How to Install and Configure Apache on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

    RahulBy 3 Mins ReadUpdated:

    This tutorial will help you to install and secure Apache web server on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux operating system.

    Prerequsities

    • SSH access to Ubuntu 18.04
    • SUDO privilege

    Install Apache on Ubuntu 18.04

    First of all, Login to your Ubuntu 18.04 system via SSH and update the Apt cache. Then install Apache2 HTTP server packages as following:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

    To install most latest version of Apache use the following PPA.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/apache2
sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

    Manage Apache Service

    Apache service is managed with systemctl command line. After installation, use the following command to check the status of Apache service.

    sudo systemctl status apache2.service

    Apache Service Status Ubuntu

    Here is the other commands to stop, start or restart Apache service via command line.

    sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

    Test Apache Setup

    Use the following command to view the installed Apache version on your Ubuntu 18.04 Linux system.

    apache2 -v

Server version: Apache/2.4.41 (Ubuntu)
Server built:   2019-10-15T19:53:42

    Now access your Apache server using the server’s IP address or a domain pointed to the server IP. You will see a default Apache page on web browser. It means Apache web server has successfully installed on your Ubuntu 18.04 system.

    Install Apache2 on Ubuntu 18.04

    Create New VirtualHost

    Let’s create the first virtual host on your Apache server. For the tutorial, we are using sample domain “example.com”. Here we will create a Virtual host for example.com on port 80.

    Create a directory and create a sample index file in a directory:

    sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com
sudo echo "Welcome" > /var/www/example.com/index.html

    Then create Virtualhost configuration file and edit in editor:

    sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

    Add the following content in configuration file. You may change the domain name as per your domain.

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    <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin admin@example.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
        ServerName example.com
        ServerAlias www.example.com
        <Directory /var/www/example.com>
               #Allowoverride all    ###Uncomment if required
        </Directory>
     
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    Save the Virtualhost configuration file, then enable Virtualhost and reload the Apache service using the following commands:

    sudo a2ensite example.com
sudo systemctl reload apache2.service

    Configure SSL VirtualHost

    You can skip this step if you don’t need SSL. But the security is always the primary concert for any website.

    The default Apache https listen on port 443. Make sure no other services using the same port. Now, you need to enable Apache ssl module, which is disabled by default.

    sudo a2enmod ssl

    For the tutorial, I have followed these instructions to generate a self signed SSL certificate for our domain.

    Then create a new Virtual host file and edit it:

    sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com_ssl.conf

    with the following content:

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    <VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerAdmin admin@example.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
        ServerName example.com
        ServerAlias www.example.com
        <Directory /var/www/example.com>
               #Allowoverride all    ###Uncomment if required
        </Directory>
     
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/example.com.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/example.com.key
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_ssl-error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_ssl-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    Here is three terms used to configure SSL virtualhost:

    • SSLEngine – Set this to “on”
    • SSLCertificateFile – Set the path of your SSL certificate
    • SSLCertificateKeyFile – This is the private key files used to generate SSL certificate

    After that enable the Virtualhost and reload the Apache service using the following commands:

    sudo a2ensite example.com_ssl
sudo systemctl reload apache2.service

    Secure Apache Server

    Edit the Apache security configuration file

    sudo vim /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/security.conf

    Here is the multiple security related settings. Add or Update the following settings. We are not going in detailed discriptions about it but these settings are very useful for the production servers.

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    ServerTokens Prod
    ServerSignature Off
    TraceEnable Off
    Header always append X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
    Header always set X-XSS-Protection: "1; mode=block"
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options: "nosniff"
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
    Header always edit Set-Cookie ^(.*)$ $1;HttpOnly;Secure

    Now edit SSL configuration file. Here you can set the server wide SSL protocol and SSLCipherSuite to use secure Cipers to serve your website.

    sudo vim /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ssl.conf

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    SSLProtocol -all +TLSv1.2
    SSLCipherSuite HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5

    After making changes restart the Apache service to apply new configuration.

    sudo systemctl reload apache2.service

    Conclusion

    All done, You have installed and secured Apache server on your Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Linux system.

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