EC2 instance has apache2 server installed, but I can't connect to it

Question

I have an EC2 instance running Ubuntu 18.04, with apache2 server. I am able to connect to it via PuTTY and via FileZilla and view the server. The server is running, there is the index.html file that's created by apache2 under /var/www, but still when I type in my public IPv4 address in the browser, I cannot connect and view the apache2 welcome page (Cannot connect to it)

What may be the cause? Is it possible that it's because I am on free tier and I am already running another EC2 instance? (Which is working fine)

*Edit: I ran the following commands and these are the outputs:

netstat -plunt | grep "443 \|80 "

(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.) tcp6 0
0 :::80 :::* LISTEN

curl -I http://localhost

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2018 16:39:42 GMT Server: Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu) Last-Modified: Mon, 31 Dec 2018 12:54:24 GMT ETag: "2bb4-56f5oe88329x4" Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 10918 Vary: Accept-Encoding Content-Type: text/html

Solution 1

When you want to expose a service/port on an EC2 Instance, you need to create a security group which allows connections in that port and attach it to the instance.

So for example, you can create a security group like so:

And when you attach it to the instance, it will allow connections on port 80 from all the world (0.0.0.0/0).

Also, I'd check that the server actually listens on this port, run:

netstat -plunt | grep "443 \|80 "

And to see that the server responds:

curl -I http://localhost

Solution 2

Try http, not the default https. This finally worked for me.

Comments

[sStacker]

I edited the post and added the commands output

[Itai Ganot]

If you run the curl command from outside of the server, which http status code is returned?

[sStacker]

What do you mean outside of the server? where?

[Itai Ganot]

You say that you can't reach the server from the browser, so I mean, instead of trying to reach the server by browser, run the curl command, just not from the server itself. I want to see how the server responds when you try to access it from the world (0.0.0.0/0)

[sStacker]

But where do I type this command then? I am on Windows

[Itai Ganot]

onlinecurl.com

[easwee]

This worked for me - by default the exposed port in security group is 22 - you need to add HTTP/TCP/80.

[Code Cooker]

Exactly this issue I had to fix on my EC2 instance. the port 80 is not exposed by default.

[Bi Wu]

Thanks for saving my time. :D

[Tominator]

Yes! Even though you got downvoted, this was my issue... The link in the EC2 instance page goes to 'https://' but the default apache install only listens to http, causing the browser to say "no worky"