Web Server

GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide
by Graham Williams

Web Server

Installing a web server under Debian is as simple as installing apache2:

$ wajig install apache2

You will now have a default web page at http://localhost/. The actual page being displayed there comes from /var/www/index.html. You can begin creating your own web site from there.

For a secure web server, using SSL to encrypt all communications from a browser to the server (recognised with the https: prefix) you will need to enable the ssl module in apache2 and configure it:

$ wajig install apache2 openssl $ sudo mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl $ sudo make-ssl-cert /usr/share/ssl-cert/ssleay.cnf \ /etc/apache2/ssl/certificat.pem $ sudo mv /etc/apache2/ssl/certificat.pem \ /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem $ sudo a2enmod ssl $ cd /etc/apache2/sites-available $ sudo cp default ssl

Edit the new ssl:

NameVirtualHost *:443 <VirtualHost *:443> SSLEngine On SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem ServerName host.name.specified.in.certificate.creation

Edit default to add *:80.

a2ensite ssl

Make sure /etc/apache2/ports.conf contains:

Listen 443 Listen 80

Then

wajig restart apache2

For apache1 there were two approaches available: One is to use apache with the libapache-mod-ssl module and the other is to install the apache-ssl which installs a separate apache server to listen to port 443 (instead of 80). There are advantages either way but using apache-ssl is straightforward and cleanly keeps the two servers separate (configuration files are in /etc/apache and /etc/apache-ssl and log files in /var/log/apache and /var/log/apache-ssl respectively).

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