In this article, We are going to perform How to setup Apache Virtual Host on CentOS 7 or any other cloud platform like Amazon EC2, Azure VM, Google Cloud Compute, etc. with preinstalled CentOS 7.
Table of Contents
Introduction:
Apache is one of most used free and open source web server software which is used to run web applications, around 40% websites uses Apache web server.
What is Apache Virtual Host
Apache virtual host is used to run more than one website on Single Instance/Server/Virtual Machine using virtual host/vhost configuration file.
There are two types of Virtual Host.
- Name Based Virtual Host
- IP Based Virtual Host
Name Based Virtual Host: It is used to host multiple website on a single IP Address.
IP Based Virtual Host: It is used to used to host multiple websites on different IP Address.
Prerequisite:
- CentOS 7 with Minimal Installation
- SSH Access with sudo privileges
- Open Firewall Port: 80,443
Update the system package
$ sudo yum update
Install Apache on CentOS 7
We have to install apache package to setup Apache virtual host. Run below command to install apache on CentOS 7.
$ sudo yum install httpd -y
Create a Project Directory Structure
By default Apache run “index” page from /var/www/html directory, if you want to run single website in Apache web server you can copy your project code in /var/www/html directory OR you can create directory as per your domain/project.
Here we are creating Project directory to store domain/website files.
$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html
Creating Simple index.html file for testing
For testing create a simple index.html file
$ sudo nano /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/index.html
Paste the below lines
<html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Welcome to test.fosstechnix.com</title> </head> <body> <h1>This is Testing Page</h1> </body> </html>
Next change the permission domain root directory to apache user and set the permission to /var/www/ directory with chmod.
$ sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/yourdomain.com/public_html
$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www
How to setup Apache Virtual Host on CentOS 7
Create Apache Host configuration in /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory with .conf file extension.
Open your favorite editor and create the virtual host configuration file.
$ sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/test.fosstechnix.com.conf
Paste the below configuration file
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] ServerName test.fosstechnix.com ServerAlias test.fosstechnix.com DocumentRoot /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/ <Directory /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/> Order allow,deny Allow from all Require all granted Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> </VirtualHost>
To verify the syntax
$ sudo apachectl configtest
OR
$ httpd -t
Output:
Syntax OK
Restart the httpd service to take effect
$ sudo systemctl restart httpd
Testing the Virtual Host
To test virtual host file, Open /etc/hosts file add server IP and domain name OR if you have purchased domain name from domain provider like GoDaddy, namecheap, etc., then add A record with domain name and Server IP.
$ sudo nano /etc/hosts
.... 192.168.100.51 test.fosstechnix.com ....
Open your favorite browser and type the domain name, you will see index.html web page
http://test.fosstechnix.com
If you are seeing index web page, then we have successfully performed setup Apache virtual host on CentOS 7.
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Apache using Virtual Host
It is recommended to secure your domain using secure protocol and SSL certificate. Here we are redirecting http to https in apache using virtual host and adding SSL certificates.
First create a directory where you will add SSL certificates, here we are coping SSL certificates in /var/www/ssl directory
$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ssl
Add the below highlighted lines in virtual host configuration if you have already created virtual host like above
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] ServerName test.fosstechnix.com ServerAlias test.fosstechnix.com Document Root /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/ Redirect / https:// test.fosstechnix.com / <Directory /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/> Order allow,deny Allow from all Require all granted Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTPS} Off RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:443> ServerName test.fosstechnix.com ServerAlias test.fosstechnix.com SSLEngine On SSLCertificateFile /var/www/ssl/60a18ab0a4ef3259.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /var/www/ssl/*.fosstechnix.com.key DocumentRoot /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/ <Directory /var/www/test.fosstechnix.com/public_html/> Order allow,deny Allow from all Require all granted AllowOverride All </Directory> </VirtualHost>
After adding below configuration enable Rewrite module to redirect http to https.
$ sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS using .htaccess
If you are using .htaccess file in your web server , add below lines to redirect http to https,
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]To verify the syntax
sudo apachectl configtest
OR
$ httpd -t
Output:
Syntax OK
Reload the Apache service
$ sudo systemctl reload httpd
Restart the httpd service to take effect
$ sudo systemctl restart apache2
Add Firewall Rule
If you are using firewall on centos 7, open port 80 and 443 using below command.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp $ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp $ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Open your favorite browser and access your URL using https.
https://test.fosstechnix.com
Successfully we have covered How to setup Apache Virtual Host on CentOS 7.
Start/Stop/Restart/Enable httpd Service on CentOS
$ sudo systemctl start https
$ sudo systemctl stop httpd
$ sudo systemctl restart httpd
$ sudo systemctl enable httpd
Conclusion
In this article, We have covered How to setup Apache Virtual Host on CentOS 7 and Redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Apache using Virtual Host, Redirect HTTP to HTTPS using .htaccess,Start/Stop/Restart/Enable httpd Service on CentOS.
