How to Install Apache on CentOS 7

Install Apache on CentOS 7

Apache is the most popular and most used HTTP web server in the world. Apache is the opensource, cross-platform, powerful, stable, reliable and free web server providing features which can be extended by the wide variety of modules. It is also used as a reverse proxy server in different scenarios. In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to install Apache on CentOS 7.

Prerequisites

Before you start to install Apache on CentOS 7. You must use the credentials of user with sudo privileges.

Install Apache

Apache is already available in default software repositories. So in this tutorial, we will install Apache by using yum package manager.

In CentOS based system Apache service is called httpd. To install httpd package run below command.

sudo yum install httpd

After completion of the above command, Apache is installed on your system. Run the following command to check apache service status.

sudo systemctl status httpd

The output should look like:

● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2018-04-26 07:13:07 UTC; 11s ago
     Docs: man:httpd(8)
           man:apachectl(8)
 Main PID: 3049 (httpd)
   Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic:   0 B/sec"
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ├─3049 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─3050 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─3051 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─3052 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─3053 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           └─3054 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

Adjust the Firewall

Now to open HTTP and HTTPS ports for Apache run following command:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https

sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Verify Apache Installation

Open your favorite browser and open below URL to verify Apache installation.

http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS_OR_DOMAIN_NAME/

The output should be:

If you get above output screen which contains basic information about Apache configuration, then you have successfully verified Apache installation on CentOS.

Manage Apache Process

Following are some basic commands to manage Apache processes.

Restart apache web server type following command:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Stop web server type following command:

sudo systemctl stop httpd

To start web server type following command:

sudo systemctl start httpd

Reload configuration file typing following command:

sudo systemctl reload httpd

Apache service will start after boot to disable this run below command:

sudo systemctl disable httpd

To enable Apache service to start after boot run:

sudo systemctl enable httpd

Apache important default files

Following are the Apache important files and directories:

• Apache main configuration file is located at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
• Apache main configuration files directory: /etc/httpd/
• Ports where apache can listen are defined in /etc/httpd/ports.conf
• Virtual Host files stored at /etc/httpd/conf.d directory.
• Error log file located at /var/log/httpd/error.log
• Access log file located at /var/log/httpd/access.log
• Document root for web files /var/www/html/

Conclusion

You have successfully learned how to install Apache on CentOS 7. If you have any queries please don’t forget to comment out.