How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS
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This document provides instructions on how to configure Apache virtual hosts on RHEL 7 to host multiple websites on different ports with different content folders. It includes steps to configure the Apache listen directive, create virtual host directives, set document roots and ports, create log directories, validate the configuration, and modify security settings. Sample index files are provided to demonstrate the three configured websites.
How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS
- 1. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS i | P a g e Table of Contents Overview.......................................................................................................................................................1 Applies To......................................................................................................................................................1 Pre-Requisites ...............................................................................................................................................1 Configure Apache – VirtualHost....................................................................................................................1 Default – Listen .........................................................................................................................................1 Default – DocumentRoot..........................................................................................................................1 Default – List DocumentRoot....................................................................................................................2 New Website Directory.............................................................................................................................2 Add Listen .................................................................................................................................................2 Add VirtualHost Directive .........................................................................................................................3 Default Port – 80...................................................................................................................................3 Alternate Port – 81................................................................................................................................3 Alternate Port – 82................................................................................................................................3 Parse Config File........................................................................................................................................5 Create – Log Directories............................................................................................................................5 Validate Syntax..........................................................................................................................................5 Parse Config File........................................................................................................................................6 Restart Service – httpd..............................................................................................................................6 SELinux Status ...........................................................................................................................................7 Add Network port type.........................................................................................................................7 Modify Security Group..................................................................................................................................7 Launch websites............................................................................................................................................8 Website #1 ............................................................................................................................................8 Website #2 ............................................................................................................................................8 Website #3 ............................................................................................................................................8
- 2. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 1 | P a g e Overview Virtual hosts means hosting more than one website’s on apache webserver. The purpose of this guide is to configure virtual hosts on a different ports and different document content folder. It is always a best practice to configure SELinux in enforcing mode to have extra layer of security on the server that is exposed to the internet domain. Applies To Tested on RHEL 7, CentOS 7. Pre-Requisites apache httpd policycoreutils-python (semanage command) Configure Apache – VirtualHost One of the features with apache is configuring virtualhost for hosting multiple websites on a webserver and configuring these website on a different ports also. All the configurations has to be done with “apache” user. Daemon start/restart/status command should be executed with “root” user. Default – Listen Next we will list the “Listen” directive (port to listen) that has been configured. By default this directive is configured to listen on port “80”; run the command; cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf | grep ^Listen Default – DocumentRoot First and foremost thing that has to be done is to know the “DocumentRoot” directive that has been configured in apache main configuration file “httpd.conf”. By default this directive is configured as “/var/www/html”. cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf | grep ^DocumentRoot
- 3. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 2 | P a g e Default – List DocumentRoot Next we will list the folder DocumentRoot “/var/www/”, run the command; cd /var/www/ ; ll New Website Directory Create the new website directory, where we intend create new website and change the owner of the folder to apache user and group. mkdir -v /var/www/example{2..3}; cd /var/www/ chown -R apache:apache example{2..3} ; ll Add Listen Next step is to configure listen port directive, edit “httpd.conf” and add the directive entries as below. Listen :80 Listen :81 Listen :82
- 4. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 3 | P a g e Add VirtualHost Directive Next step is to create a new VirtualHost directive entries for different ports, as below. Default Port – 80 Configuration directives for port 80 and virtual host. <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot "/var/www/html" ServerName example1.domain.com ServerAlias example1.domain.com ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/example1/error_log" CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/example1/access_log" common <Directory /var/www/html> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory> </VirtualHost> Alternate Port – 81 Configuration directives for port 81 and virtual host. <VirtualHost *:81> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot "/var/www/example2" ServerName example2.domain.com ServerAlias example2.domain.com ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/example2/error_log" CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/example2/access_log" common <Directory /var/www/example2> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory> </VirtualHost> Alternate Port – 82 Configuration directives for port 82 and virtual host. <VirtualHost *:82> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot "/var/www/example3" ServerName example3.domain.com ServerAlias example3.domain.com ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/example3/error_log" CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/example3/access_log" common <Directory /var/www/example3> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory> </VirtualHost>
- 5. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 4 | P a g e
- 6. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 5 | P a g e Parse Config File To show the settings as parsed from the config file and show errors in the configuration, run the command; httpd -S Note: In this case log file directories are not created, hence the check has failed. Create – Log Directories Next step is to create log directories for “example1”, “example2” and “example3” in “/var/log/httpd/”. In this directory all the access and error logs will be generated and stored, to create these directories run the command; mkdir -v /var/log/httpd/example{1..3} Validate Syntax After parsing the configuration file, next we will check for syntax errors to validate the syntax, run the command; if no issues are found “Syntax OK” will be displayed. httpd -t
- 7. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 6 | P a g e Parse Config File After creating the directory, rerun the parse config file and show errors if any, if no errors are reported, it will list all the main parameters configured. httpd -S Restart Service – httpd After validating the configuration and verifying the syntax, next you can go ahead and restart the httpd service and check the service status. systemctl restart httpd systemctl status httpd -l
- 8. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 7 | P a g e SELinux Status To know the SELinux Status and current enforcement mode configured run the command; if the “SeLinux status” is enabled and current mode is set to “enforcing”; SELinux configuration is required else ignore these steps. sestatus | grep 'SELinux status|Current mode' Add Network port type Since SELinux is enabled, next step is to add network type port type definitions for SELinux to authorize ports 80 – 82 for http traffic, run the command. semanage port -d -t http_port_t -p tcp 80 semanage port -d -t http_port_t -p tcp 81 semanage port -d -t http_port_t -p tcp 82 semanage port -l | grep -w "http_port_t" or semanage port -l | grep http_port_t Modify Security Group Add new rules to the “Inbound rules” in the AWS Security group for all the ports that needs to access from outside.
- 9. How To Configure Apache VirtualHost on RHEL 7 on AWS 8 | P a g e Launch Websites To demonstrate these settings and configuration is working, we will create a “index.html” file with a sample html content page as per the website numbers and different font colors. Website #1 <HTML> <BODY> <TITLE> 1st website </TITLE> <H1> <FONT COLOR="brown"> This is First website's default page </H1> </H1> </BODY> </HTML> Website #2 <HTML> <BODY> <TITLE> 2nd website </TITLE> <H1> <FONT COLOR="green"> This is second website's default page </FONT> </H1> </FONT> </BODY> </HTML> Website #3 <HTML> <BODY> <TITLE> 3rd website </TITLE> <H1> <FONT COLOR="blue"> This is third website's default page </FONT> </H1> </FONT> </BODY> </HTML>