There is no sites-available/000-default.conf in /etc/apache2

Question

I'm trying to set up virtual hosts for Apache2. There are tons of tutorials, but they all presume that the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf is there. But if I run:

$ cd /etc/apache2/
$ ls
conf-available
$ cd conf-available
$ ls
javascript-common.conf

I can't find anyone who had the same problem. Do I need to do anything before I start tutorials such as this?

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-apache-virtual-hosts-on-ubuntu-16-04

Everything is up to date. Ubuntu is 16.04 LTS.

Solution

The files in /etc/apache2/conf-available are files that an admin is free to create, rename, remove, fill in with proper content, etc. If you have no 000-default.com, just create one.

You should then call

sudo a2ensite 000-default.conf

Caveats:

• the virtualhosts coexist - from what I understood, you already have some non-standard configuration. Beware virtualhosts conflicting with each other. Chances are you may need a fresh install of apache2 including its configuration.

• what files are finally loaded (included) as configs depends on some other config files, like /etc/apache2/apache2.conf with its include command (which then includes a specified file). Include can also be called in an included file.

FYI, the 000-default.conf for apache2 (version 2.4.7) goes as follows:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
    #ServerName www.example.com

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

And you are best to use the following commands to enable/disable a site rather than creating a site by creating a symlink (which you still can do, but well... its typically rely on helper scripts e.g. in order to avoid typos)

a2ensite 000-default
a2dissite 000-default

If some configs don't kick in, you can try:

sudo service apache2 reload

or even deeper config-reload happens on:

sudo service apache2 restart

Reload does keep some connection-related data in the memory, and both take a fraction of a second on a typical fresh installation.

EDIT: I added a note about four usefull commands: a2ensite, a2dissite, service apache2 restart/reload and in the subsequent edit I re-organized the answer to better fit the question.

Comments

[wha7ever]

If it might help somebody, I was using Vultr VPS and my 000-default.conf file was located in /var/default-conf/apache2/sites-available.

[lungov]

Thanks Patryk! When you say that I should stick to the manual, what manual is that? In the Apache site it says that there is no manual or official documentation, only a FAQ and the Forum. Before I try anything else, I'll reinstall Apache fresh, although it is a pretty recent install. And then if the file is not there I'll just create it based on the content you provided. Thanks again!

[Patryk Mazurkiewicz]

@lungov - by saying "better to stick to the manual" I ment "when apache provides helper scripts like a2ensite - it is better to use this instead of doing all manually". I should probably edit my answer to correct this. And good luck!

[rfay]

There's a typo early on here, sudo a2ensite 000-defailt.conf should be sudo a2ensite 000-default.conf

[Patryk Mazurkiewicz]

Thank you! I hope you found the article useful. All the best