Help with virtual host (SOLVED!)

Your problem in large part may just be cached DNS values. For me, grytet.eu, http://www.grytet.eu, dev.grytet.eu, and test.grytet.eu all point to your Linode, which is what you want. Visiting dev.grytet.eu brings up a single file named "dev" containing "Nu är vi i dev!" so if that's what's in /var/www/dev_public then you're OK.

However, http://www.test.grytet.eu and http://www.dev.grytet.eu still point to a Loopia address. This shouldn't prevent test.grytet.eu and dev.grytet.eu from working, but is something you'll probably want to fix.

Edit: ignore the "http://" text above; the forum automatically inserts this on things it thinks should be links.

Hello again!

I manage to solve this with help from "dcraig" in Linode IRC chat.

So this is what I wanted:

• A central place where you point towards what is public

• A public space in users home directory where user have full control of add and delete

• Seperate space: dev.grytet.eu, test.grytet.eu, and production grytet.eu

• Seperate apache loggings for the above environment

This what I did (System debian 6)

1. Disable default virtual host

sudo a2dissite default

2. Go to home directory

cd ~

3 Create public folder

mkdir public

4. Seperate folders in public space

cd public
mkdir dev
mkdir test

5. Make sure public folder has 755 drwxr-xr-x Owner everything, Others just read

chmod -R a+rx ~/public

6. Create the folder and separate log files in /var/log/dev and var/log/test

cd /var/log
sudo mkdir dev
cd dev
sudo nano apache_access.log
sudo nano apache_error.log

cd /var/log
sudo mkdir test
cd test
sudo nano apache_access.log
sudo nano apache_error.log

7. Add symbolic links in the public www folder, (in debian it is /var/www) to the user public space (dev, test, and production (public))

ln -s [TARGET DIRECTORY OR FILE] ./[SHORTCUT]

Example

cd /var/www
ln -s  /home/{user}/public main_public

Repeat the above step for dev and test

8. Create the new virtual host file

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/grytet.eu

9. Add this in file just created

# domain: grytet.eu
# public: /var/www (symbolic linked to user home directory)

# Main
 <virtualhost *:80="">ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

        DocumentRoot /var/www/main_public
        ServerName  www.grytet.eu
        ServerAlias grytet.eu
        <directory>Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None</directory> 
        <directory var="" www="">Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all</directory> 

        ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
        <directory "="" usr="" lib="" cgi-bin"="">AllowOverride None
                Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all</directory> 

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn

        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined</virtualhost> 

# Test
 <virtualhost *:80="">DocumentRoot /var/www/test_public
        ServerName www.test.grytet.eu
        ServerAlias test.grytet.eu

        # Logging
             ErrorLog /var/log/test/apache_error.log

        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn

                CustomLog /var/log/test/apache_access.log combined</virtualhost> 

# Dev
 <virtualhost *:80="">DocumentRoot /var/www/dev_public
        ServerName www.dev.grytet.eu
        ServerAlias dev.grytet.eu

        # Logging
             ErrorLog /var/log/dev/apache_error.log

        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel debug

                CustomLog /var/log/dev/apache_access.log combined</virtualhost> 

10. Enable the new virtual host file

sudo a2ensite grytet.eu

11. Restart apache

sudo service apache2 restart

In the above, switch out my domain to your own, and change name of files and folders to your preference.

Do not forget

At your host registrator, apart from pointing your main domain, you also need to create the sub domains (dev, and test) and point them with either A or CNAME, if you use A point to your servers ip, if you use CNAME point to your main domain. Advantage of using CNAME is that it follows your main domain, so if you ever change your host or ip, you just need to point your main domain to the new place.

Why this approach

On debian system, normal user can not write to /var/www, so uploading and deleting files was a no go. From what I read it was not advised to add a normal user to the www folders user group and let that group write to it. I could just have used the user home directory as DocumentRoot, putting a symbolic link however gave me more of an overview.

Note

If you want for instance http://www.test.grytet.eu to work you need to add (http://www.test) as a subdomain at your registrator (atleast where I have my domain) I have just done that and pointed it (CNAME –> grytet.eu), Perhaps I need to add that to my virtual host file, same as i did for dev and test. I have to wait and see once it has propagated. update - No change was required to the virtual host file, it works as intended.

As a final word - If you have any suggestion on improvement, please let me know!

Regards

Martin

http://xkcd.com/979/ - well done :)