Apache2 name-based virtual hosting on Debian/Ubuntu

Introduction

This tutorial will walk you through the configuration of name-base virtual hosting using Apache2 server in Debian and Ubuntu. The default configuration of Apache server in Debian/Ubuntu is limited only to one website based on your IP Address. We will setup a name-based virtual hosting to have multiple websites using only one machine. After this tutorial, you will have example.com, example.net, and example.org hosted in your computer.

What is Virtual Host?

With virtual host, you can host multiple web site on a single machine.

Virtual Host can be:
Ip-based - you can host multiple website on a single server however, you must assign each website with a different IP Address.
Name-based - you can host multiple website on a single server or a single IP Address but proper DNS configuration is required.

Step-by-Step Configuration

This tutorial assumes that you already have a working apache2 web server. If you don't have it, please install it first before taking these steps:

1. Edit your /etc/hosts file

and add the example.com, example.net, and example.org in your hosts file.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 example.com
127.0.0.1 example.net
127.0.0.1 example.org
192.168.0.1 ubuntu

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

This will tell the system that example.com, example.net and example.org are not to be looked for on the internet, but on the local machine instead.

2. Create a a separate document root, cgi-bin directory and logfile directory for each website you want to host. You can place these beneath the standard Debian prefix of /var/www or you may use a completely different directory.

3. We will enable Virtual Host in your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file. Open /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file

and add this line to the end of the file

5. Lets create a virtual host configuration for each site. You don't have to create from scatch actually, you can copy the default host configuration and customize it.

The virtual host configuration should look like this.

7. Finally, restart your Apache2 server

Open your browser and type http://example.com, example.net, and example.org.