How to Install Apache on Debian 9

Install Apache on Debian 9

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 Debian 9.

Prerequisites

Before you start to install Apache on Debian 9. You must have the root user account credentials of your system.

Install Apache

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

First, update the apt package manager index by typing the following command:

sudo apt update

In Debian based system Apache service is called apache2. To install apache2 package run below command.

sudo apt install apache2

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

sudo systemctl status apache2

The output should look like:

● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           `-apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-02-06 10:56:11 PDT; 2min 41s ago
 Main PID: 3143 (apache2)
    Tasks: 55 (limit: 2321)
   CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
           |-3143 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           |-3144 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           `-3145 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Adjust the Firewall

After installing Apache it is necessary to modify UFW firewall rules to open HTTP and HTTPS ports assuming you have configured UFW firewall already.

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

sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'

To verify changes run following command:

sudo ufw status

The output should look like:

Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
22/tcp                     ALLOW       Anywhere
Apache Full                ALLOW       Anywhere
22/tcp (v6)                ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
Apache Full (v6)           ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

As you can check in above output access to Apache is allowed.

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 Debian.

Manage Apache Process

Following are some basic commands to manage Apache processes.

Restart apache web server type following command:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Stop web server type following command:

sudo systemctl stop apache2

To start web server type following command:

sudo systemctl start apache2

Reload configuration file typing following command:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

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

sudo systemctl disable apache2

To enable Apache service to start after boot run:

sudo systemctl enable apache2

Apache important default files

Following are the Apache important files and directories:

• Apache main configuration file is located at /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
• Apache main configuration files directory: /etc/apache2/
• Ports where apache can listen are defined in /etc/apache2/ports.conf
• Virtual Host files stored at /etc/apache2/sites-available and to activate each file should be linked to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory
• Error log file located at /var/log/apache/error.log
• Access log file located at /var/log/apache/access.log
• Document root for web files /var/www/html/

Conclusion

You have successfully learned how to install Apache on Debian 9. If you have any queries please don’t forget to comment out.