This document provides instructions on how to configure Apache virtual hosts on RHEL 7 to host multiple websites on different ports with different content folders. It includes steps to configure the Apache listen directive, create virtual host directives, set document roots and ports, create log directories, validate the configuration, and modify security settings. Sample index files are provided to demonstrate the three configured websites.

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Table of Contents
Overview.......................................................................................................................................................1
Applies To......................................................................................................................................................1
Pre-Requisites ...............................................................................................................................................1
Configure Apache – VirtualHost....................................................................................................................1
Default – Listen .........................................................................................................................................1
Default – DocumentRoot..........................................................................................................................1
Default – List DocumentRoot....................................................................................................................2
New Website Directory.............................................................................................................................2
Add Listen .................................................................................................................................................2
Add VirtualHost Directive .........................................................................................................................3
Default Port – 80...................................................................................................................................3
Alternate Port – 81................................................................................................................................3
Alternate Port – 82................................................................................................................................3
Parse Config File........................................................................................................................................5
Create – Log Directories............................................................................................................................5
Validate Syntax..........................................................................................................................................5
Parse Config File........................................................................................................................................6
Restart Service – httpd..............................................................................................................................6
SELinux Status ...........................................................................................................................................7
Add Network port type.........................................................................................................................7
Modify Security Group..................................................................................................................................7
Launch websites............................................................................................................................................8
Website #1 ............................................................................................................................................8
Website #2 ............................................................................................................................................8
Website #3 ............................................................................................................................................8

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Overview
Virtual hosts means hosting more than one website’s on apache webserver.
The purpose of this guide is to configure virtual hosts on a different ports and different document content
folder. It is always a best practice to configure SELinux in enforcing mode to have extra layer of security
on the server that is exposed to the internet domain.
Applies To
Tested on RHEL 7, CentOS 7.
Pre-Requisites
 apache httpd
 policycoreutils-python (semanage command)
Configure Apache – VirtualHost
One of the features with apache is configuring virtualhost for hosting multiple websites on a webserver
and configuring these website on a different ports also.
All the configurations has to be done with “apache” user. Daemon start/restart/status command should
be executed with “root” user.
Default – Listen
Next we will list the “Listen” directive (port to listen) that has been configured. By default this directive is
configured to listen on port “80”; run the command;
cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf | grep ^Listen
Default – DocumentRoot
First and foremost thing that has to be done is to know the “DocumentRoot” directive that has been
configured in apache main configuration file “httpd.conf”. By default this directive is configured as
“/var/www/html”.
cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf | grep ^DocumentRoot

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Default – List DocumentRoot
Next we will list the folder DocumentRoot “/var/www/”, run the command;
cd /var/www/ ; ll
New Website Directory
Create the new website directory, where we intend create new website and change the owner of the
folder to apache user and group.
mkdir -v /var/www/example{2..3}; cd /var/www/
chown -R apache:apache example{2..3} ; ll
Add Listen
Next step is to configure listen port directive, edit “httpd.conf” and add the directive entries as below.
Listen :80
Listen :81
Listen :82

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Add VirtualHost Directive
Next step is to create a new VirtualHost directive entries for different ports, as below.
Default Port – 80
Configuration directives for port 80 and virtual host.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@domain.com
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
ServerName example1.domain.com
ServerAlias example1.domain.com
ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/example1/error_log"
CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/example1/access_log" common
<Directory /var/www/html>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Alternate Port – 81
Configuration directives for port 81 and virtual host.
<VirtualHost *:81>
ServerAdmin admin@domain.com
DocumentRoot "/var/www/example2"
ServerName example2.domain.com
ServerAlias example2.domain.com
ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/example2/error_log"
CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/example2/access_log" common
<Directory /var/www/example2>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Alternate Port – 82
Configuration directives for port 82 and virtual host.
<VirtualHost *:82>
ServerAdmin admin@domain.com
DocumentRoot "/var/www/example3"
ServerName example3.domain.com
ServerAlias example3.domain.com
ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/example3/error_log"
CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/example3/access_log" common
<Directory /var/www/example3>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

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Parse Config File
To show the settings as parsed from the config file and show errors in the configuration, run the command;
httpd -S
Note: In this case log file directories are not created, hence the check has failed.
Create – Log Directories
Next step is to create log directories for “example1”, “example2” and “example3” in “/var/log/httpd/”.
In this directory all the access and error logs will be generated and stored, to create these directories run
the command;
mkdir -v /var/log/httpd/example{1..3}
Validate Syntax
After parsing the configuration file, next we will check for syntax errors to validate the syntax, run the
command; if no issues are found “Syntax OK” will be displayed.
httpd -t

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Parse Config File
After creating the directory, rerun the parse config file and show errors if any, if no errors are reported, it
will list all the main parameters configured.
httpd -S
Restart Service – httpd
After validating the configuration and verifying the syntax, next you can go ahead and restart the httpd
service and check the service status.
systemctl restart httpd
systemctl status httpd -l

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SELinux Status
To know the SELinux Status and current enforcement mode configured run the command; if the “SeLinux
status” is enabled and current mode is set to “enforcing”; SELinux configuration is required else ignore
these steps.
sestatus | grep 'SELinux status|Current mode'
Add Network port type
Since SELinux is enabled, next step is to add network type port type definitions for SELinux to authorize
ports 80 – 82 for http traffic, run the command.
semanage port -d -t http_port_t -p tcp 80
semanage port -d -t http_port_t -p tcp 81
semanage port -d -t http_port_t -p tcp 82
semanage port -l | grep -w "http_port_t" or semanage port -l | grep http_port_t
Modify Security Group
Add new rules to the “Inbound rules” in the AWS Security group for all the ports that needs to access
from outside.

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Launch Websites
To demonstrate these settings and configuration is working, we will create a “index.html” file with a
sample html content page as per the website numbers and different font colors.
Website #1
<HTML>
<BODY>
<TITLE> 1st website </TITLE>
<H1>
<FONT COLOR="brown"> This is First website's default page </H1>
</H1>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Website #2
<HTML>
<BODY>
<TITLE> 2nd website </TITLE>
<H1>
<FONT COLOR="green"> This is second website's default page </FONT>
</H1>
</FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Website #3
<HTML>
<BODY>
<TITLE> 3rd website </TITLE>
<H1>
<FONT COLOR="blue"> This is third website's default page </FONT>
</H1>
</FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>