Installing and Configuring Apache2 on Linux

Installing Apache2

Apache is cross-platform software and supports the Linux, BSD, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare and BeOS operating systems.

Before installing Apache2, make sure that nginx is not present on the server!

Installing Apache2:

To install Apache2 on a VDS, run:

apt-get install apache2

Configuring Apache2:

To configure Apache2, go to /etc/apache2/sites-available and create a file similar to site.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName spacecore.pro # Specify the site domain ServerAdmin admin@spacecore.pro # Your email address DocumentRoot /var/www/html # Path to the site directory ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost>

 

Enable the site; instead of site.conf, use the name of the configuration file you created:

a2ensite site.conf

 

If you need to disable the site, use the configuration file name instead of site.conf:

a2dissite site.conf

 

Reload apache2:

service apache2 reload

Connecting PHP to Apache2:

For Apache to correctly serve PHP files, you need to install the following package:

apt-get install libapache2-mod-php -y

 

Reload apache2:

service apache2 reload Enabling rewrite:

Without this option, about 70% of website CMSs will not work.

Most sites include an .htaccess file; to make it work, run:

a2enmod rewrite

 

Reload apache2:

service apache2 reload

Enabling SSL:

Enabling SSL is optional and can be done if you have a certificate and want to use HTTPS.

You need to enable the module that is responsible for SSL:

a2enmod ssl

 

Create another configuration file in /etc/apache2/sites-available that will handle SSL, for example site-ssl.conf:

<VirtualHost *:443> ServerName spacecore.pro # Specify the site domain ServerAdmin admin@spacecore.pro # Your email address DocumentRoot /var/www/html # Path to the site directory SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /path/to/your_domain_name.pem # Path to the public certificate SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/your_private.key # Path to the private key ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost>

 

Reload apache2:

service apache2 reload

Checking for nginx:

If apache2 is installed together with nginx, they will conflict over port 80. Therefore, one of the web servers must be removed. Check whether nginx is installed:

service nginx status

If you do not see a long status message, it means nginx is not installed.

If nginx is installed, you need to remove it:

apt-get remove --purge nginx* -y

Removing Apache2

To remove Apache2, use:

apt-get remove --purge apache2* -y