## Introduction
Don't drop virtual sites into /var/www/html. You could end up with a situation where your virtual site is accessible via the default web site AND your virtual definition. It's just better to put your virtual sites into their own folders.
## Virtual Web Sites
Virtual Web Sites are the mechanism that allows you to host more than one domain on a single Apache web server. For example, using virtual sites I can host [http://www.kenschae.com](http://www.kenschae.com/) in one folder and [http://www.mygreatsite.com](http://www.mygreatsite.com/) in another folder. This logic applies to hosting multiple hosts under a single domain. For example, I can host [http://intranet.kenschae.com](http://intranet.kenschae.com/) in one folder and [http://blog.kenschae.com](http://blog.kenschae.com/) in another. Finally, you can use the same approach to host unregistered domains that are only visible on your local network (if you have a DNS server). For example, I can host [http://dev.internal.com](http://dev.internal.com/) in one folder and [http://intranet.internal.com](http://intranet.internal.com/) in another and [http://blog.fakedomain.com](http://blog.fakedomain.com/) in yet another.
For consistency and maintenance, you should have some kind of naming scheme or tracker to keep it all straight.
## Setup a virtual web site
The example below will create a new virtual web site at site.local when creating your own virtual site replace the references for site.local to your host.domain combination.
Enter the following commands in the terminal:
```
# create the folder to host the virtual site
$ cd /var/www
$ sudo mkdir /var/www/site.local
# give Apache access to the files and folders in the virtual site
$ sudo chgrp -R www-data /var/www/site.local
$ sudo find /var/www/site.local -type d -exec chmod g+rx {} +
$ sudo find /var/www/site.local -type f -exec chmod g+r {} +
# give your owner read/write permissions to the files and folders
# replace the word USERNAME with your user account name.
$ sudo chown -R USERNAME /var/www/site.local
$ sudo find /var/www/site.local -type d -exec chmod u+rwx {} +
$ sudo find /var/www/site.local -type f -exec chmod u+rw {} +
# all new files will be created with www-data as the access user [optional]
$ sudo find /var/www/site.local -type d -exec chmod g+s {} +
# prevent other users from seeing the data in the files and folders [optional]
$ sudo chmod -R o-rwx /var/www/site.local
# create a test web page for the site $ cd /var/www/site.local/public_html
$ sudo nano index.html
```
In the nano editor add the following code
` SiteSite
`
Press Ctrl+X then Y to save the web page.
Configure Apache to use the new site
Enter the following commands in the terminal:
$ cd /etc/apache2/sites-available $ sudo cp 000-default.config site.local.conf $ sudo nano site.local.conf
In the nano editor modify the config file to:
# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless. # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly. ServerName [s](https://www.example.com/)ite.local ServerAlias [www.site.local](http://www.site.local/) ServerAdmin [webmaster@site.local](mailto:webmaster@site.local) DocumentRoot /var/www/site.local # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn, # error, crit, alert, emerg. # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular # modules, e.g. #LogLevel info ssl:warn ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site.local-error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/site.local-access.log combined # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf". #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
Press Ctrl+X then Y to save the config file.
Enter the following commands in the terminal:
$ sudo a2ensite site.local $ sudo apachectl configtest $ sudo systemctl restart apache2