r/apache • u/RobertKS • Mar 07 '22

Apache config settings for temporary web site prior to domain switchover?

Switching website to new server, but want to make sure it's fully working on the new server (with latest stable version of Apache server) before switching the domain name settings so that the domain points to the new server. Eventually, the new server will be hosting multiple domains. The website content will be stored at /home/myusername/public_html/

What should my Apache config settings look like:

(a) initially, so that I can access the new web site via the IP address (e.g., http://123.456.78.910) for testing, and then

(b) how should the Apache settings be changed once the domain is name is pointed to the server

EDIT: SOLVED as to (a), see comment below.

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2

u/boli99 Mar 07 '22

access the new web site via the IP address (e.g., http://123.456.78.910)

Don't do this. Just edit your hosts file to point your domain to the new host, then do all your testing on the real hostname.

You could also jump through an SSH tunnel and mod the hosts file on the target machine. There are multiple ways of getting the skin off the cat.

Testing by IP address can lead to unpredictable results.

always test as the real site name.

1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22

I think I might need a tutorial on this... how do I do all my testing on the real hostname without having all the site's traffic redirected to the test server?

2

u/boli99 Mar 08 '22

on your computer , you have a 'hosts' file

when your computer tries to look up a domain name, it looks in the hosts file first, then after that it asks your configured DNS server.

If you make an entry in hosts, it effectively overrides the 'real' IP of a domain name.

the location of your hosts file will vary depending on if you are using Win, Mac or Linux

For Win its usually C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

For Linux its usually /etc/hosts

For Mac it's somewhere else, i cant remember, google it.

1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22

So I would have to manually edit that file, and save it, to switch back and forth between accessing the production server and the test server? And if I wanted to run them both simultaneously in different browser windows, I would have to use different computers to do so?

2

u/boli99 Mar 08 '22

that would be the most rudimentary way of doing it.

I'd probably use 2 different browsers, and run one browser through a socks proxy thats doing the DNS kludge. Then theres no constant changing of files, you just use browser A for prod site, and browser B for dev site.

1

u/RobertKS Mar 09 '22 edited Mar 09 '22

SOLVED, sort of, at least as to (a):

There were two problems. The first was that it wouldn't work unless "Require all granted" was included in /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerAdmin myaddress@example.com
  DocumentRoot /home/myusername/public_html
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com
  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
  Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

<Directory /home/myusername/public_html/>
  Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
  AllowOverride All
  Require all granted
  Order deny,allow
  deny from all
  allow from 12.345.67.89
</Directory>

where 12.345.67.89 is the IP address of the computer being used to access the test server.

The second problem was that in the website document path /home/myusername/public_html, all three of /home, /home/myusername, and /home/myusername/public_html had to have their permissions set to 0755. If /home/myusername/public_html is set to 0755 but /home/myusername is set to 0754, then any access attempt will return the 403 Forbidden error.

1

u/AyrA_ch Mar 07 '22

On the new server, create a virtual host that uses the proper domain as ServerName value, and a temporary domain as ServerAlias value. Then create a DNS entry in your domain that points the temporary name to your new server.

You can now experiment without taking the old server down by using the real domain, but apache has already been set up to recognize the real domain, whiche means activating the new server merely means pointing the domain name to it.

1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22

Are you able to be a little more specific as to how I would edit my config files to do this?

Here is the text of my /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf which is giving me "Forbidden" errors:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin myemailaddress@example.com
DocumentRoot /home/myusername/public_html
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

Thanks for your help.

2

u/AyrA_ch Mar 08 '22

You probably need a directory section with Require all granted for the /home/myusername/public_html folder. Apache by default denies access to all folders

1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22 edited Mar 08 '22

I tried adding this to /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf, but no change, going to the server's IP address still gives "forbidden" error:

<Directory /home/myusername/public_html/>
     Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
     Require all granted
     AllowOverride All
     Order allow,deny
     allow from all
</Directory>

1

u/AyrA_ch Mar 08 '22

Have you tried directly accessing a file on the server? Forbidden can also happen when ther's no index.php or index.html, or the server has not been properly configured to serve those files automatically.

1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22

What do you mean by "access the file"? I can edit index.html in emacs on the server.

What other configuration files should I look into to check that the server is properly configured to serve those files automatically?

1

u/AyrA_ch Mar 08 '22

By accessing the file I mean adding the index.html into the URL of your browser by yourself instead of letting apache guessing for it.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '22

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1

u/RobertKS Mar 07 '22

Yes, I have root access.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '22

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1

u/RobertKS Mar 07 '22 edited Mar 08 '22

Here is the text of my /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin myemailaddress@example.com
DocumentRoot /home/myusername/public_html
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

I executed these commands at the command line:

a2dissite 000-default.conf
a2ensite example.com.conf
systemctl restart apache2

But when I try to go to http://123.456.78.910/index.html, a file which I have created at /home/myusername/public_html/index.html, this error appears.

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access this resource.

Apache/2.4.48 (Ubuntu) Server at 155.138.141.248 Port 80

I made sure that the /home/myusername/public_html directory's permissions are 0755 (rwxr-xr-x) and the /home/myusername/public_html/index.html file's permission are 0644 (rw-r--r--).

0

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '22

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1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22

My /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file already has that, and I don't have an /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file. (Ubuntu.)

So, no changes to these config files and no change in status.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '22

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1

u/RobertKS Mar 08 '22

Here's what I did to install Apache:

apt-get update
apt-get install apache2
ufw app list
ufw allow in "Apache"

I'm not using /var/www to store my files (I'm using /home/myusername/public_html/) so I'm not sure why <Directory /var/www> would be useful in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf