Howto: Lighttpd web server setting up virtual hosting
Last time I wrote about setting and installing lighttpd web server.
Virtual hosting allows sharing a lighttpd web server so that you can have multiple domains hosted on single web server. For example:
=> www.nixcraft.com
=> www.cyberciti.biz
=> www.theos.in etc
Our setup
Lighttpd supports both Name-based and IP-based virtual hosts. Let us see how to configure two web sites for:
=> www.nixcraft.com
=> www.theos.in
First create a directory for each domain:
# mkdir -p /home/lighttpd/nixcraft.com/http
# mkdir -p /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http
# chown lighttpd:ftpuser1 /home/lighttpd/nixcraft.com/http
# chown lighttpd:ftpuser2 /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http
Replace ftpuser1 and 2 with actual ftp username.
Also create a log directory for each domain:
# mkdir /var/log/lighttpd/nixcraft.com
# mkdir /var/log/lighttpd/theos.in
Only allow a web server to access our logs:
# chown -R lighttpd:lighttpd /var/log/lighttpd
Open lighttpd configuration file:
# vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
Add support for domain nixcraft.com:
$HTTP["host"] =~ "(^|\.)nixcraft\.com$" {
server.document-root = "/home/lighttpd/nixcraft.com/http"
server.errorlog = "/var/log/lighttpd/nixcraft/error.log"
accesslog.filename = "/var/log/lighttpd/nixcraft/access.log"
server.error-handler-404 = "/e404.php"
}
Add support for domain theos.in:
$HTTP["host"] =~ "(^|\.)theos\.in$" {
server.document-root = "/home/lighttpd/theos.in/http"
server.errorlog = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/error.log"
accesslog.filename = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log"
server.error-handler-404 = "/e404.php"
}
Where,
- $HTTP["host"] =~ "(^|\.)theos\.in$" : It will match request for both www.theos.in and theos.in domain
- server.document-root = "/home/lighttpd/theos.in/http" : Server document root. You must set ftp/ssh user home directory to this root only
- server.errorlog = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/error.log" : Server access log file
- accesslog.filename = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log": Server error log file
- server.error-handler-404 = "/e404.php" : Web server error 404 handler file
Save and close the file. Restart the server:
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart
Upload file(s) to respective web-root and test your configuration with a web browser.
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~ Last updated on: October 9, 2006



Hi,
I have been trying to setting up this virtual host for my server. However, I am running into this problem where the error log is not stored in the right directory. I have followed everything in your guide. The only difference is that instead of using host, I am using ip based address. It seems like the error will store in the the directory that list ed last first.
For example:
$SERVER["socket"] == “a.b.c.d:80″ {
server.document-root = “/var/www/html/a.b.c.d/”
server.errorlog = “/var/log/lighttpd/a.b.c.d/error.log”
}
$SERVER["socket"] == “1.2.3.4:80″ {
server.document-root = “/var/www/html/1.2.3.4/”
server.errorlog = “/var/log/lighttpd/1.2.3.4/error.log”
}
The error will store in 1.2.3.4 directory. Do you know if there’s a solution to that? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Calvin
I’m sorry but I don’t get your problem. Can you explain more..???
It seems that you can only define server.errorlog once in lighty configuration. ie. one errorlog for the whole server and all vhosts.
Yes. The server.errorlog doesn’t work on a per virtualhost basis. Is that a bug or by design?
Thanks.
Please check the permissions of your log files
is the user is root or lighttpd or the user u have created.
Must note that logfolder/files have lighttpd as owner not root
Hi after all the settings done as aforesaid when i try to run my site in browser it give me an error while if i open my site trough IP of the server then it vl open
in server.bind i m using IP address and and i m trying to open my site http://www.ques.example.com.
server.port = 90
when in browser i type http://1.2.3.4:90 it will open my default page
but if i type http://www.ques.example.com then gives me error problem loading page.
How to handle this error.
pls help me
opening site in browser with port number
http://www.ques.example.com:90