Apache Web Server Centos 7

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In our project, the web server will be running on Apache. Of course Nginx is another great web server, but here, I’ll use Apache v2.4. If you’d like the Nginx version of this article, please click here.

Apache web server on centos 7

The site runs on PHPas well and so, we’ll be installing php7.0 to facilitate the properworking of the website.

Prerequisites

Access HDFS HADOOP using APACHE Web Server, Linux CentOS. Interpreting Netstat output. Apache running on CentOS in VirtualBox is not accessible from host machine. How can i access apache web pages from outside VMWare ESXi virtual Machine. Can't access server running CentOS 6.3. Apache is one of most used free and open source web server software which is used to run web applications, around 40% websites uses Apache web server. What is Apache Virtual Host Apache virtual host is used to run more than one website on Single Instance/Server/Virtual Machine using virtual host/vhost configuration file.

  • A VPS with Centos 7 installed
  • Root access to the server

What do we want?

We want to set up aserver so as it should run website on Apache. The site should alsorun on SSL.

Procedure

1. Login to yourserver as root

2. Install Apacheweb server and mod_ssl

[[email protected]~]# yum install -y httpd mod_ssl

3. Start and enableApache

[[email protected]~]# systemctl start httpd

[[email protected]~]# systemctl enable httpd

4. Install php 7.0as below:

  • Install epel repository and remi repository

[[email protected] ~]# yum install epel-release -y

[[email protected] ~]# yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm

  • Install yum-utils. We need it for the yum-config-manager package [[email protected] ~]# yum install yum-utils -y
  • Enable remi repository for installing php7.0. If you would like to install php 7.1 or 7.2, replace the 70 in the command above with 71 or 72 respectively.

[[email protected] ~]# yum-config-manager --enable remi-php70

  • Run the command below to install php 7.0 with some necessary modules

[[email protected] ~]# yum install php php-mcrypt php-cli php-gd php-curl php-mysql php-mysqli php-ldap php-zip php-fileinfo

  • You can then check if your php version has been installed [[email protected] ~]# php –version

5. Create a vhost

We now need todefine a vhost file that will have the Apache directives for our siteeg Document root.

Navigate to/etc/httpd/conf.d folder and create a file calledexample.co.ke.conf. Copy the following in the file and save.

<VirtualHost*:80>

DocumentRoot/home/example/public_html

ServerName example.co.ke

ServerAlias www.example.co.ke

</VirtualHost>

From the abovevhost, our document root is located in /home/example/public_html. This is a path we created so as to act as Document root insteadof the normal /var/www/html folder. You may specify another locationas you wish but make sure thepermissions are okay for access. Rule of thumb is: All directoriesshould be 0755 while all files should be 0644

Nowrestart Apapche

[[email protected]~]# systemctlrestart httpd

6. Upload content toyour root folder. You may use any method available for you includingFileZilla(needs FTP installed ) or a nice solid command such as scpwhich uses SSH to transfer files

Your website shouldnow be well accessible online via a browser. To complete the setup,however, we need to install SSL certificate for the domain. It’s agood habit to install SSL for your site, the world is moving to a100% encrypted internet.

7. Install SSL

  • Generate CSR for your domain. Click here to learn how to do this from the command line.
  • Obtain your SSL certificate from preferred vendor using the CSR you generated and upload them to a folder on your server. I recommend you save them in the same folder as the CSR and Key the step above
  • On your web server access the Apache vhost configuration file. Create another vhost section and copy lines in step (5) then change *:80 to *:443. Finally add the following code just before </Virtual Host> line

SSLEngineon

SSLCertificateFile/path/to/your_domain_name.crt

SSLCertificateKeyFile/path/to/your_private.key

SSLCertificateChainFile/path/to/CA.crt

Replace the respective paths to the files with your actual ones.

Apache

Now,ifyou restartApache andfailto include the virtual host listening to port 80atthis pointthentryaccessing the site, you willget a Error 400: Bad Requesterror. Your webserver is unable to service http request as the vhostwe have definedforceshttps via port 443. And of course, it’ll be unimaginableto ask visitors to precedehttps on your domain name every time they’reaccessing.Toallow http requests to be served as well, you need to include thevirtual host for port 80. Thusyour file in after the whole process should look like this:

<VirtualHost *:443>

DocumentRoot/home/example/public_html

ServerNameexample.co.ke

ServerAliaswww.example.co.ke

SSLEngine on

SSLCertificateFile/home/example/certs/example.co.ke.cer

SSLCertificateKeyFile/home/example/certs/example.co.ke.key

SSLCertificateChainFile/home/example/certs/example.co.ke.ca

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80 >

Web

DocumentRoot/home/example/public_html

ServerNameexample.co.ke

ServerAliaswww.example.co.ke

</VirtualHost>

Alternatively, you can redirect all traffic tohttps by using the configuration file below instead:

<VirtualHost *:443>

DocumentRoot/home/example/public_html

ServerNameexample.co.ke

ServerAliaswww.example.co.ke

SSLEngineon

SSLCertificateFile/home/example/certs/example.co.ke.cer

SSLCertificateKeyFile/home/example/certs/example.co.ke.key

SSLCertificateChainFile/home/example/certs/example.co.ke.ca

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost*:80>

DocumentRoot/home/example/public_html

ServerNameexample.co.ke

ServerAliaswww.example.co.ke

Redirect/ https://www.example.co.ke

</VirtualHost>

8. Next disable the default sslconfiguration file – /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf by renaming it. Notethat, we don’t want it to end with .conf otherwise it’ll still beprocessed by apache. so add something towards the end of file name egssl.conf.hold.

9. After that access your vhost file and add the following line atthe top – outside <VirtualHost></VirtualHost>

Listen 443 https

You can also choose to , instead of adding the above line to vhost,add the line Listen 443 to/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file.

Note that you can only have Listen 443in either file but not both.

10.Restart Apache.

[[email protected] ~]#systemctlrestart httpd

That should do it. Now you have your site up and running on well!

Related posts:

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By Shayne Boyer

Using this guide, learn how to set up Apache as a reverse proxy server on CentOS 7 to redirect HTTP traffic to an ASP.NET Core web app running on Kestrel server. The mod_proxy extension and related modules create the server's reverse proxy.

Prerequisites

  • Server running CentOS 7 with a standard user account with sudo privilege.
  • Install the .NET Core runtime on the server.
    1. Visit the Download .NET Core page.
    2. Select the latest non-preview .NET Core version.
    3. Download the latest non-preview runtime in the table under Run apps - Runtime.
    4. Select the Linux Package manager instructions link and follow the CentOS instructions.
  • An existing ASP.NET Core app.

At any point in the future after upgrading the shared framework, restart the ASP.NET Core apps hosted by the server.

Publish and copy over the app

Apache Web Server Centos 7

Configure the app for a framework-dependent deployment.

If the app is run locally and isn't configured to make secure connections (HTTPS), adopt either of the following approaches:

  • Configure the app to handle secure local connections. For more information, see the HTTPS configuration section.
  • Remove https://localhost:5001 (if present) from the applicationUrl property in the Properties/launchSettings.json file.

Run dotnet publish from the development environment to package an app into a directory (for example, bin/Release/<target_framework_moniker>/publish) that can run on the server:

The app can also be published as a self-contained deployment if you prefer not to maintain the .NET Core runtime on the server.

Copy the ASP.NET Core app to the server using a tool that integrates into the organization's workflow (for example, SCP, SFTP). It's common to locate web apps under the var directory (for example, var/www/helloapp).

Note

Under a production deployment scenario, a continuous integration workflow does the work of publishing the app and copying the assets to the server.

Configure a proxy server

A reverse proxy is a common setup for serving dynamic web apps. The reverse proxy terminates the HTTP request and forwards it to the ASP.NET app.

A proxy server forwards client requests to another server instead of fulfilling requests itself. A reverse proxy forwards to a fixed destination, typically on behalf of arbitrary clients. In this guide, Apache is configured as the reverse proxy running on the same server that Kestrel is serving the ASP.NET Core app.

Because requests are forwarded by reverse proxy, use the Forwarded Headers Middleware from the Microsoft.AspNetCore.HttpOverrides package. The middleware updates the Request.Scheme, using the X-Forwarded-Proto header, so that redirect URIs and other security policies work correctly.

Any component that depends on the scheme, such as authentication, link generation, redirects, and geolocation, must be placed after invoking the Forwarded Headers Middleware.

Forwarded Headers Middleware should run before other middleware. This ordering ensures that the middleware relying on forwarded headers information can consume the header values for processing. To run Forwarded Headers Middleware after diagnostics and error handling middleware, see Forwarded Headers Middleware order.

Invoke the UseForwardedHeaders method at the top of Startup.Configure before calling other middleware. Configure the middleware to forward the X-Forwarded-For and X-Forwarded-Proto headers:

If no ForwardedHeadersOptions are specified to the middleware, the default headers to forward are None.

Proxies running on loopback addresses (127.0.0.0/8, [::1]), including the standard localhost address (127.0.0.1), are trusted by default. If other trusted proxies or networks within the organization handle requests between the Internet and the web server, add them to the list of KnownProxies or KnownNetworks with ForwardedHeadersOptions. The following example adds a trusted proxy server at IP address 10.0.0.100 to the Forwarded Headers Middleware KnownProxies in Startup.ConfigureServices:

For more information, see Configure ASP.NET Core to work with proxy servers and load balancers.

Install Apache

Update CentOS packages to their latest stable versions:

Install the Apache web server on CentOS with a single yum command:

Sample output after running the command:

Note

In this example, the output reflects httpd.86_64 since the CentOS 7 version is 64 bit. To verify where Apache is installed, run whereis httpd from a command prompt.

Configure Apache

Configuration files for Apache are located within the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory. Any file with the .conf extension is processed in alphabetical order in addition to the module configuration files in /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/, which contains any configuration files necessary to load modules.

Create a configuration file, named helloapp.conf, for the app:

The VirtualHost block can appear multiple times, in one or more files on a server. In the preceding configuration file, Apache accepts public traffic on port 80. The domain www.example.com is being served, and the *.example.com alias resolves to the same website. For more information, see Name-based virtual host support. Requests are proxied at the root to port 5000 of the server at 127.0.0.1. For bi-directional communication, ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse are required. To change Kestrel's IP/port, see Kestrel: Endpoint configuration.

The VirtualHost block can appear multiple times, in one or more files on a server. In the preceding configuration file, Apache accepts public traffic on port 80. The domain www.example.com is being served, and the *.example.com alias resolves to the same website. For more information, see Name-based virtual host support. Requests are proxied at the root to port 5000 of the server at 127.0.0.1. For bi-directional communication, ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse are required. To change Kestrel's IP/port, see Kestrel: Endpoint configuration.

Warning

Failure to specify a proper ServerName directive in the VirtualHost block exposes your app to security vulnerabilities. Subdomain wildcard binding (for example, *.example.com) doesn't pose this security risk if you control the entire parent domain (as opposed to *.com, which is vulnerable). For more information, see rfc7230 section-5.4.

Logging can be configured per VirtualHost using ErrorLog and CustomLog directives. ErrorLog is the location where the server logs errors, and CustomLog sets the filename and format of log file. In this case, this is where request information is logged. There's one line for each request.

Save the file and test the configuration. If everything passes, the response should be Syntax [OK].

Restart Apache:

Monitor the app

Apache is now set up to forward requests made to http://localhost:80 to the ASP.NET Core app running on Kestrel at http://127.0.0.1:5000. However, Apache isn't set up to manage the Kestrel process. Use systemd and create a service file to start and monitor the underlying web app. systemd is an init system that provides many powerful features for starting, stopping, and managing processes.

Create the service file

Create the service definition file:

An example service file for the app:

In the preceding example, the user that manages the service is specified by the User option. The user (apache) must exist and have proper ownership of the app's files.

Use TimeoutStopSec to configure the duration of time to wait for the app to shut down after it receives the initial interrupt signal. If the app doesn't shut down in this period, SIGKILL is issued to terminate the app. Provide the value as unitless seconds (for example, 150), a time span value (for example, 2min 30s), or infinity to disable the timeout. TimeoutStopSec defaults to the value of DefaultTimeoutStopSec in the manager configuration file (systemd-system.conf, system.conf.d, systemd-user.conf, user.conf.d). The default timeout for most distributions is 90 seconds.

Some values (for example, SQL connection strings) must be escaped for the configuration providers to read the environment variables. Use the following command to generate a properly escaped value for use in the configuration file:

Colon (:) separators aren't supported in environment variable names. Use a double underscore (__) in place of a colon. The Environment Variables configuration provider converts double-underscores into colons when environment variables are read into configuration. In the following example, the connection string key ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection is set into the service definition file as ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection:

Colon (:) separators aren't supported in environment variable names. Use a double underscore (__) in place of a colon. The Environment Variables configuration provider converts double-underscores into colons when environment variables are read into configuration. In the following example, the connection string key ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection is set into the service definition file as ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection:

Save the file and enable the service:

Start the service and verify that it's running:

With the reverse proxy configured and Kestrel managed through systemd, the web app is fully configured and can be accessed from a browser on the local machine at http://localhost. Inspecting the response headers, the Server header indicates that the ASP.NET Core app is served by Kestrel:

View logs

Since the web app using Kestrel is managed using systemd, events and processes are logged to a centralized journal. However, this journal includes entries for all of the services and processes managed by systemd. To view the kestrel-helloapp.service-specific items, use the following command:

For time filtering, specify time options with the command. For example, use --since today to filter for the current day or --until 1 hour ago to see the previous hour's entries. For more information, see the man page for journalctl.

Data protection

The ASP.NET Core Data Protection stack is used by several ASP.NET Core middlewares, including authentication middleware (for example, cookie middleware) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protections. Even if Data Protection APIs aren't called by user code, data protection should be configured to create a persistent cryptographic key store. If data protection isn't configured, the keys are held in memory and discarded when the app restarts.

If the key ring is stored in memory when the app restarts:

  • All cookie-based authentication tokens are invalidated.
  • Users are required to sign in again on their next request.
  • Any data protected with the key ring can no longer be decrypted. This may include CSRF tokens and ASP.NET Core MVC TempData cookies.

To configure data protection to persist and encrypt the key ring, see:

Secure the app

Configure firewall

Firewalld is a dynamic daemon to manage the firewall with support for network zones. Ports and packet filtering can still be managed by iptables. Firewalld should be installed by default. yum can be used to install the package or verify it's installed.

Use firewalld to open only the ports needed for the app. In this case, ports 80 and 443 are used. The following commands permanently set ports 80 and 443 to open:

Reload the firewall settings. Check the available services and ports in the default zone. Options are available by inspecting firewall-cmd -h.

HTTPS configuration

Configure the app for secure (HTTPS) local connections

The dotnet run command uses the app's Properties/launchSettings.json file, which configures the app to listen on the URLs provided by the applicationUrl property (for example, https://localhost:5001;http://localhost:5000).

Configure the app to use a certificate in development for the dotnet run command or development environment (F5 or Ctrl+F5 in Visual Studio Code) using one of the following approaches:

  • Replace the default certificate from configuration (Recommended)

Centos 7 Httpd Setup

  • Replace the default certificate from configuration (Recommended)

Configure the reverse proxy for secure (HTTPS) client connections

Warning

The security configuration in this section is a general configuration to be used as a starting point for further customization. We're unable to provide support for third-party tooling, servers, and operating systems. Use the configuration in this section at your own risk. For more information, access the following resources:

  • Apache SSL/TLS Encryption (Apache documentation)

To configure Apache for HTTPS, the mod_ssl module is used. When the httpd module was installed, the mod_ssl module was also installed. If it wasn't installed, use yum to add it to the configuration.

To enforce HTTPS, install the mod_rewrite module to enable URL rewriting:

Modify the helloapp.conf file to enable secure communication on port 443.

The following example doesn't configure the server to redirect insecure requests. We recommend using HTTPS Redirection Middleware. For more information, see Enforce HTTPS in ASP.NET Core.

Note

For development environments where the server configuration handles secure redirection instead of HTTPS Redirection Middleware, we recommend using temporary redirects (302) rather than permanent redirects (301). Link caching can cause unstable behavior in development environments.

Adding a Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) header ensures all subsequent requests made by the client are over HTTPS. For guidance on setting the Strict-Transport-Security header, see Enforce HTTPS in ASP.NET Core.

Note

This example is using a locally-generated certificate. SSLCertificateFile should be the primary certificate file for the domain name. SSLCertificateKeyFile should be the key file generated when CSR is created. SSLCertificateChainFile should be the intermediate certificate file (if any) that was supplied by the certificate authority.

Apache HTTP Server version 2.4.43 or newer is required in order to operate a TLS 1.3 web server with OpenSSL 1.1.1.

Note

The preceding example disables Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) Stapling. For more information and guidance on enabling OCSP, see OCSP Stapling (Apache documentation).

Save the file and test the configuration:

Restart Apache:

Additional Apache suggestions

Restart apps with shared framework updates

After upgrading the shared framework on the server, restart the ASP.NET Core apps hosted by the server.

Additional headers

To secure against malicious attacks, there are a few headers that should either be modified or added. Ensure that the mod_headers module is installed:

Secure Apache from clickjacking attacks

Clickjacking, also known as a UI redress attack, is a malicious attack where a website visitor is tricked into clicking a link or button on a different page than they're currently visiting. Use X-FRAME-OPTIONS to secure the site.

To mitigate clickjacking attacks:

  1. Edit the httpd.conf file:

    Add the line Header append X-FRAME-OPTIONS 'SAMEORIGIN'.

  2. Save the file.

  3. Restart Apache.

MIME-type sniffing

Classic player for mac. The X-Content-Type-Options header prevents Internet Explorer from MIME-sniffing (determining a file's Content-Type from the file's content). If the server sets the Content-Type header to text/html with the nosniff option set, Internet Explorer renders the content as text/html regardless of the file's content.

Edit the httpd.conf file:

Add the line Header set X-Content-Type-Options 'nosniff'. Save the file. Restart Apache.

Load Balancing

This example shows how to setup and configure Apache on CentOS 7 and Kestrel on the same instance machine. To not have a single point of failure; using mod_proxy_balancer and modifying the VirtualHost would allow for managing multiple instances of the web apps behind the Apache proxy server.

In the configuration file shown below, an additional instance of the helloapp is set up to run on port 5001. The Proxy section is set with a balancer configuration with two members to load balance byrequests.

Rate Limits

Using mod_ratelimit, which is included in the httpd module, the bandwidth of clients can be limited:

The example file limits bandwidth as 600 KB/sec under the root location:

Long request header fields

Apache Web Server Centos 7 Download

Proxy server default settings typically limit request header fields to 8,190 bytes. An app may require fields longer than the default (for example, apps that use Azure Active Directory). If longer fields are required, the proxy server's LimitRequestFieldSize directive requires adjustment. The value to apply depends on the scenario. For more information, see your server's documentation.

Apache Web Server Centos 7 Free

Warning

Centos 7 apache virtual host

Don't increase the default value of LimitRequestFieldSize unless necessary. Increasing the value increases the risk of buffer overrun (overflow) and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks by malicious users.

Centos 7 Httpd

Additional resources