Multiple Domains On Webserver - Local DNS?

Freakish_05 · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:02

Evening all,

I've got an Apache/PHP/MySQL server running and everything is fine. However I'm trying to setup virtual hosting and its not quite working right.

Reading various guides on the net it appears as though I require a DNS server to reslove the domains correctly. Is this the case?

I have no experience at all with DNS servers, I've downloaded BIND-LE but I'm totally lost. If anyone could advise me on how to get a DNS server running I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers.

tolien · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:10

Freakish_05 said:
Reading various guides on the net it appears as though I require a DNS server to reslove the domains correctly. Is this the case?

Depends what you mean by "resolve the domains correctly".
You don't need to be running a local DNS server for working virtual hosts, if that's what you're after.

Freakish_05 · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:20

Might help if I posted my virtual hosts config file lol, so here it is:

Code:

NameVirtualHost *:80

<virtualhost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/"
    ServerAlias 192.168.2.4
</virtualhost>
<virtualhost *:80>
    ServerName moshweb.co.uk
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/moshweb/"
    ServerAlias www.moshweb.co.uk
</virtualhost>

However, from other terminals within the network, 192.168.2.4 opens the index file in C:/www/moshweb/, www.moshweb.co.uk opens the index file in C:/www and moshweb.co.uk doesn't work at all.
I should probably mention that C:/www will contain a site that will only be accessible by local terminals and C:/www/moshweb will contain a site that should be accessible from the world wide web. There are plans to add extra public sites as well.
TIA

tolien · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:35

Swap the IP address for an actual domain, or make c:\www the default. You can't do name based virtual hosting without using a name.
Have you put entries in the hosts file for moshweb.co.uk and www.moshweb.co.uk?

Freakish_05 · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:45

tolien said:
Have you put entries in the hosts file for moshweb.co.uk and www.moshweb.co.uk?

I assume that you mean the windows hosts file?
There's no need, I've disabled NAT Loopback on my router.
When I type www.moshweb.co.uk into my web browser, it opens the files in C:/www and 192.168.2.4 opens the files in C:/www/moshweb

tolien · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:51

Freakish_05 said:
I assume that you mean the windows hosts file?

If you're using Windows...

When I type www.moshweb.co.uk into my web browser, it opens the files in C:/www and 192.168.2.4 opens the files in C:/www/moshweb

What's the default ServerName in httpd.conf?

Freakish_05 · 17 Dec 2006 at 21:57

Code:

ServerName 192.168.2.4:80

I know its an IP address but the guidence in the config file (copied below) instructs to use an IP Address if the server doesn't have a DNS name.

Apache said:
# If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.

tolien · 17 Dec 2006 at 22:01

Are there any errors in error.log, and what happens if you comment out the first virtual host?
Might be worth restarting Apache too.

Freakish_05 · 17 Dec 2006 at 22:15

Code:

[crit] (22)Invalid argument: unable to replace stderr with error_log
[crit] (2)No such file or directory: unable to replace stderr with /dev/null

Those two lines appear a lot.
The only other lines that appear are these:

Code:

[notice] Apache/2.2.3 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8d mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.2.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[notice] Server built: Sep 30 2006 21:24:06
[notice] Parent: Created child process -993895
[notice] Child -993895: Child process is running
[notice] Child -993895: Acquired the start mutex.
[notice] Child -993895: Starting 250 worker threads.
[notice] Child -993895: Listening on port 443.
[notice] Child -993895: Listening on port 80.

When I comment out the first virtual host www.moshweb.co.uk still opens the files in C:/www, moshweb.co.uk still doesn't work and as probably anticipated 192.168.2.4 doesn't work either.
At least we know how to stop things from working

tolien · 17 Dec 2006 at 22:26

The two lines sound like an error in the config - presumably there's a /dev/null in it?

In what way does moshweb.co.uk not work?

If you comment out the second one, localhost and the IP should give you c:\www. Might be worth trying duplicating the second entry and making the ServerName www.... and removing the ServerAlias.

Freakish_05 · 18 Dec 2006 at 16:53

I had a play about with ye olde vhost config file and it now looks like this:

Code:

NameVirtualHost 192.168.2.4

<virtualhost _default_>
</virtualhost>
<virtualhost 192.168.2.4>
    ServerName moshweb.co.uk
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/moshweb/"
</virtualhost>
<virtualhost 192.168.2.4>
    ServerName www.moshweb.co.uk
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/moshweb/"
</virtualhost>
<virtualhost 192.168.2.4>
    ServerName freakish.dyndns.tv
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/freakish/"
</virtualhost>
<virtualhost 192.168.2.4>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/"
</virtualhost>
<virtualhost 192.168.2.4>
    ServerName 192.168.2.4
    DocumentRoot "C:/www/"
</virtualhost>

This seems to work for people on the 'outside' of my network i.e. www.moshweb.co.uk and moshweb.co.uk both display pages in the C:/www/moshweb/ folder and freakish.dyndns.tv display pages in the C:/www/freakish folder.
However, when I type the URL's in to my web browser (internal network) the only pages that open are in the C:/www/moshweb folder? Does anyone have any idea as to how I can fix this? << NM, Fixed

My sincere thanks to tolien for all of his help and patience. Couldn't have got this far without you mate! You'll get a special mention on my new site!