Apache HTTP Server

Installation

sudo apt install apache2

Commands Run the service

Command	Description
/etc/init.d/apache2 start sudo service apache2 start	Run the service
/etc/init.d/apache2 status sudo service apache2 status	Service status
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart sudo service apache2 restart	Restart the service

1.1.2. Configuration

• Create the folder for the web root /var/www/yourdomain.xxx

• Create the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.xxx.conf:

<virtualhost *:80="">  
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost  
ServerName yourdomain.xxx  
ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com  
DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain.com  
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log  
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined  
</virtualhost>

HTTPS in Apache

Generation of Certificate from Let’s Encrypt

• Install certbot

sudo apt install certbot
sudo apt install python3-certbot-apache

• Run certbot

sudo certbot -apache

or

sudo certbot certonly -apache

Configuration of Apache server

• Enable Mod_ssl and Mod_rewrite Apache module .

a2enmod ssl
a2enmod rewrite

• Append the following lines to /etc/apache2/apache2.conf:

<Directory /var/www/html>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

• Set the following content for /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf or /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/DOMAIN.XXX.conf:

<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/certificate/apache-certificate.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/certificate/apache.key
</VirtualHost>

Note that if certbot –apache was used to create the certificates, some of the following configuration parameters are automatically set.

<VirtualHost *:443>
       ...
       ServerName DOMAIN.xxx
       Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
       ServerAlias DOMAIN2.yyy
       SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN.xxx/fullchain.pem
       SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN.xxx/privkey.pem
       ...
</VirtualHost>

Redirect HTTP to HTTPS (optional)

• Set the following content for /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf or /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/DOMAIN.XXX.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
        RewriteRule ^/?(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R=301,L]
</virtualhost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/apache-certificate.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/certificate/apache.key
</VirtualHost>

Apache Benchmark

Installation

sudo apt install apache2-utils

Test Apache Web Server

ab -n NUMBER -c CONCURRENCY -g output.data -k TARGET

The specified arguments are the following ones:

-n NUMBER	Number of requests to perform for benchmarking session. (default: a single request which leads to non-representative benchmarking results)
-c CONCURRENCY	Number of multiple requests to perform at a time. (default: 1 request at a time)
-g output.data	Save results in output.data file, to perform further analysis.
-k	Use the “HTTP KeepAlive Feature”.
TARGET	URL of the target Apache Server.