Could someone help me find out why I cannot get some virtual hosts going on Apache.
I know my Apache is running ok since I can access it via localhost. I am running Mandrake 10.0. It also responds with [ok] for apachectl start and stop. Could any of you give suggestions on how I can get some virtual hosts going. In particularly, I hope to be able to place virtual web hosts under a public_html directory within the home directories of accounts.
I have followed instructions as I found in more than one manual or how-to but I cannot seem to bring up index.htm or index.html files I placed in public_html neither on the local machine or on another (win98) PC on my local net.
Below is a copy of the Vhosts.conf file. It may be something in that file but
since a lot of this was copied and adopted from working examples, I
suspect it is some other problem. May permissions? Ownerships?
If you are not interested in assisting, no use reading past this point. The Vhost.conf copy below is included just in case it helps debugging.
With thanks in advance, Bill Mudry Mississauga, ON
Bill, Please provide info about your server, internet connection and whether or not you want these Virtual Hosts to be publicly available from the Internet. Then we'll be able to help you. While you're at it, I strongly suggest that you install webmin from the site below.
http://www.webmin.com/
In order to install it, you'll need to install 3 Perl components before downloading and installing webmin. I've noted the three components here;
1) perl-Authen-PAM 2) perl-CGI 3) perl-Net_SSLeay
All three modules can be installed from the Mandrake Control Center, after which you can manually install webmin from the command line as your root user;
"rpm -ivh webmin-1.170-1.noarch.rpm" (without the quotes) or,
from Konqueror's file manager by clicking on it. I've found that it helps a lot to un-install any previously installed version of webmin before installing this new version, since it's gone through some major improvements.
Use this command to uninstall your old version of webmin by opening a console/shell/terminal as root and typing (without the quotes);
"urpme webmin" <Enter> and then delete the existing webmin configuration files for it;
"rm /usr/libexec/webmin" <Enter> and answer "Y" to confirm.
If you're willing to give this a shot, you'll be able to manage the web-server a lot easier from any other PC's web-browser, even if that PC is in another country or continent. Remember that you have to use an "s" in the URL - "https://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:10000";. Make a note of the fact that you have to use the IP Address of your server running webmin to access webmin, unless you're sitting in front of that server, in which case you can use;
"https://localhost:10000";
or you can use the domain name of the server if you've purchased a domain name from a registrar (dotcanuck.com, godaddy.com, etc.)
"https://domain-name-of-server.com:10000";
Once you've done that, you're ready to install VirtualMin which is an add-on component to Webmin from this link;
http://www.webmin.com/index8.html
This is where it gets a lot easier, by the way. VirtualMin will help you to quickly configure virtual hosts for as many sites as you want as well as provide easy FTP services for those web-sites, email services, etc. in one location. It will automatically detect the email server you're running (if you have one installed) and it will create the folders and user access permissions for those sites and the people who manage them.
I had a quick look at your VHosts file and I can see where one of your problems is coming from.
The type of Virtual host you're trying to configure isn't valid. Regardless of where the sites are located and/or which IP address their using, your server will see them as "Fully Qualified Domain Names" or actual live web-sites and that's where some of your problem is coming from.
In order to use the domains you've specified, you're going to have to register them through a registrar and that's part of the problem. For example, the domain name of "mikewalters.com" is ALREADY REGISTERED BY SOMEONE ELSE! The domain name "billmudry.com" isn't registered at all. Those would be big problems! If you intend to refer to these sites in the way you've stated them in your VHosts file, and/or if you plan on making them public sites, you'll need to register them first.
In case you've never done this before, here's where you need to start;
1) Contact your ISP and get a Static IP address for a DSL or ADSL Internet connection (nothing slower than this will work very well and the web-pages will take forever to load in a web-browser).
2) Ask your ISP to setup Reverse DNS for your primary email server so that other email servers and anti-spam systems won't reject authentic email coming from your server.
3) Once that's all done and working, contact a registrar and register the names you want, but remember that "mikewalters.com" has already been used by someone else, so you'll have to come up with another name for that one. Give the registrar your Static IP address which you received from your ISP. Keep in mind that it can take up to 4 days (Max!) for the domain name to be spread to all the main DNS servers around the world.
4) Install webmin/virtualmin as suggested above and set it for the following items - Apache, Postfix, ProFTPD, Bind, etc.
5) Set up your Primary DNS services on your main server and your
Secondary DNS services on someone else's DNS server! That's a must! The Secondary server needs to have it's own Static IP address and is more reliable when located somewhere OTHER than your location.
5) Install Apache (I recommend Apache2 for it's improvements, by the way), and set it up for the primary domain ("billmudry.com"?), and them use VirtualMin for "mikewalters.com" and any other sites and/or domains you want to run from that server.
6) Once the basic services are set up, VirtualMin will be able to offer some diagnostic assitance and it will be able to simplify your setup and management of the domains you want to host on your server.
Hope this helps, but feel free to contact me offlist for extra help if you need it. Your virtual hosts configuration probably won't work because of the real domain names you're trying to use. If the plan is to use real domain names, you're going to have to use something similar to what I've suggested above. Good Luck.
Lanman Registered Linux User #190712
____________________________________________________ Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com ____________________________________________________
