[Hosting] Apache and virtual hosts

[TechMonkey]

Ok I have Apache running fine and I am setting up various things on the server. The problem is I have set up virtual hosts and now seem to have to set up one for everything I install otherwise it just directs me to the first virtual host. Have I set something up wrong or is this just the way it is?

[smadison]

Try looking here

[TechMonkey]

It is amazing how many times you can look through something and miss what you need. I've looked at that doc at least twice and not seen what I needed until now.

For future reference add:

<VirtualHost _default_:*>
DocumentRoot /www/default
</VirtualHost>

to the virtual hosts file and all is well Huzzah.

[TechMonkey]

Ok I lied, that just breaks everything. So I am back to square one, can't find anything in the virtual hosts docs. Any ideas?

[ZeroHour]

I am kinda lost as to what your doing.
What do you mean by every time you install something? e.g wha?

[kmount]

My typical set up is as follows:

vhosts.conf (because I like them all together and don't trust a2en/dis site)

Default vhost at the top for ServerName mywebhost.com and ServerAlias www.mywebhost.com so stuff like www.mywebhost.com/forums /bugs /admin etc all 'just' work for anything I install.

I then have separate name based vhosts if its on a single IP for bob.mywebhost.com and jane.mywebhost.com to an individual folder so they too can have bob.mywebhost.com/forums /bananas etc.

If you want to see some configs / examples of what I have give me a shout.

[TechMonkey]

Thanks kmount, I think that is what I need first, a default entry.

ZH: I have my webserver on serverx. I have installed moodle and assigned it to a virtual host of moodle.server.com. After that any web app I have installed, such as joomla, I have had to add a virtual host and dns host to be able to get at it. I could no longer just go http://serverx/joomla. If I tried it would think /joomla was a folder under moodle.

I'll try entering a default entry and see what I can see.

[TechMonkey]

Yep that did it. It was what I thought the solution above should have done. I now have:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "{htdocs path}"
    ServerName {ipaddress}
</VirtualHost>

As my first virtual host so now anything that server hasn't been explicitly told about it will go to the normal IP address. & i tested it before rejoicing so it really seems to work!

[kmount]

I tend to do mine similarly but rather than IP I use names.

NameVirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerAdmin postmaster@mysite.com
DocumentRoot /home/mysite/www
ServerName mysite.com
ServerAlias www.mysite.com
ErrorLog /home/mysite/logs/errorlog.txt-www
CustomLog /home/mysite/logs/accesslog.txt-www common
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerAdmin postmaster@mysite.com
DocumentRoot /home/mysite/forums
ServerName forums.mysite.com
ErrorLog /home/mysite/logs/errorlog.txt-forum
CustomLog /home/mysite/logs/accesslog.txt-forum common
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerAdmin postmaster@mysite.com
DocumentRoot /home/mysite/moodle
ServerName moodle.mysite.com
ErrorLog /home/mysite/logs/errorlog.txt-moodle
CustomLog /home/mysite/logs/accesslog.txt-moodle common
</VirtualHost>

So anything that's not forums.mysite.com or moodle.mysite.com lands on the top vhost (mysite.com) so I can have mysite.com/images mysite.com/etc as well as having moodle.mysite.com/images being separate.

The logfiles are a pretty good idea too if you're building something and want to review the logs in a localised environment rather than for the whole box.