Category: Apache config

Apache config

How to backup the Apache config file
UpdraftPlus and other WP backup solution’s safeguards the work you have performed in WordPress. The Apache configuration files are left out. When disaster strikes, access to the Apache config files is invaluable. This might save you hours and perhaps days of downtime and frustration.

Automate the process

Below is the command listed one by one.
A shell script that runs once a month from Cron would automate this.
With TextExpander could you run this command sequence from your PC, Mac, iPhone and iPad as a snippet. To distinguish and automatically sort the backups the folders and filenames start with today’s date in the form: year-month-day

Save the backup files in a single folder

Create a folder you can access with SFTP and SCP. Then it’s easier to move the backup offsite. Either to your PC or another server or service. If you also choose to keep a local backup on the WP-JeOS server remember to change permissions on the file and folders. The bad guys would just love access to your SSL-certificates!
```
cd /home/ubuntu/
```
```
mkdir 20160627-backup-wp-jeos
```
```
cd 20160627-backup-wp-jeos
```
Now we are ready to start the work creating a backup of the Apache config files.

Backing up SSL certificates

Create a backup of the certificates
```
sudo zip -r 20160627-etc-ssl-certs-.zip /etc/ssl/certs/*.*
```
Create a backup of the private certificates
First become root
```
sudo su
```
Then create the zip file:
```
sudo zip -r 20160627-etc-ssl-private-.zip /etc/ssl/private/*.*
```
Go back to the user ubuntu
```
exit
```
Backing up Apache main config file

You have appropriately modified the main Apache config file to make the .htacces file work correctly.
```
sudo zip 20160627-etc-apache2-apache2-conf.zip /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
```
Backing up the virtual hosts config files

The virtual hosts configuration files for each and every WordPress site might take much work to re-create when disaster strikes. A backup is a real time saver. The .conf file contains the path to your SSL-certificates, specifies the filename of your error logs and access logs and info about the root folder of WordPress.
```
sudo zip -r 20160627-etc-apache2-sites-available-.zip /etc/apache2/sites-available/*.*
```
Backup of the Apache config files completed. Now create a TextExpander snippet and perhaps a batch job to perform this fast next time you modify them. A cron job based on the bash script would further automate.

Manually backing up WP-JeOS

When you are at it, backing up the rest of WP-JeOs is easy. Sometimes backups are un-restorable. It could be many reasons for that. Having backups created with different solutions could be wise.

Backing up the file structure

When you have many websites creating a zip-file of the structure is done with this command. Beware. The zip-file could end up to being massive.
```
sudo zip -r 20160627-var-www-.zip /var/www/
```
A real timesaver when you need to migrate the whole server. It would usually take less time than restoring one site at a time with UpdraftPlus. Keep in mind that WP-CLI and WordShell are great tools when migrating, creating backups and restoring. WordShell has an excellent integrated backup solution.

Backing up databases

Since we run Amazon RDS MySQL, backup of the databases is less critical. Amazon automatically creates database backups for you. Use the RDS control panel to configures database backups. Modify to fit your needs. Eventually, the RDS backups are overwritten. If it takes months to the problem, corruption or whatever goes wrong is detected. Then a local offsite backup is the only thing that can come to your rescue. Creating backups with free software is easy. Try these:
- MySQL Workbench
- Sequel Pro
- Navicat
Move the backup offsite

Backup files on a server that you can not access are worthless. Copy or move the backup offsite to another server or service like DropBox, Google Drive or Amazon S3. You never know what’s ahead.

Verify the backup

Download the backup to your PC. Unzip the files to verify that the zip files contains the intended content.

Restore to a local VPS

VmWare is a great tool. Test that you can regenerate the server to a new VPS running on your PC. VmWare is a user-friendly tool for running Ubuntu on you local workstation. Restoring backups requires practice. It could occur that you are unable to restore a backup. The backup might be incomplete or corrupt. You could run into unforeseen problems when restoring backups. There might be a 3. party plugins or locked software that requires a particular IP to work. Certificates that is locked to a certain environment. It could be many obstacles occurring that you could not foresee or has forgotten. Usually, disaster recovery is a very stressful situation that in the long term is damaging to your health. Practice enables you to perform migration faster and with less wear and tear on your health.

Protect the backup

If you keep backups on the WP-JeOs, then you should change the permissions to the files and folders. The backup contains your passwords, SSL-certs and lots of valuable stuff that the bad guys just would love to access.
20160627
Tune apache performance using Apache MPM prefork module
There could be many reasons why your Apache web server is slow. One of them can be that Apache needs tuning. Tuning the Apache performance using the Apache MPM prefork module is one of them.

Tune Apache performance using MPM Prefork module

StartServers: 30% of MaxClients
MinSpareServers: 5% of MaxClients
MaxSpareServers: 10% of MaxClients
MaxRequestWorkers = MaxClients
MaxConnectionsPerChild= 10000 (To avoid problem with memory leaks in WordPress plugin themes and apps)

Edit the file with this command:
```
sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/mpm_prefork.conf
```
Try these values if Apache uses 70 MB under heavy load and the server has 1 GB RAM.
```
<IfModule mpm_prefork_module>
 StartServers 8
 MinSpareServers 8
 MaxSpareServers 9
 MaxRequestWorkers 9
 MaxConnectionsPerChild 100
</IfModule>
```
Save the changes
```
Ctrl+X - Y
```
Restart Apache
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
It might make the server a bit slower, but there will be the most available memory, and you will not hit the roof. Hitting the limit will almost stop the server.

How to calculate the values

The initial Ubuntu OS install uses 350 MB RAM – memory – and the server has 1 GB with memory.

Then there is half a gigabyte to run Apache clients.

You measure that each Apache instance uses 33 MB of memory. Then you would be able to run 18 servers with 650 MB available RAM. 650 MB RAM allows ten customers to download content from your site simultaneously. Often the browser uses several simultaneous instances so one user could use several Apache instances. Upgrade to 4 GB of RAM then you would have 3.5 GB available to serve your customers with Apache. 3,5 GB of available memory would suggest a “MaxClients” settings increased from ten clients to 106.

Tool nr 1 to help you determine a useful configuration

Check Apache Httpd MPM Config Limits

This Perl script compares the size of running Apache HTTP processes. This consist of the configured Prefork, worker and event MPM limits. Measured towards the server’s available memory. You might get an error message if the setting limits exceed the server’s available memory.

Check the website for the newest release.
```
https://code.google.com/archive/p/check-httpd-limits/downloads
```
Go to the user home folder
```
cd ~
```
Create a folder
```
mkdir apache-memory-test
```
Go to the newly created folder
```
cd apache-memory-test
```
Download the latest version. This is for version 2.5:
```
wget https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/check-httpd-limits/check_httpd_limits-2.5.zip
```
Unzip the file
```
unzip check_httpd_limits-2.5.zip
```
Make the script executable:
```
chmod u+x check_httpd_limits.pl
```
Run the script as root
```
sudo ./check_httpd_limits.pl
```
Open a bunch of web pages while you run the script many times to get an impression of the average memory consumed.

Tool number 2

Please read this tutorial about oApache” performance using optimizing MPM Prefork module

Create a folder and download and unzip the script as you did with “Tool 1”

Make the script executable
```
chmod u+x ap.sh
```
Run the script
```
./ap.sh
```
Sources for this article
20150530
How to automatically restart apache every day, week or month
Your server might be more stable if you restart the apache service once a day, once a week or once a month. You can do this by adding a single line of text in the «Cron» service on your apache server.

This command restarts the Apache service every morning 04:00 AM. That’s properly when there are few visitors. Takes a few seconds and properly is the users not noticing the downtime.

Start Cron. First time you run this command you will probably be asked which text editor you want to use. I recommend that you choose Nano.
```
sudo crontab -e
```
In the text editor Nano, just add the following line. Then save and close the text editor Nano. That’s all
```
0 4 * * 4 root service apache2 restart > /dev/null 2>&1
```
This command will restart apache at 4 in the morning every Thursday.

To check if this work use the command:
```
sudo service apache2 status
```
20141125
How to install Apache, PHP7 and MySQL connector
Setting up your MySQL database on Amazon RDS

Use the free MySQL WorkBench to create your database, create database user, password and assign rights on Amazon RDS.

Alternatively use Sequel Pro or use Navicat to set up your database on the Amazon RDS database server. It dos not matter which of the 3 tools you are using.

Install Apache2, PHP7, Curl and MySQL connector on Ubuntu

This will install:
- Apache
- PHP7
- MySQL database connector to access Amazon RDS. You will need this connector use the remote Amazon AWS RDS server.
```
sudo apt-get install apache2 php7.0 php7.0-mysql libapache2-mod-php
```
Install curl, gd and zip
- Curl is widly used and needed by WordShell.
- GD is needed by WordPress to change the size of uploaded images.
- Zip is a easy way to compress directories and files when backing up or moving files and directories.
```
sudo apt-get install curl php7.0-curl php7.0-gd zip
```
Apache modules to activate
```
sudo a2enmod rewrite
```
Then restart Apache to activate the change:
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
20130825
Add virtual host and domains using a single IP
The first IP address is free with Amazon AWS. Extra IP’s are not. This how-to guides you through the process of setting up as many virtual host domain in Apache as you need on a single IP. All WordPress sites using SSL / httpS://.

Sites without SSL / httpS:// is given a lower SEO ranking by Google

We have blocked port 80 in the firewall. All sites are using port 443 with a valid SSL certificate provided by CloudFlare. The only port open in the firewall is 22 for SSH admin and 443 for the hosts. SEO ranking for non-SSL sites are lower on Google.com. Since valid SSL certificates are free. Who would create a site without encryption?

Make sure Apache is configured correct for SSL and virtual host

Ubuntu is not SSL prepared by default. Especially not for using many SSL sites on the same IP. We will walk you through the needed modifications here:

[themedy_button url=”https://www.wpjeos.no/enable-ssl-on-apache-ubuntu/” icon=”wrench” font_awesome_att=”” label=”How to configure Apache for SSL with virtual hosts on a single IP” colour=”blue” colour_custom=”” size=”large” edge=”rounded” target=”_self”]

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Create root folders to store your content

First you need to create the website route folders on the file system where the files is to be stored.
```
cd /var/www/
```
```
sudo mkdir /var/www/MyDomain1.com
```
```
sudo mkdir /var/www/MyDomain2.com
```
```
sudo mkdir /var/www/MyDomain3.com
```
Create a test file to use when verifying that the hosting works.
```
sudo nano /var/www/MyDomain1.com/index.html
```
Write:
```
This is a test page for the domain https://www.mydomain1.com and/or https://mydomain1.com
```
Save the file and exit Nano.

Then make sure Apache can access these folders:
```
chown -R www-data /var/www/
```
Create the first site and use it as a template

To add new domains to your configuration is a quite easy task on Apache.

You just go to the folder where you find your existing config files.
```
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
```
Then add a new config file for the new domain. Some times it’s easier to just copy an existing config file and edit it to reflect the name of the domain. To make it easier to troubleshoot problems it is a good habit to give each config file a number. This is because Apache will start one host at a time based on the number sequence.
```
01-MyDomain1-com.conf
02-MyDomain2-com.conf
03-MyDomain3-com.conf
```
To copy and the modifying an existing Apache configuration file

Stop all the active config files and running Apache hosts.
```
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
```
```
sudo a2dissite *.conf
```
Then restart Apache so the changes takes effect
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
First backup the default config files:
```
sudo zip default-apache-config-files.zip *.conf
```
Move the backup to your home folder:
```
sudo mv zip default-apache-config-files.zip /home/ubuntu/default-apache-config-files.zip
```
You might want to remove the non-SSL config file to keep the folder orderly:
```
 sudo rm 000-default.conf
```
Now rename the default ssl config file
```
sudo mv default-ssl.conf 01-MyDomain1-com.conf
```
Finally we will modify the the configuration file:
```
sudo nano 01-MyDomain1-com.conf
```
This is what the Apache config file looks like before you start editing:
```
<ifmodule mod_ssl.c>
 <virtualhost _default_:443>
 ServerAdmin mail@locahost

 DocumentRoot /var/www/html

 # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
 # error, crit, alert, emerg.
 # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
 # modules, e.g.
 #LogLevel info ssl:warn

 ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error-default-.log
 CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access-default-.log combined
```
Modify the values in the file to look like this:
```
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin mail@mydomain1.com
ServerName mydomain1.com
ServerAlias mydomain1.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/MyDomain1.com ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/01-mydomain1-com-error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/01-mydomain1-com-access.log combined 
```
Save the file.
Activate the config file:
```
sudo a2ensite 01-MyDomain1-com.conf
```
Restart Apache
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
GoCheck that the configuration file is correct with these tools:
```
sudo apachectl configtest

sudo systemctl status apache2.service

sudo journalctl -xe
```
Start a web browser and go to https://mydomain1-com or https://www.mydomain1-com to verify that you can access the page you created earlier with the text:
```
This is a test page for the domain https://www.mydomain1.com and/or https://mydomain1.com
```
If this page is not displayed, you should not continue before the error is solved. Continueing will make the troubleshooting more complex.

Continuing with the 2. and 3. domain / virtual host

Now use 01-MyDomain1-com.conf as the template for the two next virtual hosts.

To copy an existing file:
```
sudo cp 01-MyDomain1-com.conf 02-MyDomain2-com.conf
```
```
sudo nano 02-MyDomain2-com.conf
```
Then edit the config to match the second WordPress site:
```
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin mail@mydomain2.com
ServerName mydomain2.com
ServerAlias mydomain2.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/MyDomain2.com
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/02-mydomain2-com-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/02-mydomain2-com-access.log combined
```
```
Save.
Then activate the configuration.
```
```
sudo a2ensite *.conf
```
Finally restart Apache so the new site gets published.
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
Check and verify that the new site are online.

Now repeat the process above to create the 3. WordPress site:
```
sudo cp 01-MyDomain1-com.conf 03-MyDomain3-com.conf
```
Then edit the config file
```
sudo nano 03-MyDomain3-com.conf
```
Change the values so it looks like this:
```
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin mail@mydomain3.com
ServerName mydomain3.com
ServerAlias mydomain3.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/MyDomain3.com ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/03-mydomain3-com-error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/03-mydomain3-com-access.log combined
```
Save.
Then activate the configuration.
```
sudo a2ensite *.conf
```
Finally restart Apache so the new site gets published.
```
sudo service apache2 restart
```
Check that the Apache config file is correct:
```
sudo apachectl configtest

sudo systemctl status apache2.service

sudo journalctl -xe
```
When troubleshooting then, disable, enable and activate Apache domain config files with these commands:
```
sudo a2ensite *.conf

sudo a2dissite *.conf

sudo service apache2 restart
```
Check and verify that the new site is online.

Check the server error logs

It’s a good practice to check the error logs. They are here:
```
cd /var/log/apache2/
```
```
sudo nano error.log
```
```
sudo nano 01-mydomain1-com-error.log
```
```
sudo nano 02-mydomain2-com-error.log
```
```
sudo nano 03-mydomain3-com-error.log
```
Set correct permissions so Apache can access
```
sudo chown -R www-data /etc/apache2/sites-enabled
```
```
sudo chown -R www-data /var/www/MyDomain1.com
```
20130803

Category: Apache config

How to backup the Apache config file

Automate the process

Save the backup files in a single folder

Backing up SSL certificates

Backing up Apache main config file

Backing up the virtual hosts config files

Manually backing up WP-JeOS

Backing up the file structure

Backing up databases

Move the backup offsite

Verify the backup

Restore to a local VPS

Protect the backup

Tune apache performance using Apache MPM prefork module

How to calculate the values

Tool nr 1 to help you determine a useful configuration

Tool number 2

Sources for this article

How to automatically restart apache every day, week or month

How to install Apache, PHP7 and MySQL connector

Setting up your MySQL database on Amazon RDS

Install Apache2, PHP7, Curl and MySQL connector on Ubuntu

Install curl, gd and zip

Apache modules to activate

Add virtual host and domains using a single IP

Sites without SSL / httpS:// is given a lower SEO ranking by Google

Make sure Apache is configured correct for SSL and virtual host

Create root folders to store your content

Create the first site and use it as a template

To copy and the modifying an existing Apache configuration file

Continuing with the 2. and 3. domain / virtual host

Check the server error logs

Set correct permissions so Apache can access