Apache is an open source and free web server software developed by the Apache Software Foundation. It is officially called Apache HTTP Server. Apache is one of the oldest, cross-platform web servers and it is beginner-friendly.
In this tutorial, we are going to install Apache version 2 (Apache2) on Ubuntu 20.04. Furthermore, we are going to configure virtual hosts so that more than one website can be hosted on a single server.
Install Apache2 on Ubuntu 20.04
First, check for package updates with the command below.
$ sudo apt update
Second, run the following command to install Apache version 2 from the Ubuntu package repository.
$ sudo apt install apache2
When prompted, enter y to proceed with the installation.
After Apache2 is successfully installed, run the next command to confirm the version.
$ apache2 -v
Check Apache2 Server Status
Next, check the status of the Apache2 server by running the command below.
$ sudo systemctl status apache2
By default, the Apache2 service should already be active (running). If not, start the service with the next command.
$ sudo systemctl start apache2
Test the Apache2 Web Server
The last step is testing the Apache2 web server. Open your preferred web browser and enter the IP address of your Ubuntu server. Or enter localhost if you are locally connected to the server.
You should see the Apache2 Ubuntu default page as shown in the image below.
On behalf of the Apache Software Foundation, we welcome you to Apache2!
Configure Virtual Hosts on Apache2
Virtual Hosts allow you to host more than one website on the same Apache2 server. Whereas on Nginx it is named as server blocks.
By default, Apache2 comes with one virtual host and its configuration information is stored in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf. Also, the default website root is /var/www/html.
Configuring a new virtual host is easy. For example, I would perform the following steps to configure a virtual host for my website at www.cloudindevs.com. You can follow along and simply replace cloudindevs with your own registered domain name.
Note: Your registered domain name should point to the IP address of your Ubuntu server.
Create a virtual host
Create a new virtual host configuration file by copying the default one as follows.
$ cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/cloudindevs.conf
After that, disable the default virtual host with the command below.
$ sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
Create document root directory
Run the next command to create a document root directory to store website files.
$ sudo mkdir /var/www/cloudindevs
Next, make the Apache2 service user account (www-data) and group (www-data) the owner of the document root directory as follows.
$ sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/cloudindevs
Further, grant the Apache2 service user account (www-data) full access to the document root directory with the next command.
$ sudo chmod 755 /var/www/cloudindevs
Create website index file
Now, create an index file in the document root directory with:
$ sudo nano /var/www/cloudindevs/index.html
Copy and paste the sample HTML code below.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to Cloudindevs!</title>
<style>
body {
width: 35em;
margin: 0 auto;
font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to Cloudindevs!</h1>
<p>If you see this page, the Cloudindevs website is working correctly!</p>
</body>
</html>Save and close the index.html file.
Edit the virtual host configuration
Next, edit the new virtual host configuration file with the following command.
$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/cloudindevs.conf
Now, uncomment the line that starts with ServerName and then replace www.example.com with the actual website URL. Also, replace /var/www/html with the new document root path.
Below is a sample of what is expected after making the changes.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.cloudindevs.com
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/cloudindevs
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save and close the virtual host configuration file.
Enable the Apache2 virtual host
To enable the Apache2 virtual host, run the command below.
$ sudo a2ensite cloudindevs.conf
Finally, restart the Apache2 web server with:
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2
Surely, my new website is now accessible through www.cloudindevs.com as shown in the image below.
Basic Commands to Manage Apache HTTP Server
As we conclude, here are some basic systemctl commands to help you manage your Apache2 web server.
Use restart to stop the Apache2 service and then start it again.
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2
Use the reload option to tell Apache2 to reload its configuration files but without stopping the service.
$ sudo systemctl reload apache2
Run the stop command to stop the Apache2 service.
$ sudo systemctl stop apache2
To enable the Apache2 service to start up when the server boots, run:
$ sudo systemctl enable apache2
Apache2 helpers
a2ensite - enable an apache2 site or virtual host.
$ sudo a2ensite cloudindevs.conf
a2dissite - used to disable an apache2 site or virtual host.
sudo a2dissite cloudindevs.conf
Basic Apache2 Configuration and Log Files
Configuration files
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf -- main configuration file which pulls information from all other configuration files when the web server starts.
/etc/apache2/ports.conf -- defines listening ports for incoming connections.
/etc/apache2/mods-enabled -- contains configuration information for managing modules.
/etc/apache2/conf-enabled -- contains some global configuration information.
/etc/apache2/sites-available -- stores virtual host configurations.
/etc/apache2/sites-enabled -- defines enabled virtual hosts.
Log files
/var/log/apache2/error.log -- contains information about errors encountered by Apache2.
/var/log/apache2/access.log -- contains all requests processed by Apache2.
Conclusion
In this guide, we installed and configured the Apache HTTP Server along with a virtual host on Ubuntu 20.04. In addition, we looked at some useful commands to manage Apache2. Lastly, we gave a brief description of important configuration and log files used by Apache2.
