{"id":493,"date":"2020-02-09T07:15:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T06:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/codedoneright.eu\/?page_id=493"},"modified":"2020-03-11T00:54:43","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T23:54:43","slug":"web-server","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/codedoneright.eu\/?page_id=493","title":{"rendered":"Web server \u2013 Apache2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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https:\/\/httpd.apache.org\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So you want to host a website? Apache web server is something that will allow you to do it. Basically it is an application that serves a website to anybody connecting to your server with a browser. Apache web server can serve a website, a blog to your users or enable them to access email on your server. And much, much more. If you want to host anything you simply need Apache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, if you want to use an SSL certificate for encrypting data sent between you (or other users) and your server you simply need control over a website and a domain to prove that you are who you are saying you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nginx is an alternative http server, however, as I prefer Apache this will not be covered. At least for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Installing Apache <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This part will be straightforward. Use the following command<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sudo apt install apache2<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
After installation is complete your server is ready. Granted, it is configured in the most basic way possible and so far we can only utilize plain html, but it already works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Accessing your website<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Open your web browser and in the address bar type the IP address of your Raspberry Pi web server (or domain address if you have configured DNS<\/a>). You should see a page similar to the below screen shot<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Apache
Apache2 web server default website<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Apache web server basics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
By default Apache2 serves websites from the following folder<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/var\/www\/html\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The default website is placed there to showcase that it is in fact working. You can serve your website from virtually any folder you want, but again \/var\/<\/em> folder and especially \/www\/<\/em> subfolder is a good choice. You need to have a separate folder for each site you plan to host. Like so<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/var\/www\/codedoneright.eu\/PUBLIC_HTML\/\n\/var\/www\/forum.codedoneright.eu\/\netc.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to the number of sites you can host only two things are constraining you \u2013 bandwidth of your internet connection and your server performance. Obviously you will not be able to host a website with hundreds of pages accessed by millions of users on a daily basis, but a small selection of pages for personal or small business use is not out of the question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Allowing Apache2 to access your website<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In order for Apache to serve content from folder that you created for your website it needs access to it. By default whoever saves a file, owns it. If you save files as the user john1234<\/em>, website files will belong to john1234<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apache on the other hand uses a specific user account to access those files. The user is called<\/p>\n\n\n\n
www-data<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
By default it has permissions to read, so a static, non-interactive page will be displayed normally, but if you want anything more you need to change both permissions, and owner of those files<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For each and every folder you create for a website, after you place your files there run the following code<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo chown www-data:www-data -R \/var\/www\/your_website_folder\nsudo chmod 775 -R \/var\/www\/your_website_folder<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The above code will change ownership of the folder and any files within to Apache www-data<\/em> user, and its group. Moreover, it will allow the user and its group to freely modify those files, while allowing other users to only read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Access to www-data<\/em> owned files<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Your default user, will not be able to modify contents afterwards. Files and folders simply belong to someone else now. In order to allow us to change those files AND retain Apache ownership of them we will add our default user to Apache www-data group with the following command<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo usermod -aG www-data $user_name<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Substitute $user_name<\/em> with the name of user that will modify website files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUTION<\/strong> All modified files will be owned by your current user (or root<\/em> if you used sudo<\/em>), remember to run chown<\/em> command after you are done with changing files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Apache2 website basic configuration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Apache serves sites that have configuration files in the following folder<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/etc\/apache2\/sites-available\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The most basic config looks like this<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<VirtualHost *:80>\n        DocumentRoot \/var\/www\/html\n        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}\/error.log\n        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}\/access.log combined\n<\/VirtualHost>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Configuration files should be named <\/p>\n\n\n\n
example.com.conf<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
however, you can name the file anything as long as it has .conf<\/em> suffix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having a configuration file in sites-available<\/em> folder is not enough, you also need to enable the site with the following command<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo a2ensite example.com<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Note that you do not have to include .conf<\/em> extension in the command<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After enabling the site, Apache creates a link to the config file from sites-available <\/em>to the folder \/etc\/apache2\/sites-enabled\/ <\/em>it will have the same name, however it will be just a link, not the actual file. You can then modify the file either by accessing it through the link or the file directly. Any changes will be written to the file in sites-available<\/em> folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUTION <\/strong>You need to restart Apache or just reload the config for any changes in your configuration files to take effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use the following command<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo service apache2 restart\nor \nsudo service apache2 reload<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Apache config explained \u2013 virtual hosts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Great feature of Apache 2 web server are Virtual hosts. In short, they allow for configuring as many sites on one server as your bandwidth and server performance allow for. Take a look at the example configuration above. I will explain what those directives mean<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<VirtualHost *:80>\n...\n<\/VirtualHost><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This is the frame <\/em>of every website on your server. It will enclose all directives that concern a single page. The fragment *:80<\/em> means any connection via unencrypted connection through a browser (http protocol).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DocumentRoot \/var\/www\/html<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
DocumentRoot <\/em>tells the server where exactly is your website. Like in example above it can be \/var\/www\/codedoneright.eu\/PUBLIC_HTML\/<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
CAUTION <\/strong>Apache looks for a file called index.html<\/em> or index.php<\/em> in DocumentRoot<\/em> folder to serve it as the landing page. Other files will be ignored for the purpose of serving the initial page. You will get an error message instead of the site if one of those files is not found!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}\/error.log\nCustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}\/access.log combined<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Those two lines tell Apache where to write log files. You can rename them to whatever you wish. Keep in mind that you should have separate logs for each and every page you have! Do not instruct Apache to write everything into one log file as you will not be able to diagnose problems that way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n