Web Server Full LAMP Stack With Virtual Hosts
If you enabled SSH in the optional section you can now configure your Raspberry Pi remotely, using an SSH client: Putty is a commonly used client for windows. MacOS and Linux have built-in clients
By configuring virtual hosts you can host multiple independent websites on the same server
If you are planning to use a Dynamic DNS provided hostname. It is recommended to go through our Dynamic DNS Setup before continuing
The instructions below assume a basic knowledge of the vi text editor. It's use can be substituted by the editor of your choice
sudo apt-get install apache2 apache2-utils
By default, Apache listens on all IP addresses available to it and directs all requests to the primary website. To direct requests for your domain to the correct site we will configure it as a virtual host. For all steps below, replace lighting.local with your domain name.
Create a copy of the default Apache configuration file for your site:
sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/lighting.local.conf
Edit the new lighting.local.conf configuration file:
- Uncomment ServerName and replace lighting.local with your site’s IP or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).
- Enter the document root path and log directories as shown below
- Add a Directory block before <VirtualHost>:
sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/lighting.local.conf
Example:
<Directory /var/www/html/lighting.local/public_html>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName lighting.local
ServerAlias www.lighting.local
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/lighting.local/public_html
ErrorLog /var/www/html/lighting.local/logs/error.log
CustomLog /var/www/html/lighting.local/logs/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
The file example above has all comment sections removed for brevity; you may keep or remove the commented areas as you see fit. The ServerAlias directive allows you to include multiple domain names or subdomains for a single host. The example above allows visitors to use lighting.local or www.lighting.local to navigate to this virtual host.
Create the directories referenced above:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/lighting.local/{public_html,logs}
Make sure that you do not put space after the comma between public_html and logs because it will create a folder named {public_html, and will cause an error when you reload Apache.
Change Permissions on the html directory so the pi user ID has read/write/execute permissions and the Apache server has read/execute.
sudo chmod 755 -R /var/www/html
sudo chown -R pi:www-data /var/www
sudo chmod u+rxw,g+rx-w,o-rwx /var/www
Link your virtual host file from the sites-available directory to the sites-enabled directory:
sudo a2ensite lighting.local.conf
Disable the default virtual host to minimize security risks:
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
Edit apache.conf to remove excessively informative server headers:
sudo vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
To turn off the excessive header info, add the lines below to the end of the file.
ServerSignature Off
ServerTokens Prod
Restart Apache:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Maria-DB AKA MySQL is not needed for this project but is useful if you want to use this server for other things
sudo apt install mysql-server
Secure the Database
sudo mysql_secure_installation
- Hit enter when prompted for the password, as there is no default root password.
- Hit enter to set a new password
- Type the new password, hit enter
- Re-type the password, hit enter
- Hit enter for each of the remaining prompts
Create a Database
Log into MySQL:
sudo mysql -u root
Create a database and a user with permissions for it:
In this example, the database is called webdata, the user: webuser, and password: password:
CREATE DATABASE webdata;
GRANT ALL ON webdata.* TO 'webuser' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
sudo apt-get install php libapache2-mod-php php7.0-curl php-xml php-pear php7.0-mysql php7.0-cgi
Restart Apache to recognize the PHP installation
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
You should now have a fully functioning webserver capable of running the TCPLightingWebInterface
The project files should be placed in /var/www/html/lighting.local/public_html
You are now ready to move on to Dynamic DNS Setup
