Creating HTTP and HTTPs folders??

Question

Creating HTTP and HTTPs folders??

I'm sure this an incredibly obvious thing but I'm in the process of creating a secure directory on my webserver using SSL. The first step before I even begin configuring the SSL certificates in Server Admin is just creating a Https folder in the webserver.

I would like to know whether or not I actually have to create an HTTPS folder on the webserver (such as library/webserver/(documents??)/https/)? Or does Server Admin just redirect traffic automatically and I can just continue adding files and folders to the pre-existing Documents folder without making an HTTP and HTTPS folder?

Any help appreciated...

Thanks

XServe, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

59,385 points

Jul 5, 2006 12:19 PM in response to The Other Tim Schwartz

There is no automatic relationship between a HTTP and a HTTPS site running on the same machine. Server Admin is not going to do anything with regards to redirects, etc.

That said, it's entirely possible to create two sites (one HTTP and one HTTPS) that use the same document root. That way you don't need to create a whole separate directory for your content unless you want to serve different files under HTTP than HTTPS. If you do want the sites to be different you can create a new directory, but it's then entirely up to you to make sure your links point to the correct URL (either http:// or https://).

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Answer 2

Jul 5, 2006 6:21 PM in response to Camelot

So if I want to create two sites within the same document root, where should I put the Http and Https folders? Should I replace the existing 'Documents' folder with one called Http and one called Https?

In other words, can I do this:

library/webserver/http/www.example.com

library/webserver/https/www.example2.com

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Answer 3

Camelot

Level 9

59,385 points

Jul 8, 2006 1:24 AM in response to The Other Tim Schwartz

>So if I want to create two sites within the same document root, where should I put the Http and Https folders? Should I replace the existing 'Documents' folder with one called Http and one called Https?

Firstly, you can put them wherever you want.
Apple suggest /Library/WebServer/Documents but it can just as easily be /var/httpddocs, or even /fred if you so desire.

Secondly, if you want both http and https sites to serve the same content, you don't need two directories. You only need one - you just tell Apache (via server admin) that both sites are served from the same directory.

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