How to setup apache web server on Ubuntu Focal 22.04

Why Choose Apache Web Server?

Apache is a powerful and popular open-source web server. It’s a great choice if you want to host your own website on a Linux VPS, especially if you have a PHP or WordPress based site.

Prerequisites –

• A powerful Linux VPS
• Ability to connect to your server using SSH with administrative (sudo) access
• Basic command line knowledge

Step 1: A Fresh Start

Before we install anything, let’s update your server to make sure it has the latest software packages:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Step 2: Install Apache

Install the Apache web server with this command:

sudo apt install apache2

Step 3: Apache’s File System

Apache keeps important configuration files in the /etc/apache2 directory. You’ll find settings here for global setup, modules, and virtual hosts.

• apache2.conf – global configuration file for apache webserveer
• conf-available – stores custom configuration snippets, not automatically used by apache2
• conf-enabled – contains sym links to the configs which we want to enable
• envars – stores env variables used by apache2 at startup
• magic – used to determine MIME types of files based on the content
• mod-variable – stores module configuration like rewrite.conf, php.conf
• mod-enabled – contains sym links for the mods we want to enable
• ports-conf – specifies port on which apache2 listens to.
• site-available – stores available virtual hosts
• site-enabled – contains sym links for the vhosts we want to enable

Step 4: Setting Up Virtual Hosts

Virtual hosts let you run multiple websites on one server. Here’s how it works:

• Requests: Your browser says which website it wants when it connects.
• Matching: Apache matches this to the “ServerName” in your virtual host files.
• Serving: Uses the settings for that website.

Step 5: Create Your Virtual Host

Let’s say your website is example.com. Create a file named /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf. Paste in this basic config (replace ‘example.com’ with your real domain):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com

    Redirect permanent / https://example.com/ 
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/app

    <Directory /var/www/app>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_access.log combined

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /path/to/your/server.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/your/server.key
</VirtualHost>

• DocumentRoot: Points to the /var/www/app directory where your application resides.
• Directory: Necessary permissions for Apache to serve your PHP files.
• ErrorLog and CustomLog: Specifies where error and access logs for this website should be stored.
• SSLEngine on: Enables SSL/TLS
• SSLCertificateFile and SSLCertificateKeyFile: Specify the paths to your SSL certificate and private key files.’

Step 6: Enable Your Website

Before we starting visiting the website we need to enable the vhost we created using the below command

sudo a2ensite example.com.conf

Step 7: Restart Apache

To load the new configuration files:

sudo systemctl restart apache2 

That’s it! You should now be able to visit your website in a web browser served by apache web server.