Virtual Hosts are used to run more than one domain off of a single IP address, there is no limit to the number of virtual hosts that can be added to a VPS.
We assume httpd has been successfully installed, if not visit http://vpshelpdesk.com/2016/06/05/install-linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-on-centos-6/
Step One Create a New Directory
The first step in creating a virtual host is to a create a directory where we will keep the new website’s information. This location will be your Document Root in the Apache virtual configuration file later on. By adding a -p to the line of code that allows us to create a folder with a nested folder inside of it
#mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/public_html
Step Two Grant Permissions
We need to grant ownership of the directory to the user, instead of just keeping it on the root system. (assumed username ‘user’ has been added)
#chown -R user:apache /var/www/example.com/public_html
Additionally, it is important to make sure that everyone will be able to read our new files.
#chmod 755 /var/www
Step Three Create the Page
We need to create a new file called index.html within our configurations directory.
#vi /var/www/example.com/public_html/index.html <html> <head> <title>www.example.com</title> </head> <body> <h1>Success: You Have Set Up a Virtual Host</h1> </body> </html>
Step Four Turn on Virtual Hosts
The next step is to enter into the apache configuration file itself.
#vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
There are a few lines to look for, make sure that your text matches what you see below.
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80 Listen 80 # NameVirtualHost *:80 # # NOTE: NameVirtualHost cannot be used without a port specifier # (e.g. :80) if mod_ssl is being used, due to the nature of the # SSL protocol. # # VirtualHost example: # Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container. # The first VirtualHost section is used for requests without a known # server name. # <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.example.com ServerAlias example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html ErrorLog /var/www/example.com/public_html/error.log CustomLog /var/www/example.com/public_html/requests.log combined </VirtualHost>
Step Five Restart Apache
We’ve made a lot of the changes to the configuration. However, they will not take effect until Apache is restarted.
# apachectl -k stop #/etc/init.d/httpd start
Optional Step Six Setting Up the Local Hosts
If you have pointed your domain name to your virtual private server’s IP address you can skip this step. You do not need to set up local hosts. Your virtual hosts should work. However, if want to try out your new virtual hosts without having to connect to an actual domain name, you can set up local hosts on your computer alone. For this step, make sure you are on the computer itself, not your droplet. To proceed with this step you need to know your computer’s administrative password, otherwise you will be required to use an actual domain name to test the virtual hosts.
#vi /etc/hosts
You can add the local hosts details to this file, as seen in the example below. As long as that line is there, directing your browser toward, say, example.com will give you all the virtual host details for the corresponding IP address.
# Host Database # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface # when the system is booting. Do not change this entry. ## 127.0.0.1 localhost #Virtual Hosts 12.34.56.789 www.example.com
Adding More Virtual Hosts
To create additional virtual hosts, you can just repeat the process above, being careful to set up a new document root with the appropriate new domain name each time. Then just copy and paste the new Virtual Host information into the Apache Config file, as shown below
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.example2.com ServerAlias example2.com DocumentRoot /var/www/example2.com/public_html ErrorLog /var/www/example2.com/public_html/error.log CustomLog /var/www/example2.com/public_html/requests.log combined </VirtualHost>