How to Setup Name-Based Virtual Hosting for Multiple Domains in Apache

 

Nowadays, domian name is a cheap resource to make your web space cool. After you purchase a domain, most of the domain suppliers allow you to add sub-domains. Then, it is a good idea to provide sub-domains for your friends or your web sites with different styles. In Apache, you can serve multiple domains and sub-domains using one IP address. In this article, I would like to share my experience on setting up virtual host in Apache.

Scenario: We would like to set up name-based virtual hosting. We have two domains (domain1.com, domain2.com) and more subdomains. We want to serve them with one IP address. Our DocumentRoot path is docrootpath (you must replace with your real path).

 

Steps

• Remove the ServerName definition in the main section (the definitions outside of the VirtualHost section). If you see a definition like Servername www.domain1.com:80 outside of the VirtualHost section, put a ‘#’ character at the head of the line to hide it. We are going to configure all domains in the VirtualHost section. The ServerName definition in the main section may cause some domains not served correctly.
• Configure VirtualHost. Now we configure one virtual host for every domain/sub-domain that we want to access.

  NameVirtualHost  111.22.33.44:80
  #
  # If you type http://www.domain1.com, the documents  under /docrootpath/domain1 will be served
  <VirtualHost  111.22.33.44:80>
  ServerName www.domain1.com
  DocumentRoot  /docrootpath/domain1
  </VirtualHost>
  #
  # If you type  http://sub.domain1.com, the documents under /docrootpath/domain1/sub will be  served
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44:80>
  ServerName  sub.domain1.com
  DocumentRoot  /docrootpath/domain1/sub
  </VirtualHost>
  #
  # If you type  http://www.domain2.com, the documents under /docrootpath/domain2 will be  served
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44:80>
  ServerName  www.domain2.com
  DocumentRoot  /docrootpath/domain2
  </VirtualHost>
  #
  # If you type  http://sub.domain2.com, the documents under /docrootpath/domain2/sub will be  served
  <VirtualHost 111.22.33.44:80>
  ServerName  sub.domain2.com
  DocumentRoot  /docrootpath/domain2/sub
  </VirtualHost>
  Restart the Apache httpd server by typing $ sudo  apachectl graceful
  
  

A little more explanation: When Apache gets a request, it searches ServerName in the VirtualHost sections to match the requested domain name. If no VirtualHost matches the requested domain name, the first VirtualHost will be chosen to serve the request.

Source :http://techiecat.catsgarden.net

Thanks to http://techgurulive.com/2009/04/10/how-to-setup-name-based-virtual-hosting-for-multiple-domains-in-apache/