Overview

Apache HTTP Server (package apache2 on Debian/Ubuntu, httpd on RHEL family) is a mature, flexible web server. It is a common choice for PHP sites, WordPress and traditional LAMP stacks. This article shows how to install Apache, serve a first site and manage the service on an ALYPOD CPU Pod.

Before you begin

• A CPU Pod with root/sudo access.
• Ports 80 and 443 reachable (allow them in the ALYPOD firewall).
• A domain or the Pod's IP for testing.

Steps

Install

```bash

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y apache2

RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky

sudo dnf install -y httpd ```

Start and enable

bash sudo systemctl enable --now apache2 # or httpd sudo systemctl status apache2

Allow through the local firewall (if firewalld is used)

bash sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http --add-service=https sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Create a virtual host

1. Create the directory and a test page:

bash sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html echo "<h1>Hello from ALYPOD</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/example.com/html/index.html sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com # apache:apache on RHEL

1. Add a vhost config. Debian/Ubuntu — /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf:

apache <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName example.com ServerAlias www.example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/html ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined </VirtualHost>

1. Enable the site (Debian/Ubuntu) or drop it in /etc/httpd/conf.d/ (RHEL):

bash sudo a2ensite example.com.conf sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf sudo systemctl reload apache2

1. Test the configuration before reloading in future:

bash sudo apachectl configtest

Troubleshooting

• Problem: Address already in use. Solution: Another web server (nginx) is bound to port 80 — stop it or change the vhost port.
• Problem: 403 Forbidden. Solution: Check file ownership and directory Execute permission, and confirm the DocumentRoot path.
• Problem: Config not applied. Solution: Reload, do not restart, after configtest passes; a broken config will not be loaded.

Related articles

• [Installing the Nginx web server]
• [Installing PHP and common extensions]
• [Setting up a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate]