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apachesurvival
This tutorial is for users of Debian GNU/Linux using the LAMP stack, wanting TLS encryption, multiple self-hosted websites, feature rich content management, etc., without sacrificing ownership or security. This tutorial will cover:
There is probably a bit more … but this will get us started. With the exception of Cacti, these are skills I learned on BSD / macOS and then migrated to Debian GNU/Linux which runs them better, has better implementations of the LAMP stack, more feature control, and most importantly is #freesoftware.
Installing apache, setting up two ore more websites. If you are interested in setting up a website outside of /var/www/, say for example, /home/server, then please see the addenda at the bottom covering non-standard web root directories. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but there are some simple precautions. For now, proceed with the examples below which guide you through creating two virtual hosts, but this can be scaled to as many as you like:
sudo apt install apache2 sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site1.com/public_html sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site2.com/public_html sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/site1.com/public_html sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/site2.com/public_html sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www nano /var/www/site1.com/public_html/index.html <html> <head> <title>site1</title> </head> <body> <h1>site1</h1> </body> </html> nano /var/www/site2.com/public_html/index.html <html> <head> <title>site2</title> </head> <body> <h1>site2</h1> </body> </html> sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.com.conf sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/site2.com.conf sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.com.conf <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin name@site1.com ServerName site1.com ServerAlias www.site1.com DocumentRoot /var/www/site1.com/public_html ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost> sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site2.com.conf <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin name@site2.com ServerName site2.com ServerAlias www.site2.com DocumentRoot /var/www/site2.com/public_html ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost> sudo a2ensite site1.com.conf sudo a2ensite site2.com.conf sudo cp -r /var/www/html /root/ sudo rm -r /var/www/html sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf sudo nano /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.1.1 host.domain.com hostname # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts ::1 localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters #Virtual Hosts - NOT Optional - replace xxx etc., with external IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx site1.com xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx www.site1.com xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx site2.com xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx www.site2.com
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Visit site1.com and site2.com - debug, set up TLS - repeat this for additional sites, set up firewall w/ common exceptions.
sudo ufw install sudo ufw allow ssh sudo ufw allow 22 sudo ufw allow 222 sudo ufw allow http sudo ufw allow 80 sudo ufw allow https sudo ufw allow 443 sudo ufw allow 'WWW Secure' sudo ufw allow 'WWW Full' sudo ufw allow 'WWW' sudo ufw allow 1194/udp sudo ufw allow 1194 sudo ufw allow git sudo ufw allow openvpn sudo ufw allow samba sudo ufw allow nfs sudo ufw allow vnc sudo ufw allow 21 sudo ufw allow ftp sudo ufw enable
Create self-signed TLS certificates, set up ssl.conf for each virtual host.
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/site1.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/site1.crt Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <Country Initials> State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <State or Commonwealth, etc., Name> Locality Name (eg, city) []: <City or Township, etc., Name> Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <Group or Entity, etc., Name> Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <Department or Branch, etc., Name> Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []: <site1 ip address> Email Address []: person@site1.com sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/site2.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/site2.crt Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <Country Initials> State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <State or Commonwealth, etc., Name> Locality Name (eg, city) []: <City or Township, etc., Name> Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <Group or Entity, etc., Name> Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <Department or Branch, etc., Name> Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []: <site1 ip address> Email Address []: person@site1.com
Configure diffie-hellman key for all TLS enabled virtual hosts, configure ssl-params.conf for all TLS enabled virtual hosts.
sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 4096 sudo cp /etc/apache2/conf-available/ssl-params.conf /root/ sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/ssl-params.conf # from https://cipherli.st/ # and https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Strong_SSL_Security_On_Apache2.html SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 SSLHonorCipherOrder On # Disable preloading HSTS for now. You can use the commented out header line that includes # the "preload" directive if you understand the implications. #Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains; preload" Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains" Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff # Requires Apache >= 2.4 SSLCompression off SSLSessionTickets Off SSLUseStapling on SSLStaplingCache "shmcb:logs/stapling-cache(150000)" SSLOpenSSLConfCmd DHParameters "/etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem"
Configure virtual hosts for TLS for each domain previously configured above.
sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf /root/default-ssl.conf.bak sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.com-ssl.conf.bak sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/site2.com-ssl.conf.bak
Create TLS sites in sites-enabled:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.com-ssl.conf <IfModule mod_ssl.c> <VirtualHost _default_:443> ServerAdmin name@site1.com ServerName site1.com DocumentRoot /var/www/site1.com/public_html ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/site1.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/site1.key <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$"> SSLOptions +StdEnvVars </FilesMatch> <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin> SSLOptions +StdEnvVars </Directory> BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-6]" \ nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \ downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0 </VirtualHost> </IfModule>
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site2.com-ssl.conf <IfModule mod_ssl.c> <VirtualHost _default_:443> ServerAdmin name@site2.com ServerName site2.com ServerAlias www.site2.com DocumentRoot /var/www/site2.com/public_html ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/site2.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/site2.key <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$"> SSLOptions +StdEnvVars </FilesMatch> <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin> SSLOptions +StdEnvVars </Directory> BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-6]" \ nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \ downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0 </VirtualHost> </IfModule>
Redirect the original sites-enabled to default to TLS.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.com.conf Redirect permanent "/" "https://site1.com/ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site2.com.conf Redirect permanent "/" "https://site2.com/
Enable both TLS sites, check configuration:
sudo a2enmod ssl sudo a2enmod headers sudo a2ensite site1.com-ssl.conf sudo a2ensite site2.com-ssl.conf sudo apache2ctl configtest
Ignore error below, or set global ServerName (not advised) to avoid:
AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message Syntax OK sudo systemctl restart apache2
Set up Let's Encrypt for free certificate authority on the SSL certs you just made.
sudo apt install certbot letsencrypt python-certbot-apache certbot --authenticator standalone --installer apache -d site1.com --pre-hook "systemctl stop apache2" --post-hook "systemctl start apache2" certbot --authenticator standalone --installer apache -d site2.com --pre-hook "systemctl stop apache2" --post-hook "systemctl start apache2" sudo systemctl restart apache2
Test them both, first clear cache and restart browser, set up cron job to update every week:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=site1.com&latest https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=site2.com&latest sudo crontab -e 30 2 * * 1 /usr/bin/certbot renew >> /var/log/le-renew.log sudo systemctl restart cron.service sudo systemctl restart apache2
Manually check certificates by:
sudo certbot renew
Might be a good idea now … to set up a self-hosted Word Press site … Check this tutorial: Self-Hosted Word Press