Virtual Hosts Issues

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Level 1

30 points

Virtual Hosts Issues

I have a fresh install of Mac OS X 10.4 Server, and am having some problems setting up virtual hosts. I have 2 sites I'd like to host. Both are configured under the Sites tab of Web services. Both are pointing to different web folders. Both are using the same IP (the only IP this server has), and both are using port 80.

Regardless of which site I try to access, I always get the first sites default page. I've already checked to make sure it's not a caching issue, and I have turned on the vhost aliasmodule.

I've read through some old posts on this subject, but haven't found a solution that works yet. Any one know how to resolve this? Thanks!

Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Dec 21, 2006 7:30 PM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Dec 22, 2006 1:04 AM in response to Tom Ropers

If you have multiple sites configured on the same IP address and port, then the hostname in the http request has to match the name of the site.

This means that if you've setup your second site as 'someother.com', then that's the URL you have to request: http://someother.com/
If you use any other hostname (e.g. http://www.someother.com/ ) it won't work since the name doesn't match.

If the name doesn't match then the default site will be used.

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Answer 2

Tom Ropers Author

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30 points

Dec 22, 2006 4:44 AM in response to Camelot

I know that. I am trying to access the second site via it's correct name, not adding or dropping any portion of it. That's why this is weird- I've set up virtual hosts before on non-Mac OS X servers, but it just doesn't seem to work here...

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Answer 3

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Dec 22, 2006 11:14 AM in response to Tom Ropers

Try removing the IP address from the site configuration. Since you only have one IP address on the box it isn't necessary. As long as the sites have different names you should be OK.

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Answer 4

Tom Ropers Author

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30 points

Dec 22, 2006 11:41 AM in response to Camelot

I've tried that. In fact, when I first set the two sites up, I left both of them set with "Any" IP. That didn't work, so I tried setting each to the IP of the server. I've also tried having the first site have the server's IP, and the 2nd site to "Any" IP. All no luck.

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Answer 5

Dec 23, 2006 4:08 PM in response to Tom Ropers

Somewhere in that dopey GUI, there's a (I think) checkbox that's supposed to be the default allowing for name based virtual hosting. Perhaps it got unchecked/selected?

The money line in httpd.conf is NameVirtualHost for name based virtual hosting.

Just for fun, you may want to run:

sudo apachectl configtest

and check /var/log/httpd/error_log

Those should point you to the problem.

Roger

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Answer 6

Tom Ropers Author

Level 1

30 points

Dec 24, 2006 12:41 AM in response to Community User

I did make sure to enable the virtual host module. I think that's what you're talking about with a checkbox in the GUI, anyway.

I ran that test, and the results didn't show any errors- just a number of warnings that look like:

[Thu Dec 21 21:27:21 2006] [warn] long lost child come home! (pid 552)

They all had different timestamps and different pid's. From the timestamps, it would appear that these are all from when I was testing the config trying to get it to work a few days ago.

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Answer 7

Dec 24, 2006 3:43 PM in response to Tom Ropers

The virtual_host module just introduces the concept of virtual hosts to the core Apache server. It doesn't do anything towards selecting name based or IP based virtual hosting.

TBH, I know that name based virtual hosting is the default setup in Apple's implementation. The times that I've tried to use the stupid GUI, all it's done is anger me so I just edit the files by hand. I'm not really familiar with the GUI.

Roger

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Answer 8

Dec 28, 2006 9:37 AM in response to Tom Ropers

Sometimes working late at night, I forget to check the "Active" box next to the site's name.

Try this. Deactivate the first site that keeps on appearing and Activate the other site that doesn't work for you. Restart the Web service and see if you can now view the second site. If not, you've got some config problems within the second site.

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Answer 9

Svenkin

Level 1

0 points

Jan 4, 2007 12:45 PM in response to Tom Ropers

Hi Tom,

I was having the same problem, I set both ip addresses to "wildcards" or to "any" in the drop-down menu box. This solved the problem for me.

Warren

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Answer 10

Tom Ropers Author

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30 points

Jan 10, 2007 8:01 PM in response to Celia Wessen

I tried deactivating the first site, and now the other site is loaded regardless of which URL I use. So it appears that the second site is configured fine, just the virtual hosts don't seem to want to work.

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Answer 11

Tom Ropers Author

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30 points

Jan 10, 2007 8:03 PM in response to Tom Ropers

Setting both sites to use "Any" didn't change a thing- only the first site loads regardless of which URL I use.

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Answer 12

Jan 11, 2007 3:24 AM in response to Tom Ropers

Are you comfortable with pico? Using the Terminal.app, open the file /etc/httpd/sites/virtualhostglobal.conf.

You should see a line similar to:
Name Virtualhost 123.123.123.123:80

with your IP address.

Make sure that this line is not commented out with the "#" sign.

If you do not have this file, don't worry, it's not hard to recreate.

Extended Keyboard Server Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 13

Tom Ropers Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 12, 2007 4:50 AM in response to Celia Wessen

That file exists, but the entry has an asterisk instead of the local machine IP right now. I'm assuming that if I change this is the GUI it would change in this file.

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Answer 14

Tom Ropers Author

Level 1

30 points

Jan 14, 2007 8:59 AM in response to Tom Ropers

Ha!
I finally figured it out.

In httpd.conf, at the end of the file there's a section stating to use all of the .conf files in the /etc/httpd/sites directory. Seemingly, Mac OS X Server sets up every site as a virtual host, and creates a .conf file for each site in this directory. The issue ended up being that the directive in http.conf was:

Include "/etc/httpd/sites/*.conf"

I removed the quotes and both of my virtual hosts are working now.

I don't know if this is a bug, or if there's supposed to be some other way to make this work.

Thanks for the help from all of you!

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Answer 15

Apex81

Level 1

0 points

Mar 6, 2007 4:15 PM in response to Community User

Hey, I'm having the same problem that was noted above, but when i do the apachectl configtest i get this output(1.1.1.1 was used to hide my ip):

[Tue Mar 6 19:13:16 2007] [warn] default VirtualHost overlap on port 16080, the first has precedence
[Tue Mar 6 19:13:16 2007] [warn] default VirtualHost overlap on port 16080, the first has precedence
[Tue Mar 6 19:13:16 2007] [warn] NameVirtualHost 1.1.1.1:16080 has no VirtualHosts

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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