Re: [tlug] Did Apache change everything? (Setting up virtual hosts)

[Sotaro Kobayashi <sotarokob@example.com>]

> TLUG,
>
> Recently I needed to set up a virtual named host on my laptop. It's a
> clean install of Ubuntu Karmic 9.10.
>
> I've set up LAMP servers on Ubuntu many times now, so I've got it down
> to a science.
>
> Or so I thought.
>
> When it comes to naming virtual hosts, what I used to do was simply open
> up /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and edit it.
>
> This time, though, when I opened /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, it was
> suspiciously empty. I tried adding my usual configurations, but when I
> restarted Apache, my site was nowhere to be found.
>
> So I looked on line, and now it seems everything is handled in a
> directory called /etc/apache2/sites-available and basically all the
> configurations are now done in a different way.
>
> F**k.
>
> I made an effort to figure out how to do this, and went through many
> variants of new settings that did not work.
>
> Here's my current situation. I created a file for my site, called
> local_site.com in /etc/apache2/sites-available and put in the following
> configuration (taken off the web)
>
> - - - - -
>
> <VirtualHost *>
>         ServerName www.local_site.com
>         ServerAlias local_site.com
>         ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
>
>         DocumentRoot /var/www/local_site.com
>         <Directory /var/www/local_site.com/>
>                 Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
>                 # pcw AllowOverride None
>                 AllowOverride All
>                 Order allow,deny
>                 allow from all
>                 # This directive allows us to have apache2's default
> start page
>                 # in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the right
> place
>                 # Commented out for Ubuntu
>                 #RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
>         </Directory>
>
>         ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/local_site.com/error.log
>
>         # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
>         # alert, emerg.
>         LogLevel warn
>
>         CustomLog /var/log/apache2/local_site.com/access.log combined
>         ServerSignature On
>
> </VirtualHost>
>
> - - - - -
>
> Then I ran "sudo a2ensite local_site.com", and it said "enabled".
>
> So far so good.
>
> Then I reloaded and restarted Apache, and it said:
>
> [fail]
>
> No error output, no nothing. Just [fail].
>
> I went to http://local_site.com and sometimes when I do, I get the
> default "It works!" page. Which I also get if I go to http://localhost.
>
> But sometimes if I reload it, I then get an "unable to connect" warning.
>
> I went online and found instructions for editing ports.conf and
> apache2.conf, but basically any and all edits I made to those files
> resulted in errors coming out when I restarted Apache. So for now I've
> put them back to their original.
>
> And, lastly, I checked the error logs in /var/log/apache2, but they just
> have a long string of instances of saying "error log at
> /var/www/local_site.com/error.log not found".
>
> I'm going to skip past the bitching about having to learn new crap to
> accomplish the same tasks...
>
> What am I supposed to do to get my virtual host working?
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>   
Hi,

As long as I am keeping the following order of apache configuration 
directives in httpd.conf
whose examples are appropriately instructed in 'Apache - The Definitive 
Guide' (O'REILLY),
my named virtual host is working fine.

# The IP address of your Ubuntu named virtual host laptop
NameVirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
.
.
.
<Directory /var/www/local_site.com/>
       Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
       # pcw AllowOverride None
       AllowOverride All
       Order allow,deny
       allow from all
       # This directive allows us to have apache2's default
start page
       # in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the right place
       # Commented out for Ubuntu
       #RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
</Directory>
.
.
.
<VirtualHost www.local_site.com>
       ServerName www.local_site.com
       ServerAlias local_site.com
       ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
       DocumentRoot /var/www/local_site.com
       ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/local_site.com/error.log
       CustomLog /var/log/apache2/local_site.com/access.log combined
       ServerSignature On
</VirtualHost>

It seems to me that your error log is not appropriately created
because the <Directory> directive is nested inside the  <VirtualHost> 
directive.
Also, you can check if the httpd.conf is correctly configured or not by 
the following command.
[root@example.com sumtec]# apachectl configtest
Syntax OK

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596002039
and
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001919

are great refernces for me.

Hope this could be of help.

Sotaro