Does Apache2 support virtual hosting of subdomains?

apache2 subdomain virtualhost

32,740

Using local measures only (/etc/hosts instead of a DNS) I found that this can indeed work.

First, change your /etc/hosts file to have a mapping of your desired website name(s) (www.example.com), and target IP address (192.168.1.1). I used my local IP address.

 IPAddress               Hostname                   Alias
-----------     --------------------------    ------------------
192.168.1.1     www.example.com               example.com 
192.168.1.1     www.john.example.com          john.example.com
192.168.1.1     www.jane.example.com          jane.example.com

Your web browser will check your /etc/hosts file before looking at the world wide web.

Next go through all your Apache config files (httpd.conf, apache2.conf, ports.conf, conf.d/*) and make sure in exactly one file the command NameVirtualHost *:80 is issued (it doesn't have to be port :80 but if it is issued more than once, you will get this problem). Mine was issued in /etc/apache2/ports.conf, so put yours there if you have to. Finally, update your Apache configuration file (mine was at /etc/apache2/sites-available/default) like so.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.example.com
    ServerAlias example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.john.example.com
    ServerAlias john.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/john
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.jane.example.com
    ServerAlias jane.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/jane
</VirtualHost>

As a final step, you may need to add the websites to Apache by issuing the below commands (this step is not necessary, if you give all websites into sites-available/default and not into separate files for individual websites).

# a2ensite www.example.com
# a2ensite www.john.example.com
# a2ensite www.jane.example.com

After doing this, john.example.com will go to /var/www/john. That directory will then act as the root directory, and john will no longer have access to www, and, therefore, have no access to /var/www/jane.

Likewise, after doing this, jane.example.com will go to /var/www/jane. That directory will then act as the root directory, and jane will no longer have access to www, and, therefore, have no access to /var/www/john.

With symbolic links turned off --by default-- neither directories will be able to access each other

32,740

Author by

puk

Updated on March 19, 2020

Comments

puk about 4 years
Currently my Apache server is set up like so
```
<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName www.example.com
 ServerAlias example.com
 DocumentRoot /var/www
</VirtualHost>
```
The problem is that everything below /var/www is accessible from everywhere else. If I have a web page /var/www/john/bio.html, then that web page could borrow scripts/pictures from var/www/jane/

I want to set up my Apache server like so
```
<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName www.example.com
 ServerAlias example.com
 DocumentRoot /var/www
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName www.john.example.com
 ServerAlias john.example.com
 DocumentRoot /var/www/john
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName www.jane.example.com
 ServerAlias jane.example.com
 DocumentRoot /var/www/jane
</VirtualHost>
```
So all the files for user john go in the /var/www/john/ folder, and likewise for user jane. Then, with symbolic links turned off (by default), and access only provided from /var/www/user/ downwards (again by default), I don't have to worry about john's web page including scripts/images from jane's web page.
Mr Meow about 11 years

This helped me remember that I forgot to change my hosts file. Thanks man from the past.
puk about 11 years

@MeowMix glad I could help at least one person
Honza about 10 years

Command a2ensite example.com create symlink from sites-available/example.com to sites-enabled/example.com, opposite command is a2dissite example.com, which would disable it.