How To Install the Apache Web Server on Ubuntu 18.04 [Quickstart]
Introduction
The Apache HTTP server is the most widely-used web server in the world. It provides many powerful features, including dynamically loadable modules, robust media support, and extensive integration with other popular software.
In this guide, we'll explain how to install an Apache web server on your Ubuntu 18.04 server. For a more detailed version of this tutorial, please refer to How To Install the Apache Web Server on Ubuntu 18.04.
Prerequisites
Before you begin this guide, you should have the following:
- An Ubuntu 18.04 server and a regular, non-root user with sudo privileges. Additionally, you will need to enable a basic firewall to block non-essential ports. You can learn how to configure a regular user account and set up a firewall for your server by following our initial server setup guide for Ubuntu 18.04.
When you have an account available, log in as your non-root user to begin.
Step 1 — Installing Apache
Apache is available within Ubuntu's default software repositories, so you can install it using conventional package management tools.
Update your local package index:
- sudo apt update
Install the apache2 package:
- sudo apt install apache2
Step 2 — Adjusting the Firewall
Check the available ufw application profiles:
- sudo ufw app list
OutputAvailable applications:
Apache
Apache Full
Apache Secure
OpenSSH
Let's enable the most restrictive profile that will still allow the traffic you've configured, permitting traffic on port 80 (normal, unencrypted web traffic):
- sudo ufw allow 'Apache'
Verify the change:
- sudo ufw status
OutputStatus: active
To Action From
-- ------ ----
OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere
Apache ALLOW Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
Apache (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
Step 3 — Checking your Web Server
Check with the systemd init system to make sure the service is running by typing:
- sudo systemctl status apache2
Output● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
└─apache2-systemd.conf
Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-04-24 20:14:39 UTC; 9min ago
Main PID: 2583 (apache2)
Tasks: 55 (limit: 1153)
CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
├─2583 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─2585 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
└─2586 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
Access the default Apache landing page to confirm that the software is running properly through your IP address:
http://your_server_ip
You should see the default Ubuntu 18.04 Apache web page:
Step 4 — Setting Up Virtual Hosts (Recommended)
When using the Apache web server, you can use virtual hosts (similar to server blocks in Nginx) to encapsulate configuration details and host more than one domain from a single server. We will set up a domain called example.com, but you should replace this with your own domain name. To learn more about setting up a domain name with DigitalOcean, see our introduction to DigitalOcean DNS.
Create the directory for example.com, using the -p flag to create any necessary parent directories:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
Assign ownership of the directory:
- sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/example.com/html
The permissions of your web roots should be correct if you haven't modified your unmask value, but you can make sure by typing:
- sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/example.com
Create a sample index.html page using nano or your favorite editor:
- nano /var/www/example.com/html/index.html
Inside, add the following sample HTML:
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to Example.com!</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Success! The example.com server block is working!</h1>
</body>
</html>
Save and close the file when you are finished.
Make a new virtual host file at /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf:
- sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf
Paste in the following configuration block, updated for our new directory and domain name:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/html
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save and close the file when you are finished.
Enable the file with a2ensite:
- sudo a2ensite example.com.conf
Disable the default site defined in 000-default.conf:
- sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
Test for configuration errors:
- sudo apache2ctl configtest
You should see the following output:
OutputSyntax OK
Restart Apache to implement your changes:
- sudo systemctl restart apache2
Apache should now be serving your domain name. You can test this by navigating to http://example.com, where you should see something like this:
Conclusion
Now that you have your web server installed, you have many options for the type of content to serve and the technologies you want to use to create a richer experience.
If you'd like to build out a more complete application stack, check out this article on how to configure a LAMP stack on Ubuntu 18.04.
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