Step 1: Install Apache

????? sudo apt-get update

????? sudo apt-get install apache2

Step 2: Adjust the Firewall

? ? efore we can test Apache, we need to modify our firewall to allow outside access to the default web ports.? Assuming that you followed the instructions in the prerequisites, you should have a UFW firewall configured to restrict access to your server. During installation, Apache registers itself with UFW to provide a few application profiles.? We can use these profiles to simplify the process of enabling or disabling access to Apache through our firewall. We can list theufwapplication profiles by typing:

? ? sudo ufw app list

You should get a listing of the application profiles:

? Available applications:

? Apache

? Apache Full

? Apache Secure

? OpenSSH

As you can see, there are three profiles available for Apache:

Apache: This profile opens only port 80 (normal, unencrypted web traffic)

Apache Full: This profile opens both port 80 (normal, unencrypted web traffic) and port 443 (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic)

Apache Secure: This profile opens only port 443 (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic)

For our purposes, we will allow incoming traffic for theApache Fullprofile by typing:

? sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'

You can verify the change by typing:

? sudo ufw status

You should see HTTP traffic allowed in the displayed output:

Output

Status: activeTo? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Action? ? ? From--? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ------? ? ? ----OpenSSH? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ALLOW? ? ? Anywhere? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Apache Full? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ALLOW? ? ? Anywhere? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? OpenSSH (v6)? ? ? ? ? ? ? ALLOW? ? ? Anywhere (v6)? ? ? ? ? ? Apache Full (v6)? ? ? ? ? ALLOW? ? ? Anywhere (v6)

As you can see, the profile has been activated to allow access to the web server.

Step 3: Check your Web Server

At the end of the installation process, Ubuntu 16.04 starts Apache.? The web server should already be up and running.

We can check with thesystemdinit system to make sure the service is running by typing:

? sudo systemctl status apache2

As you can see above, the service appears to have started

successfully.? However, the best way to test this is to actually request

a page from Apache.

You can access the default Apache landing page to confirm that the

software is running properly.? You can access this through your server's

domain name or IP address.

If you are using DigitalOcean and do not have a domain name set up for your server, you can follow our guidehow to set up a domain with DigitalOceanto set one up.

If you do not want to set up a domain name for your server, you can

use your server's public IP address.? If you do not know your server's

IP address, you can get it a few different ways from the command line.

Try typing this at your server's command prompt:

? hostname -I

Step 4: Manage the Apache Process

To stop your web server, you can type:

? ? sudo systemctl stop apache2

Now that you have your web server up and running, we can go over some basic management commands.

o start the web server when it is stopped, type:

?? sudo systemctl start apache2

To stop and then start the service again, type:

? sudo systemctl restart apache2

If you are simply making configuration changes, Apache can often

reload without dropping connections.? To do this, you can use this

command:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

By default, Apache is configured to start automatically when the

server boots.? If this is not what you want, you can disable this

behavior by typing:

sudo systemctl disable apache2

To re-enable the service to start up at boot, you can type:

sudo systemctl enable apache2

Apache should now start automatically when the server boots again.

Step 5: Get Familiar with Important Apache Files and Directories

Now that you know how to manage the service itself, you should take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with a few important directories and files.

Directories

Now that you know how to manage the service itself, you should take a

few minutes to familiarize yourself with a few important directories

and files.

Content

/var/www/html: The actual web content, which by default only consists of the default Apache page you saw earlier, is served out of the/var/www/htmldirectory.? This can be changed by altering Apache configuration files.

Server Configuration

/etc/apache2: The Apache configuration directory.? All of the Apache configuration files reside here.

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf: The main Apache configuration file.? This can be modified to make changes to the Apache global configuration.? This file is responsible for loading many of the other files in the configuration directory.

/etc/apache2/ports.conf: This file specifies the ports that Apache will listen on.? By default, Apache listens on port 80 and additionally listens on port 443 when a module providing SSL capabilities is enabled.

/etc/apache2/sites-available/: The directory where per-site "Virtual Hosts" can be stored.? Apache will not use the configuration files found in this directory unless they are linked to thesites-enableddirectory (see below).? Typically, all server block configuration is done in this directory, and then enabled by linking to the other directory with thea2ensitecommand.

/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/: The directory where enabled per-site "Virtual Hosts" are stored.? Typically, these are created by linking to configuration files found in thesites-availabledirectory with thea2ensite.? Apache reads the configuration files and links found in this directory when it starts or reloads to compile a complete configuration.

/etc/apache2/conf-available/,/etc/apache2/conf-enabled/: These directories have the same relationship as thesites-availableandsites-enableddirectories, but are used to store configuration fragments that do not belong in a Virtual Host.? Files in theconf-availabledirectory can be enabled with thea2enconfcommand and disabled with thea2disconfcommand.

/etc/apache2/mods-available/,/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/: These directories contain the available and enabled modules, respectively.? Files in ending in.loadcontain fragments to load specific modules, while files ending in.confcontain the configuration for those modules.? Modules can be enabled and disabled using thea2enmodanda2dismodcommand.

Server Logs

/var/log/apache2/access.log: By default, every request to your web server is recorded in this log file unless Apache is configured to do otherwise.

/var/log/apache2/error.log: By default, all errors are recorded in this file.? TheLogLeveldirective in the Apache configuration specifies how much detail the error logs will contain.

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