Goals
After reading this guide, you should understand how to
setup and manage a website on your Linux server system. (Please note that here
we are discussing a typical Linux system, with no control panel. However, even
if you do have a control panel, most of the configurations are the same, with
the exception of file locations.)
Setup a Website in CentOS
Create the Document Root
Before
starting, you have to create the document root, which is the directory where
your site contents should be stored, and give necessary permissions and
ownerships. In this case, we are going to set our document root under
“/var/www/html/example_docs”.
Sample Index File
Let’s
create a sample index file. An index file is the page that loads by default
when you access your website. (You can use the file for testing purposes and delete
or modify the file after testing.)
1)
Change
your current directory to our document root.
2)
Now
create the index file using vi, vim, nano, or your favourite editing tool. (Note:
vim is not installed by default. You can use vi instead.)
3)
Add
the following lines in the file:
4)
If
you are using vi or vim editor, please press “Esc + shift + : + x” to save the
file.
5)
Now
you have successfully created our test index file.
Configuration
Now
we are going to create a website named “www.example.com”. (Simply
replace example.com with your domain name.)
(Note: You do not have to install httpd because httpd
service is typically installed with CentOS by default. If httpd is not found,
please install the service using yum. The command will be as follows:
yum
install httpd )
1)
Open
the Apache configuration file using any of your file editors, for example using
vi or vim. You can find your Apache configuration file (httpd.conf) under
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.
2)
Next,
you have to specify your document root with the directive “Directory” with
necessary permissions. (Please do not worry about the line number; you can
place the root anywhere in the configuration file.) Please follow the example
below.
3)
Then,
find the directive “DirectoryIndex”. You can specify your index file here. (This
will be the default page that loads when you access your domain.)
4)
There
is two ways that you can configure your domain: IP-based Apache and name-based Apache.
Using the IP-based method, you have to use separate IP addresses for each
domain. In contrast, using the name-based method, you can share an IP address
with a number of domains. Here we are going to configure your domain using the
IP-based Apache method.
Please
go to the end of the “httpd.conf” file and add the following lines:
NameVirtualHost
–
This directive is used to specify the IP that you will use for your
domains and also the httpd service port. Here we provide the wildcard “*” instead
of a specific IP address, in order to assign any available IP to our domain. (You
can assign the same IP to all your domains or you can assign separate IPs for
each domain.)
DocumentRoot – Your domains
document root directory path.
ServerName – Your server
FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name).
ErrorLog – The error log
path.
5)
Now
you can restart the httpd service to see if there are any errors.
6)
You
have now successfully configured your website! (Note that you have to register
your domain name first, then point your domain to an IP address and forward the
DNS. Reverse entries are must if you want the domain to resolve from the
outside.)
How to Check If Your Website is Working
Now
that you have successfully configured your website, how do you know if the
website is loading successfully within your system? Before registering your
domain and setting up DNS entries, please follow the steps below:
1)
Open
the file “/etc/hosts” and point your IP to a created domain name.
2)
Now
open and comment on the entries in “/etc/resolv.conf”. Put a “#” at the start
of each line so that the system will only check the “/etc/hosts” file and will
not look for other resolvers in /etc/resolv.conf.
3)
Now
you can type your website address (the name you gave in “/etc/hosts”) in the
browser to see if the index page is loading. If you do not have a graphical
interface, you can use the command “elinks” or “htmlview”. If these components
are not installed, you can install them using the yum installation utility. The
command will be as follows:
yum
install elinks (for installing “elinks”)
yum
install htmlview” (for installing “htmlview”)
4)
Now
you will receive your default page (index page) and will have successfully
setup your website! (Note that “SUCCESS!!! Your Website is working fine.” is
the contents from the index page and if you are using any other index page it
will display the contents from that index page.)
5)
Press
“q” to exit the window.
6)
You
have successfully setup your website! (Don't forget to remove the “#” from
/etc/resolv.conf.)
Setup a Website in Ubuntu
(Note:
In Ubuntu, after installation, a sample index file will be created
automatically under the “/var/www” directory. For simplicity, we are going to
use “/var/www” as our document root and the index.html under that directory as
our test index page.)
Configuration
Now
we are going to create a website named “www.example.com”. (Simply replace example.com with your domain name.)
1)
Open
the configuration file httpd.conf and
edit using any of your file editors. For example, you can use vi , vim or nano.
You can find this file under “/etc/apache2/httpd.conf”.
(Note:
This is actually an empty file. The actual Apache configuration file is
“apache2.conf”, but it is a large configuration file and it may be difficult
for you to find its contents and modify them. The easy way to manage this file
is to edit and add the configurations in httpd.conf, which are included by
default in “apache2.conf”.)
2)
First,
tell Apache what the index file name is. You can use the directive
“DirectoryIndex” for that. Add the following line in the file:
3)
Then,
specify the document root and provide the necessary permissions.
4)
Now
we are going to add the configuration for your virtual host. For that, add the
following lines into the file (we give the wildcard “*” with the directive
“VirtualHost” so that we can use any IP address available with this address):
5)
The
full file is given below.
6) You have completed the configuration.
Now you can restart the apache service for the configurations to take effect
and to know if there are any errors.
7)
Now
you have successfully setup your website on your Ubuntu system.
How to Check If Your Website is Working
Now that you have successfully
configured your website, how do you know if the website is loading successfully
within your system? Before registering your domain name and setting up DNS
entries, please follow the steps below:
1)
Open
the file “/etc/hosts” file and point your IP to a created domain.
2)
Now
open and comment on the entries in “/etc/resolv.conf”. Put a “#” at the start
of each line so that the system will only check the “/etc/hosts” file and will
not look for other resolvers in /etc/resolv.conf.
3)
Now
you can type your website address (the name you gave in “/etc/hosts”) in the
browser to see if the index page is loading. If you do not have a graphical
interface, you can use the commands “elinks” or “htmlview”. If these components are not installed, you
can install them using the “apt-get” installation utility. The command will be
as follows.
apt-get install elinks (for installing
“elinks”)
apt-get install htmlview” (for
installing “htmlview”)
4) Now you will get your default page (index page),
and you have successfully setup your website!
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