Here are the Steps to Create a Virtual Host on Apache Server (Lamp Stack).

Virtual Host

  • Create a Root Directory for your Website
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/examplesite
  • Set Group Permissions
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/examplesite
  • Add your project Files in /var/www/examplesite
  • Next create a Virtual host to Live your website via Apache server
sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/examplesite.conf
  • Open your Configuration File
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/examplesite.conf
  • Update your Site URL and File Directory
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/examplesite
  • CTRL + X & Y to save your Configuration
  • Example Vhost File
<VirtualHost *:80>
	# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
	# the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
	# redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
	# specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
	# match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
	# value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
	# However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
	
	ServerName example.com
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	DocumentRoot /var/www/examplesite

	# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
	# error, crit, alert, emerg.
	# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
	# modules, e.g.
	#LogLevel info ssl:warn

	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

	# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
	# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
	# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
	# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
	# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
	#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf

</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet
  • Enable Virtual Host
sudo a2ensite examplesite.conf
  • Reload and Restart Apache
sudo service apache2 reload
sudo service apache2 restart

Notes

  • Don't Modify the default Apache2 Vhost File
  • Before creating a Virtual Host for your Website point the Domain DNS to the Server IP
  • Create Super user - Maximum Avoid Direct Root Usage
  • For SSl use https://certbot.eff.org/