Q. How do I start an Apache Web Server under Linux Operating systems?

A. You can easily start / stop Apache web server using a shell prompt. If your webserver is located in other data center login using ssh and type the following command as per your Linux distribution.

Red Hat / RHEL / Fedora / CentOS Linux start an Apache webserver command

Type the following command:
# /etc/init.d/httpd start
To stop Apache server, enter:
# /etc/init.d/httpd stop

Debian / Ubuntu Linux start / stop an Apache webserver command

Type the following command:
# /etc/init.d/apache2 start
To stop Apache server, enter:
# /etc/init.d/apache2 stop

Generic apachectl / apache2ctl command

apachectl is Apache HTTP server control interface command, which can be used to stop or start web server under any Linux distribution or UNIX.

Start the Apache httpd daemon. Gives an error if it is already running. This is equivalent to apachectl -k start:

# apachectl start

Stops the Apache httpd daemon. This is equivalent to ‘apachectl -k stop’ command:

# apachectl stop

Restarts the Apache httpd daemon. If the daemon is not running, it is started:

# apachectl restart
apache2ctl is for Apache Webserver version 2 and only available under Debian or Ubuntu Linux:
# apache2ctl start
# apache2ctl stop
# apache2ctl restart