Step 1: Install Apache and Allow in Firewall
The Apache web server is among the most popular web servers in the
world. It's well-documented, and has been in wide use for much of the
history of the web, which makes it a great default choice for hosting a
website.
We can install Apache easily using Ubuntu's package manager,
apt.
A package manager allows us to install most software pain-free from a
repository maintained by Ubuntu. You can learn more about
how to use apt here.
For our purposes, we can get started by typing these commands:
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install apache2
Since we are using a
sudo command, these operations get
executed with root privileges. It will ask you for your regular user's
password to verify your intentions.
Once you've entered your password,
apt will tell you which packages it plans to install and how much extra disk space they'll take up. Press
Y and hit
Enter to continue, and the installation will proceed.
Set Global ServerName to Suppress Syntax Warnings
Next, we will add a single line to the
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf file to suppress a warning message. While harmless, if you do not set
ServerName globally, you will receive the following warning when checking your Apache configuration for syntax errors:
- sudo apache2ctl configtest
Output
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Syntax OK
Open up the main configuration file with your text edit:
- sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Inside, at the bottom of the file, add a
ServerName
directive, pointing to your primary domain name. If you do not have a
domain name associated with your server, you can use your server's
public IP address:
Note
If you don't know your server's IP address, skip down to the section on how to find your server's public IP address to find it.
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf
. . .
ServerName server_domain_or_IP
Save and close the file when you are finished.
Next, check for syntax errors by typing:
- sudo apache2ctl configtest
Since we added the global
ServerName directive, all you should see is:
Output
Syntax OK
Restart Apache to implement your changes:
- sudo systemctl restart apache2
You can now begin adjusting the firewall.
Adjust the Firewall to Allow Web Traffic
Next, assuming that you have followed the initial server setup
instructions to enable the UFW firewall, make sure that your firewall
allows HTTP and HTTPS traffic. You can make sure that UFW has an
application profile for Apache like so:
Output
Available applications:
Apache
Apache Full
Apache Secure
OpenSSH
If you look at the
Apache Full profile, it should show that it enables traffic to ports 80 and 443:
- sudo ufw app info "Apache Full"
Output
Profile: Apache Full
Title: Web Server (HTTP,HTTPS)
Description: Apache v2 is the next generation of the omnipresent Apache web
server.
Ports:
80,443/tcp
Allow incoming traffic for this profile:
- sudo ufw allow in "Apache Full"
You can do a spot check right away to verify that everything went as
planned by visiting your server's public IP address in your web browser
(see the note under the next heading to find out what your public IP
address is if you do not have this information already):
http://your_server_IP_address
You will see the default Ubuntu 16.04 Apache web page, which is there
for informational and testing purposes. It should look something like
this:
