Apache name-based vhost (ServerAlias)

Question

I'm currently looking at the apache documentation regarding virtual host. It gives an example on this page: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/vhosts/name-based.html

The example they show is:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.domain.tld
ServerAlias domain.tld *.domain.tld
DocumentRoot /www/domain
</VirtualHost>

Wouldn't it work also with this type of config?:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName *.domain.tld
DocumentRoot /www/domain
</VirtualHost>

Or this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName domain.tld
ServerAlias *.domain.tld
DocumentRoot /www/domain
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

You can't use wildcards to specify ServerName as it has to be a FQDN. Your first example with ServerName *.domain.tld will not work as this is not a FQDN. Your second example will work and is quite a common configuration.

One thing to note is that apache processes these directives from top to bottom in the order they are defined and will act upon the first match.

Answer 2

Also check your NameVirtualHost directive & documentation [usually in a listen.conf for apache 2.2]

I believe for your vhosts it should be set to:

NameVirtualHost *:80

But double check that, http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#namevirtualhost