and I
cleared the cache. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Reply Report
jlinkelsfb August 30, 2017
2 Somehow HowTo’s for Debian on DigitalOcean are better than other tutorials found on the
web. Different authors, but the style is the same. Clear explanations, good instructions, step-
by-step but with sufficient background information to understand what you are doing. I
wonder if the authors use some sort of template or have clear instructions. Oh, and no
apparently no roving of some other contents, including the same errors and the same
omissions.
So many thanks again for this HowTo.
Reply Report
ZajaczkowskiMathias April 11, 2019
0 Fantastic tuto
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How To Set Up Apache Virtual Hosts On Debian 8 - DigitalOcean

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How To Set Up Apache Virtual Hosts On Debian 8 - DigitalOcean

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How To Set Up Apache Virtual Hosts on Debian 8 | DigitalOcean https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-apache...

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Not using Debian 8?

Step 1 — Creating the Directory Structure

Create the directories using the following commands:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ example.com /public_html

$ sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/ example.com /public_html

$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www

If you’re new to managing permissions on Linux, see this tutorial.

Step 2 — Creating Default Pages for Each Virtual Host

$ nano /var/www/ example.com /public_html/index.html

Save and close the file when you are finished.

Now copy this file to the test.com site:

$ cp /var/www/ example.com /public_html/index.html /var/www/ test.com /public_html/index.ht

Then open the file in your editor:

$ nano /var/www/ test.com /public_html/index.html

Change the file so it references test.com instaed of example.com :

Step 3 — Create New Virtual Host Files

$ sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/

Open the new file in your editor:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/ example.com .conf

DocumentRoot /var/www/ example.com /public_html

Save and close the file.

$ sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/ example.com .conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/

Open the new file in your editor:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/ test.com .conf

Save and close the file.

Step 4 — Enabling the New Virtual Host Files

Activate the first site: I understand

$ sudo a2ensite example.com .conf

$ sudo a2ensite test.com .conf

You’ll see a similar message indicating the site was enabled:

$ sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Now, restart Apache:

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 5 — Setting Up Local Hosts File (Optional)

$ sudo nano /etc/hosts

c:\> notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Step 6 — Testing Your Results

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Grafu August 24, 2017

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Finally, you may need to clear your browser’s cache.

Grafu August 24, 2017

iamgonge August 30, 2017

jlinkelsfb August 30, 2017

ZajaczkowskiMathias April 11, 2019

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