Set up Apache virtual hosts — Help Centre

Configure Apache virtual hosts to serve multiple websites from a single server using name-based hosting.

Virtual hosts allow you to run multiple websites on a single Apache server. This guide covers setting up name-based virtual hosts on Ubuntu/Debian.

Prerequisites

Apache2 installed and running
One or more domain names (or subdomains) pointing to your server's IP
sudo access to the server

Configuration Steps

1. Create directories for your site content

For each website, create a directory to store its files:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/yourdomain.com/html
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/yourdomain.com/logs

Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.

2. Set proper permissions

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/yourdomain.com/html
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/yourdomain.com

3. Create a sample index file

echo "<h1>Welcome to yourdomain.com</h1>" | tee /var/www/yourdomain.com/html/index.html

4. Create a virtual host configuration file

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.com.conf

Paste the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
    
    ServerAdmin admin@yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain.com/html
    
    ErrorLog /var/www/yourdomain.com/logs/error.log
    CustomLog /var/www/yourdomain.com/logs/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Replace yourdomain.com with your domain name. Press Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter to save.

5. Enable the virtual host

sudo a2ensite yourdomain.com.conf

6. Test Apache configuration syntax

sudo apache2ctl -t

You should see Syntax OK.

7. Reload Apache

sudo systemctl reload apache2

8. Verify the site is accessible

In your browser, navigate to http://yourdomain.com (or from the server: curl http://yourdomain.com).

Adding More Virtual Hosts

Repeat steps 1–7 for each additional domain, using different domain names and directory paths.

Disabling a Virtual Host

To disable a virtual host without deleting its config:

sudo a2dissite yourdomain.com.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Tips

Virtual host files should be named yourdomain.com.conf for clarity
Use ServerAlias to handle both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com
Always check sudo apache2ctl -t before reloading to catch syntax errors
Log files are separated per domain, making troubleshooting easier
For HTTPS (SSL/TLS), use port 443 and add SSLEngine on plus certificate paths

For RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

Use /etc/httpd/conf.d/ instead of /etc/apache2/sites-available/, and reload with sudo systemctl reload httpd.