How to Install Apache on Ubuntu Linux

How to use Apache HTTP server on Ubuntu Linux

You can install the Apache HTTP server on Ubuntu Linux easily using the apt package manager, as it’s available directly in Ubuntu’s software sources.

Apache is available in Ubuntu repositories, so we can easily install it using the apt package management tool.

To install Apache, run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

The commands above will install the Apache HTTP server.

To find out if Apache is installed and running, use the status check command below.

sudo systemctl status apache2

The command will output similar lines below when Apache is running.

apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2021-09-15 12:29:40 CDT; 10s ago
       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
    Process: 4860 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 4864 (apache2)
      Tasks: 55 (limit: 4651)
     Memory: 4.7M
     CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
             ├─4864 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─4865 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             └─4866 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Sep 15 12:29:40 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Sep 15 12:29:40 ubuntu2004 apachectl[4863]: AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the >

How to allow Apache through the Ubuntu firewall

If your Ubuntu server has a firewall turned on, you need to let Apache’s web traffic through by allowing ports 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS.

If you’re using UFW to manage the Ubuntu firewall, run the below commands to allow traffic.

sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'

That will allow full traffic to Apache.

Browse the server hostname or IP address with the firewall opened to see if the Apache default page is up.

http://localhost

You should see the Apache default welcome page.

How to configure Apache on Ubuntu Linux

Once Apache is installed on Ubuntu, its main configuration files and directories are all found within the /etc/apache2 folder, which acts as the server’s home directory.

On Ubuntu Linux, these are Apache directory structures and configuration files.

All Apache configuration files are located in the /etc/apache2 directory. This is considered the Apache home directory.

Apache’s main configuration file is /etc/apache2/apache2.conf. Global configuration settings are done in the file, but this file is rarely ever touched.

Port configurations, including changing the default listen ports, are specified in this file /etc/apache2/ports.conf. The ports in here are what Apache listens to for traffic.

Apache Virtual Hosts files are stored in /etc/apache2/sites-available directory. This is the directory where individual websites are defined. Apache does not use website configurations until they’re activated. Once activated, they are linked to the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory.

These are the commands below to activate websites to link them to the /etc/apache2/sites-enable directory. (replace example.com.conf with your VirtualHost file)

sudo a2ensite example.com.conf

The command above will create a symlink of the website configuration files found in the sites-available directory to the sites-enabled directory.

To deactivate a virtual host, use the command below. (replace example.com.conf with your website VirtualHost file).

sudo a2dissite example.com.conf

Apache uses modules to enhance and add additional functionalities located in the /etc/apache2/mods-available/ directory.

Modules are only available to load with Apache when enabled and symlinked to the /etc/apache2/mods-enable/ directory.

The a2enconf and a2disconf commands can turn modules on or off. Once modules are activated and linked to the mod-enable directory, they’re available to Apache to load.

Apache also has log files (access.log and error.log) in the /var/log/apache/ directory. You can view access and error logs in these files on Ubuntu.

Other Apache configuration files that might be available in Ubuntu are not listed above. We’ll continue posting a valuable tutorial here for more Apache configurations and how to use them.

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to install and use Apache on Ubuntu Linux. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.