Binding domain name to Apache Virtual host on VPS

apache-httpd dns domain

7,200

This is a formatted comment rather than an answer: is Virtual Hosting configured in your web-server? I.e. (assuming the web-server is apache and you have root access), you should have an entry in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled (which is usually a symlink to /etc/apache2/sites-available/bennyben:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName bennyben.cz.vhost
    DocumentRoot /home/bennyben/public_html
</VirtualHost>

and also Listen 80 should be there, if it's not in /etc/apache2/ports.conf.

Could you supply your configs?

If anything is not working as expected, don't hesitate to look into /var/log/apache2/error.log.

7,200

Lukáš Benke

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Lukáš Benke over 1 year

recently company I work for has rented VPS.

Now i need to have multiple websites hosted on this VPS, that is not a problem, I'v set up virtual hosts, databses, etc. Now i wanted to test it, see if I could access website on the VPS by domain name (bennyben.cz). Domain is registered at different registrar, I've pointed DNS A record to IP address of VPS (193.105.159.72) and it works fine (displays apache default site), but i need to route this domain name (bennyben.cz) to virtual host on the VPS (bennyben.cz.vhost).

After some googling, I thought that I needed to add new primary DNS zone record (i have ISPConfig installed on VPS) and direct it to virtual host, so i binded the virtual host to local IP address (192.168.1.1) and set A record on VPS to this address, but if i type the domain name, it still serves the default site.

So my question is, what do i need to host multiple websites with domain names on one VPS (only one WAN IP address available), i did a lot of googling, messed around with BIND, but nothing seems to work.

System details

Ubuntu 13.04
ISPConfig
1 WAN IP address

P.S. I'm sure this is pretty basic stuff, but I work there as a programmer, so servers aren't my specialization, but, unfortunately we currently do not have anybody who could take care of the VPS, so it has fallen to me.

Listen 80

is present in /etc/apache2/ports.conf

**The vhosts config files are generated for me by ISPconfig*

Configuration files: /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/100-bennyben.cz.vhost

<Directory /var/www/bennyben.cz>
    AllowOverride None
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/bennyben.cz/web

    ServerName bennyben.cz
    ServerAlias www.bennyben.cz
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    ErrorLog /var/log/ispconfig/httpd/bennyben.cz/error.log

    Alias /error/ "/var/www/bennyben.cz/web/error/"
    ErrorDocument 400 /error/400.html
    ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.html
    ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.html
    ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.html
    ErrorDocument 405 /error/405.html
    ErrorDocument 500 /error/500.html
    ErrorDocument 502 /error/502.html
    ErrorDocument 503 /error/503.html

    <IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    </IfModule>

    <Directory /var/www/bennyben.cz/web>
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/clients/client4/web5/web>
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>




    # suexec enabled
    <IfModule mod_suexec.c>
        SuexecUserGroup web5 client4
    </IfModule>
    # Clear PHP settings of this website
    <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml)$">
            SetHandler None
    </FilesMatch>
    # php as fast-cgi enabled
# For config options see: http://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/mod/mod_fcgid.html
    <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
            FcgidIdleTimeout 300
            FcgidProcessLifeTime 3600
            # FcgidMaxProcesses 1000
            FcgidMaxRequestsPerProcess 5000
            FcgidMinProcessesPerClass 0
            FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass 100
            FcgidConnectTimeout 3
            FcgidIOTimeout 360
            FcgidBusyTimeout 300
            FcgidMaxRequestLen 1073741824
    </IfModule>
    <Directory /var/www/bennyben.cz/web>
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php .php3 .php4 .php5
            FCGIWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web5/.php-fcgi-starter .php
            Options +ExecCGI
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/clients/client4/web5/web>
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php .php3 .php4 .php5
            FCGIWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web5/.php-fcgi-starter .php
            Options +ExecCGI
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>


    # add support for apache mpm_itk
    <IfModule mpm_itk_module>
        AssignUserId web5 client4
    </IfModule>

    <IfModule mod_dav_fs.c>
    # Do not execute PHP files in webdav directory
        <Directory /var/www/clients/client4/web5/webdav>
            <ifModule mod_security2.c>
                SecRuleRemoveById 960015
                SecRuleRemoveById 960032
            </ifModule>
            <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml)$">
                SetHandler None
            </FilesMatch>
        </Directory>
        DavLockDB /var/www/clients/client4/web5/tmp/DavLock
        # DO NOT REMOVE THE COMMENTS!
        # IF YOU REMOVE THEM, WEBDAV WILL NOT WORK ANYMORE!
  # WEBDAV BEGIN
        # WEBDAV END
    </IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

/etc/apach2/sites-available/bennyben.cz.vhost

<Directory /var/www/bennyben.cz>
    AllowOverride None
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/bennyben.cz/web

    ServerName bennyben.cz
    ServerAlias www.bennyben.cz
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    ErrorLog /var/log/ispconfig/httpd/bennyben.cz/error.log

    Alias /error/ "/var/www/bennyben.cz/web/error/"
    ErrorDocument 400 /error/400.html
    ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.html
    ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.html
    ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.html
    ErrorDocument 405 /error/405.html
    ErrorDocument 500 /error/500.html
    ErrorDocument 502 /error/502.html
    ErrorDocument 503 /error/503.html

    <IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    </IfModule>

    <Directory /var/www/bennyben.cz/web>
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/clients/client4/web5/web>
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>




    # suexec enabled
    <IfModule mod_suexec.c>
        SuexecUserGroup web5 client4
    </IfModule>
    # Clear PHP settings of this website
    <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml)$">
            SetHandler None
    </FilesMatch>
    # php as fast-cgi enabled
# For config options see: http://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/mod/mod_fcgid.html
    <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
            FcgidIdleTimeout 300
            FcgidProcessLifeTime 3600
            # FcgidMaxProcesses 1000
            FcgidMaxRequestsPerProcess 5000
            FcgidMinProcessesPerClass 0
            FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass 100
            FcgidConnectTimeout 3
            FcgidIOTimeout 360
            FcgidBusyTimeout 300
            FcgidMaxRequestLen 1073741824
    </IfModule>
    <Directory /var/www/bennyben.cz/web>
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php .php3 .php4 .php5
            FCGIWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web5/.php-fcgi-starter .php
            Options +ExecCGI
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/clients/client4/web5/web>
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php .php3 .php4 .php5
            FCGIWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web5/.php-fcgi-starter .php
            Options +ExecCGI
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
    </Directory>


    # add support for apache mpm_itk
    <IfModule mpm_itk_module>
        AssignUserId web5 client4
    </IfModule>

    <IfModule mod_dav_fs.c>
    # Do not execute PHP files in webdav directory
        <Directory /var/www/clients/client4/web5/webdav>
            <ifModule mod_security2.c>
                SecRuleRemoveById 960015
                SecRuleRemoveById 960032
            </ifModule>
            <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml)$">
                SetHandler None
            </FilesMatch>
        </Directory>
        DavLockDB /var/www/clients/client4/web5/tmp/DavLock
        # DO NOT REMOVE THE COMMENTS!
        # IF YOU REMOVE THEM, WEBDAV WILL NOT WORK ANYMORE!
  # WEBDAV BEGIN
        # WEBDAV END
    </IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

Jeff Schaller almost 7 years

If any of the existing answers solved your problem, please consider accepting it by clicking on the checkmark next to it. Thank you!

Lukáš Benke almost 11 years

Thanks for quick reply My virtual hosts are correctly set up (193.105.159.72/bennyben.cz) this works. Unfortunately, i cannot provide configuration files because the comments windows says it is too long, should i post it into answer window? Sorry for my ignorance, this is my first question. Thanks
CoOl almost 11 years

@user183162 No problem. Just edit your question and add the new information. To format data as a verbatim file excerpt (like my <VirtualHost>...), leave an empty line and then start each line with 4 spaces.
Lukáš Benke almost 11 years

I've edited my original question, do you need anything else?
CoOl almost 11 years

Thanks. (Besides, I believe /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/100-bennyben.cz.vhost is just a symlink for /etc/apach2/sites-available/bennyben.cz.vhost, so it's just a duplication. Read permissions to your .vhost files are, probably, ok... And .vhost configs seem reasonable to me.
CoOl almost 11 years

Hey, but with these settings you are not serving any index.html, right? So, when you just type http://bennyben.cz in the address line, apache shouldn't serve anything (it would've served index.html, but it doesn't exist in your var/www/bennyben.cz/web). I've typed in http://bennyben.cz/index.html and got Internal Server Error. So everything seems ok. Try adding a static html page, e.g. "index.html" to your /var/www/bennyben.cz/web and check if it gets served. http://bennyben.cz/index.php gave me internal server error, too. So, see the error log.
Lukáš Benke almost 11 years

I have created directory var/www/bennyben.cz/web and uploaded index.html file, still 500 error, but in error log is this: [Fri Jul 26 16:53:11 2013] [crit] [client 83.208.254.144] configuration error: couldn't perform authentication. AuthType not set!: / I will do some googling and leave a comment if I find something interesting
Lukáš Benke almost 11 years

Thanks a lot for your effort and also, I've learned a little about how to post on SO. Many thanks and have a nice day :)
CoOl almost 11 years

@user183162 No worries, glad it's working!