url without www doesn't work but set up properly?

Question

typing www.server.com.au in a web browser works fine I want to be able to access the web by entering server.com.au too

• A name record exists only for www.server.com.au
• CNAME for both and A name for server.com.au don't exist

---

my /etc/apache2/listen.conf contains lines

NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName server.com.au
    ServerAlias server.com.au 
    DocumentRoot /srv/www/htdocs/www.server.com.au/www
</VirtualHost>

and list of virtual servers gives me

[root][saas1 /srv/www/htdocs/www.server.com.au/www] httpd2 -S
VirtualHost configuration:
wildcard NameVirtualHosts and _default_ servers:
*:80                   is a NameVirtualHost
     default server server.com.au (/etc/apache2/listen.conf:47)
     port 80 namevhost server.com.au (/etc/apache2/listen.conf:47)

but http://server.com.au is not accessible

I restart the server by httpd2 -k restart

Answer 1

If you want both "server.com.au" and "www.server.com.au" to work,, then both of those hosts need to have DNS records setup.

You can either:

• give both of them an A record, pointing at the same IP address

• give server.com.au an A record, pointing at the IP address of your server, and give www.server.com.au a CNAME, pointing at server.com.au.

I suspect the first approach is easier, because you already have an A record setup for www.server.com.au.

As I suggested in a comment, you really don't want to use a CNAME on the "server.com.au" record. This violates the spec, and while it may look like it works, can do unpredictable things. Far better to just stay away from putting a CNAME on "server.com.au" entirely.

Once you've got that working, you'll need to make sure apache knows about both names - which has already been covered by the discussion around ServerAlias and ServerName directives.

Answer 2

It should be ServerAlias www.server.com.au instead of ServerAlias server.com.au was that a typo ?

If you do not want the www then just delete ServerAlias server.com.au all you gona need is the ServerName

Answer 3

   ServerName www.server.com.au
   ServerAlias   server.com.au
   ServerAlias *.server.com.au

and you can also create a WildCard 'A' record it will make anything.server.com.au work.

Answer 4

You will need to make sure that you have valid DNS A record set for server.com.au and either an A or CNAME for www.server.com.au, depending on your needs. This is the only way that your customers' browsers will be able to know which server to contact to access your website.