How To Install Apache in Ubuntu Server

Introduction: 

The Apache HTTP server is the most popular web server on the globe. It has a wide range of powerful features, such as dynamically loadable modules, robust media support, and extensive integration with other popular software. 

 

Requirements:  

• A system running Ubuntu  

• An internet connection 

• Access to a user account with sudo privileges 

 

Installation Process of Apache Server: 

Here, in this document, I have included a step-by-step method to install Apache HTTP web server on an Ubuntu machine. 

 

STEP-1: Apache Package Installation 

 To begin, let us update the local package index to reflect the most recent upstream changes: 

$ sudo apt update 

 

Install the apache2 package next: 

$ sudo apt install apache2 

 

apt will install Apache and all required dependencies after you confirm the installation. 

 

STEP-2: Firewall Configuration 

Before running Apache, we must change the firewall settings to allow outside access to the default web ports. 

List the ufw application profiles by typing: 

$ sudo ufw app list 

  

 

We will receive a list of the application profiles: 

Output 

Available applications: 

  Apache 

  Apache Full 

  Apache Secure 

  OpenSSH 

 

Since we haven’t configured SSL for our server yet in this document, we will only need to allow traffic on port 80: 

 

$ sudo ufw allow 'Apache' 

  

You can verify the change by typing: 

$ sudo ufw status 

  

The output will provide a list of allowed HTTP traffic: 

Output 

Status: active 

 

To                               Action                        From 

--                                 ------                           ---- 

OpenSSH                  ALLOW                    Anywhere                   

Apache                     ALLOW                     Anywhere                 

OpenSSH (v6)          ALLOW                    Anywhere (v6)              

Apache (v6)             ALLOW                    Anywhere (v6) 

 

The profile has been activated to allow access to the Apache web server, as indicated by the output. 

 

STEP-3: Checking the Web Server 

Ubuntu starts Apache at the end of the installation process. The web server should already be operational. 

Check the service's status with the systemd init system by typing: 

$ sudo systemctl status apache2 

 

Output 

 apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server 

     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) 

     Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-04-23 22:36:30 UTC; 20h ago 

       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ 

   Main PID: 29435 (apache2) 

      Tasks: 55 (limit: 1137) 

     Memory: 8.0M 

     CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service 

             ├─29435 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start 

             ├─29437 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start 

             └─29438 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start 

 

The service has started successfully, as evidenced by this output. However, requesting a page from Apache is the best way to test this. 

 

STEP-4: Managing the Apache Process 

Now that our web server is up and running, let's go over some basic systemctl management commands. 

 

To stop your web server, type: 

$ sudo systemctl stop apache2 

  

To start the web server when it is stopped, type: 

$ sudo systemctl start apache2 

  

To stop and then start the service again, type: 

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2 

 

STEP-5: Setting Up Our Virtual Hosts 

When using the Apache web server, we can encapsulate configuration details and host multiple domains from a single server by using virtual hosts (similar to server blocks in Nginx). We will register the domain prosaugat.com. 

 

Create the directory for prosaugat.com as follows: 

$ sudo mkdir /var/www/prosaugat.com 

  

Next, assign ownership of the directory with the $USER environment variable: 

$ sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/prosaugat.com 

  

To ensure that our permissions are correct and that the owner has permission to read, write, and execute files while granting only read and execute permissions to groups and others, we can run the following command: 

$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/prosaugat.com 

  

Next, create a sample index.html page using Nano or Vim editor: 

$ sudo nano /var/www/prosaugat.com/index.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside this directory, add the following sample HTML: 

/var/www/prosaugat.com/index.html 

 

<html> 

    <head> 

        <title>Welcome ProSaugat's Test Site!</title> 

    </head> 

    <body> 

        <h1>Hey! Bro Configuration Successful.</h1> 

    </body> 

</html> 

Save and close the file when you are finished. 

 

To enable Apache to serve this content, a virtual host file containing the necessary directives must be created. Rather than directly modifying the default configuration file at /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf, let's create a new one at /etc/apache2/sites-available/prosaugat.com.conf  

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/prosaugat.com.conf 

 

Copy and paste the following configuration block, which is similar to the default but has been updated to reflect our new directory and domain name: 

<VirtualHost *:80> 

ServerAdmin admin@prosaugat.com 

ServerName prosaugat.com 

ServerAlias prosaugat.com 

DocumentRoot /var/www/prosaugat.com/html 

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log 

CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined 

</VirtualHost> 

Save and close the file. 

 

Let’s enable the file with the a2ensite tool: 

$ sudo a2ensite prosaugat.com.conf 

  

Disable the default site defined in 000-default.conf: 

$ sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf 

  

Next, let’s test for configuration errors: 

$ sudo apache2ctl configtest 

  

You should receive the following output: 

Output 

Syntax OK 

 

 

Restart Apache to implement your changes: 

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2 

  

Apache should now be serving our domain name. We can test this by navigating to http://prosaugat.com.