Hosting multiple domain names with one ip: DNS/apache2 issue

Question

I am trying to do something fairly simple. We have one dedicated server at ip [our server ip]

We have purchased several domain names.

I would like to host the sites under one ip.

I set up the zone file using the interface the company provides. Here is how it looks:

In apache2, running on Ubuntu 10.04, I go to /etc/apache2/sites-available/ and create a file named [domain name].com

The contents of this file are:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName [domain name].com
    DocumentRoot /var/www
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

I run the command sudo a2ensite [domain name].com and restart the server. It doesn't work.

I changed the DNS records some 28 hours ago. What could be the issue?

What is working is the 'normal' site. I checked the DNS file and all the IN A types are pointing to the server ip.

What is different are the name servers; the working site has name servers from the site we bought the domains. The other one has name servers from a different place.

What could be wrong here?

Thanks, Dane

Answer 1

First, if you are unsure that the DNS records have been updated try to ping www.yourdomain.com and see if the packets are being sent to the correct server IP address.

Then check that Apache is listening netstat -l -n | grep ":80" and that your firewall has port 80 open iptables -L -n | grep "dpt:80".

The contents of /var/www is normally used/reserved for the default site in apache2/sites-available/. When running virtual sites on a box I create a different directory for each /var/www/site1 /var/www/site2 etc... and set them as the DocumentRoot which is matched by the unique ServerName (domain name) in each config file under sites-available. This will prevent any confusion for Apache and also secure each site from other users (if providing FTP access per site).

Answer 2

your document root DocumentRoot /var/www should have seperate directories for each of the domains.
Heres an example of how I do my domain and sub domain

<VirtualHost *:80>
                ServerName www.mydomain.com
                ServerAlias mydomain.com
                ServerAdmin tech@mydomain.com
                DocumentRoot "/var/www/mydomain.com"
                <Directory /var/www/mydomain.com/admin>
                                AllowOverride All
                                Allow from all
                </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
                ServerName www.dev.mydomain.com
                ServerAlias dev.mydomain.com
                ServerAdmin tech@mydomain.com
                DocumentRoot "/var/www/dev.mydomain.com"
                <Directory /var/www/dev.mydomain.com>
                                AllowOverride All
                                Allow from all
                </Directory>
</VirtualHost>