Apache default VirtualHost - apache

Question

How can I set a default VirtualHost in Apache?
Preferably, I want the default host not to be the same as the IP address host. Now I have something like this:
NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin admin#example.com
DocumentRoot /someOtherDir/
ServerAlias ip.of.the.server
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin admin#example.com
DocumentRoot /someroot/
ServerAlias example.com *.example.com
</VirtualHost *>
If a domain is forwarded to my server, but isn't in this vhost.conf file, the files from /someOtherDir/ are loaded, as expected. But I want to be able to use a different root for the IP address itself and domains which aren't added to the vhost.conf file (yet). Is this possible?

Answer 1

I found the answer: I remembered that Apache uses the first block if no other matching block is found, so I've added a block without a serveralias at the top of the blocks:
NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
DocumentRoot /defaultdir/
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin admin#example.com
DocumentRoot /someOtherDir/
ServerAlias ip.of.the.server
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin admin#example.com
DocumentRoot /someroot/
ServerAlias example.com *.example.com
</VirtualHost>

Answer 2

If you are using Debian style virtual host configuration (sites-available/sites-enabled), one way to set a Default VirtualHost is to include the specific configuration file first in httpd.conf or apache.conf (or what ever is your main configuration file).
# To set default VirtualHost, include it before anything else.
IncludeOptional sites-enabled/my.example.com.conf
# Load config files in the "/etc/httpd/conf.d" directory, if any.
IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf
# Load virtual host config files from "/etc/httpd/sites-enabled/".
IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

Answer 3

The other answers here didn't work for me, but I found a pretty simple solution that did work.
I made the default one the last one listed, and I gave it ServerAlias *.
For example:
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.secondwebsite.example
ServerAlias secondwebsite.example *.secondwebsite.example
DocumentRoot /home/secondwebsite/web
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.defaultwebsite.example
ServerAlias *
DocumentRoot /home/defaultwebsite/web
</VirtualHost>
If the visitor didn't explicitly choose to go to something ending in secondwebsite.example, they get the default website.

Answer 4

Actually, I'm using Virtual host configuration (sites-available / sites-enabled) on EC2 Linux AMI with Apache/2.4.39 (Amazon). So, I have 1 EC2 instance to serve many sites (domains).
Considering that you already have Virtual Host installed and working. In my folder /etc/httpd/sites-available, I have some files with domain names (suffix .conf), for example: example.com.conf. Create a new file like that.
sudo nano /etc/httpd/sites-available/example.com.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.example.com
ServerAlias example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/domain
</VirtualHost>
For each file.conf in sites-available, I create a symbolic link:
sudo ln -s /etc/httpd/sites-available/example.com.conf /etc/httpd/sites-enabled/example.com.conf
This is the default configuration, so, if access directly by IP of Server, you will be redirect to DocumentRoot of the first file (.conf) in sites-available folder, sorted by filename.
To have a default DocumentRoot folder when access by IP, you have to create a file named 0a.conf, then Apache will serve this site because this new file will be the first in sites-available folder.
You must create a symbolic link:
sudo ln -s /etc/httpd/sites-available/0a.conf /etc/httpd/sites-enabled/0a.conf
To check serving order, use it:
sudo apachectl -S
Now, restart Apache, and check out it.

Answer 5

Obligatory - none of the previous answers worked for me. I inherited a strange combination of IP address-based virtual hosts and * vhosts (not assigned/catch all IP addresses) based virtual hosts in this Apache configuration messed up by ISPConfig.
I wanted Apache to serve not configured hosts with the same page.
I had: not configured hosts went to the first vhost after 000-default.conf. No matter I had *:80 catch all defined as the first vhost, instead of default Apache would load first defined site:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
</VirtualHost>
Although it's not completely valid configuration, what finally worked was adding an IP address-based virtualhost without ServerName/ServerAlias defined:
<VirtualHost 192.168.10.10:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost 192.168.10.10:443>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
SSLEngine On
...
</VirtualHost>
$ apachectl -S outputs IP address-based vhosts first, and * based vhosts later, and finally my default site is loaded before real site:
AH00548: NameVirtualHost has no effect and will be removed in the next release /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:50
192.168.10.10:80 is a NameVirtualHost
default server server.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:34)
port 80 namevhost server.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:34)
port 80 namevhost some-site.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/100-some-site.tld.vhost:7)
...
46.23.86.103:443 is a NameVirtualHost
default server server.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:38)
port 443 namevhost server.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:38)
port 443 namevhost some-site.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/100-some-site.tld.vhost:182)
...
*:80 is a NameVirtualHost
default server server.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
port 80 namevhost server.tld (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:1)
Word of notice - in a configuration like this, * vhosts won't work, so you need to apply IP addresses to all vhosts.

Answer 6

An alternative setting is to have the default virtual host at the end of the config file rather than the beginning. This way, all alternative virtual hosts will be checked before being matched by the default virtual host.
Example:
NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80
...
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName host1
DocumentRoot /someDir
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName host2
DocumentRoot /someOtherDir
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /defaultDir
</VirtualHost>

Answer 7

I had the same issue. I could fix it by adding the following in httpd.conf itself before the IncludeOptional directives for virtual hosts. Now localhost and the IP 192.168.x.x both points to the default test page of Apache. All other virtual hosts are working as expected.
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
</VirtualHost>
Reference: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/name-based.html#defaultvhost

Answer 8

Only supported and correct answer is:
<VirtualHost _default_:*>
DocumentRoot "/www/default"
</VirtualHost>
or my own version to return 403:
<VirtualHost _default_:*>
<Location />
Require all denied
</Location>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 9

The NameVirtualHost option would be a good option.

Answer 10

The solution is:
# apache2.conf
# #warning this is specific to apache 2.2
NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80
# ...
# aaaa.example.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName aaaa.example
DocumentRoot /defaultDir
</VirtualHost>
# host1.example.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName host1.example
DocumentRoot /someDir
</VirtualHost>
# host2.example.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName host2.example
DocumentRoot /someOtherDir
</VirtualHost>
In my case, to work, I created a VirtualHost (n.e. VirtualHost per CNAME) called aaaa.example since I have different files for different VirtualHosts and knowing that Apache reads them in alphabetical order.