Apache Virtual Host and DNS 1

[ph4nt0m]

Hi All
Say a customer owns a domain abc.com. The DNS records for abc.com are on DNS servers I do not own. However I own a web server and the customer would like to host his site on this server.

If I setup a Virtual Host container within Apache which contains the following for the ServerName and ServerAlias directives:

ServerName abc.com
ServerAlias

http://www.abc.com

And the customer changes his A record with his DNS host to point to the IP address of my web server - will a user on the Internet typing

http://www.abc.com

into a browser be directed to the relevant docroot etc within my webserver? (after DNS propagation and obviously I have also setup the DocumentRoot directive).

I need to clarify this before I tell the customer to change his DNS, only to find it doesn't work, and for his website to be down for a couple of days.

Thanks very much.

 

[sleipnir214]

Yes.


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[siberian]

Before you tell your customer anything test it. Change a dns record, setup the vhost and see if it works. If it does you can be confident that it will work for your customer.

 

[ph4nt0m]

Unfortunately I have not got any domains that are not live on which I can change the record and test this. Hence why I need to be sure it is possible before I do it in this instance. It seems as though it is, and I was reasonably sure it was (after having glimpsed at other Apache setups that were similar to mine).

 

[sleipnir214]

If all you need to test is Apache, you don't need a real domain and you don't need a read DNS.

Pick a domain. I like

http://www.foo.foo,

because it won't interfere with anything. Set up a virtual server in Apache with a ServerName entry of

http://www.foo.foo.

Add an entry to a workstation's hosts file for

http://www.foo.foo

to point to the IP address of the Apache virtual server.

Then restart your web browser and point it at

http://www.foo.foo

But remember, unless you're sharing IP addresses between sites, Servername and Serveralias aren't even necessary.

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[ph4nt0m]

Thanks very much sleipnir214 - good idea, I should have thought of that earlier! Anyway I tried it out, and it works a treat - just as expected.