Name based virtual host configuration in Apache

Step 1) Update the DNS entry in host file: Open hosts file which is located in: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.file and add your host names shown below

On a separate line enter 127.0.0.1, followed by some space and the name of the virtual host you want to register in DNS.

For example:     127.0.0.1              dizzyworld.benefits.com                             

127.0.0.1              dizzyworld.messaging.com
Add any further virtual hosts, each one on a separate line and pointing to the same IP address (127.0.0.1). Save the hosts file, and close it.

Step 2) Edit httpd.conf file: Open httpd.conf file which is located in:C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf

  

And Uncomment the following line in httpd.conf file

#Virtual hosts
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Save and then close it.

Step 3) Edit httpd-vhosts.conf file: Open httpd-vhosts.conf which is located under C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\extra\  add the virtual hosts configurations in that file.

Open httpd-vhosts.conf file and following lines.

<VirtualHost dizzyworld.benefits.com:80>

    ServerAdmin webmaster@dizzyworld.benefits.com

    DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/docs/ dizzyworld.benefits.com "

    ServerName dizzyworld.benefits.com

    ServerAlias www. dizzyworld.benefits.com

    ErrorLog "logs/ dizzyworld.benefits.com -error.log"

    CustomLog "logs/ dizzyworld.benefits.com -access.log" common

<Directory />

  Options FollowSymLinks

  AllowOverride None

  Order deny,allow

  Allow from all

</Directory>

 </VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost dizzyworld.messaging.com:80>

    ServerAdmin webmaster@ dizzyworld.messaging.com

    DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/docs/ dizzyworld.messaging.com

    ServerName dizzyworld.messaging.com

    ErrorLog "logs/ dizzyworld.messaging.com -error.log"

    CustomLog "logs/ dizzyworld.messaging.com -access.log" common

<Directory />

  Options FollowSymLinks

  AllowOverride None

  Order deny,allow

  Allow from all

</Directory>

  </VirtualHost>
Step 4) Check for the syntax:

Now save and check the syntax of the both httpd.conf and httpd-vhost.conf by using the following commands.

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin>httpd  -t

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin>httpd  -S

Step 5) Create document roots for both virtual hosts: Create document root folders for the above two virtual hosts inside the Apache2.2 folder under Apache Home.

 C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\docs (previously there is no docs folder, we have to create docs folder under Apache2.2)

And create or copy html file inside the folders which we have created earlier.
document root 1: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\docs\dizzyworld.benefits.com\index.html
document root 2: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\docs\dizzyworl.messaging.com\index.html
Step 6) Restart Apache:

Restart the Apache Webserver using the following command

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin>httpd  -k restart

Step 7)Test virtualhost configuration: Access the virtual host names you configured.

Open Browser and type the URL http://dizzyworld.benefits.com/  

http://dizzyworld.messaging.com/

How To Setup Apache Virtual Host Configuration in unix (With Examples)

Using Apache Virtual Host, you can run several websites on the same server.

For example, I can run both thegeekstuff.com and top5freeware.com on a single physical server that has one Apache webserver running on it.

Fig: Apache Virtual Host (Multiple websites, one Apache)

There are two types of Apache virtual host configurations: 1) IP-Based Virtual Host and 2) Name-based Virtual Host. Name-based virtual host is recommended for most scenarios.

IP-Based Virtual Host

In this configuration, when you are pointing two websites (with different ip-address) to the server that runs Apache, that physical server should have two different ip-address configured.

This means that the server should have two ethernet cards, each one of them configured to the ip-address of the corresponding website that Apache virtual host will be serving. So, this is not practical for most aspects, and you should not be using this.

In the following example, the server contains two NIC cards, one is configured with 192.168.101.1 ip-address for thegeekstuff.com, another is configured with 192.168.102.1 for top5freeware.com. Both these ip-address are served by a single Apache webserver running on that server using IP-Based virtual host.

Name-Based Virtual Host

In this configuration, when Apache webserver receives a request, it looks for the hostname in the HTTP header, and depending on the hostname, it servers different websites. This is very easy, as you need only one ip-address on that physical server; but, you update the DNS with multiple website names pointing to the same ip-address. For all practical purpose, you’ll be using only Name-based virtual host configuration.

In the following example, the server contains only one NIC card, which is configured with 192.168.101.1 ip-address. The DNS entry for both thegeekstuff.com and top5freeware.com website points to 192.168.101.1 ip-address. When Apache recives a request, it looks for the hostname entry in the HTTP header, and serves the corresponding website.

Fig: Apache Name-Based Virtual Host

1. Uncomment httpd-vhosts.conf in httpd.conf

If you’ve installed Apache 2 from source, by default, the following line will be commented in the httpd.conf file. Uncomment this line.

# vi /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

2. Setup virtual hosts

Modify the httpd-vhosts.conf as shown below to setup named-based virtual host setting for two hosts.

• NameVirtualHost *:80 – Indicates that all the name-based virtual hosts will be listening on the default port 80
• <VirtualHost *:80> </VirtualHost> – Enclose all the apache configuration parameters for each and every virtual host between these VirtualHost tags. Any apache directives can be used within the virtualhost container.
• In the following example, we are setting up virtual host for thegeekstuff.com and top5freeware.com listening on the same port 80. So, there will be two <VirtualHost *:80> </VirtualHost>, one for each website.
• When you go to thegeekstuff.com, the files under /usr/local/apache2/docs/thegeekstuff will be served by Apache; and the access_log and error_log for this site will go under /usr/local/apache2/logs/thegeekstuff

URL Redirection implementation in Apache and Integration with weblogic

Step 1) Check whether mod_rewrite.so file is present under the below path.

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\modules

Step 2) Un Comment the below line in httpd.conf file

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Step 3) Comment  the following If module block in httpd.conf file

#<IfModule mod_weblogic.c>

#    WebLogicCluster localhost:9002,localhost:9003

#    Debug ON

#    WLLogFile C:/temp/wlproxy.log

#    WLTempDir C:/temp

#</IfModule>

Step 4) Write the below redirection rule in httpd.conf file

RedirectMatch 301 ^/$             /benefits

RedirectMatch 301 ^/msg$             /messaging

Step 5) Create configuration files for benefits and messaging applications.

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\extra\benefits.conf

<Location "/benefits">       

WebLogicCluster localhost:9002,localhost:9003

        Debug OFF

        SetHandler weblogic-handler

</Location>

C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\extra\messaging.conf

<Location "/messaging">       

WebLogicCluster localhost:9002,localhost:9003

        Debug OFF

        SetHandler weblogic-handler

</Location>

Step 6) Include additional configuration files in httpd.conf file.

Include conf/extra/benefits.conf

Include conf/extra/messaging.conf

Step 7) Check syntax by using http –t command

Step 8) Restart apacheserver by using httpd –k restart command

Step 9) Deploy benefits.war and messaging.war application in weblogic cluster

Step 10) Access the the urls 1)http://localhost  2) http://localhost/msg

http://localhost

This url will redirect to http://localhost/benefits

(Install httpwatch Software to view the redirection )

 http://localhost/msg

This url will redirect to http://localhost/messaging