How to Configure Apache Virtual Hosts for Multiple Sites

How to Configure Apache Virtual Hosts for Multiple Sites

Apache Virtual Hosts allow you to run multiple websites on a single Breeze server, each with its own domain name, document root, and configuration. This is one of the most fundamental Apache features and is essential for hosting more than one site on a single IP address.

Prerequisites

• Apache installed on your Breeze instance (sudo apt install apache2)
• DNS A records for each domain pointing to your server IP
• Root or sudo access

Step 1: Create Directory Structure

Set up separate document roots for each site:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site1.com/public_html
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site2.com/public_html
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/site1.com
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/site2.com

Create a test page for each site:

echo "<h1>Welcome to Site 1</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/site1.com/public_html/index.html
echo "<h1>Welcome to Site 2</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/site2.com/public_html/index.html

Step 2: Create Virtual Host Configuration Files

Apache on Debian/Ubuntu stores virtual host configs in /etc/apache2/sites-available/. Create a config for the first site:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.com.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName site1.com
    ServerAlias www.site1.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/site1.com/public_html

    <Directory /var/www/site1.com/public_html>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site1-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site1-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Create the second site configuration:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site2.com.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName site2.com
    ServerAlias www.site2.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/site2.com/public_html

    <Directory /var/www/site2.com/public_html>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site2-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site2-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Step 3: Enable the Sites

sudo a2ensite site1.com.conf
sudo a2ensite site2.com.conf
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 4: Add SSL with Let's Encrypt

Install Certbot and obtain certificates for each site:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d site1.com -d www.site1.com
sudo certbot --apache -d site2.com -d www.site2.com

Certbot automatically creates the SSL virtual host configs and sets up automatic renewal.

Advanced Configuration Options

You can enhance your virtual hosts with additional directives:

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName site1.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/site1.com/public_html

    # Enable HTTP/2
    Protocols h2 h2c http/1.1

    # Security headers
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
    Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"

    # PHP-FPM integration
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    </FilesMatch>

    # Logging
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site1-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site1-access.log combined

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/site1.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/site1.com/privkey.pem
</VirtualHost>

Troubleshooting

• All domains show the same site — check that ServerName matches the domain exactly and run apache2ctl -S to list active virtual hosts
• Forbidden errors — verify Require all granted is set in the Directory block and file permissions are correct
• Modules not loaded — enable required modules with a2enmod rewrite ssl headers proxy_fcgi
• Config syntax errors — always run apache2ctl configtest before reloading