Apache Web Server on Raspberry Pi

In this guide, we will see how to install Apache on Ubuntu 20, running on a Raspberry Pi.

Requirements

Here is a list of the things you will need to follow this guide:

• Raspberry Pi (Also works with a PC/VM)
• Ubuntu 20 installed.
• SSH or direct connection to the machine.
• FTP or other way enabled to upload files.

Installing Apache

To install Apache, just execute the following command:

sudo apt install apache2

It will take a while, but when finished, you should have Apache up and running. To check it, type:

sudo service apache2 status

And it should output something like this, telling us is active (running):

● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
      Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-04-22 18:14:17 UTC; 29s ago
        Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
    Main PID: 5411 (apache2)
       Tasks: 55 (limit: 9257)
      CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
              ├─5411 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
              ├─5413 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
              └─5414 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Also, let’s check if our Web Browser shows up the default Apache web page by going to the server’s IP. The page is as follows:

Deploy your own static webpage:

Now, you only have to upload your page to the default apache deployment path with your FTP client or similar. The default path:

/var/www/html/

Obviously, this can be changed, by configuring Apache’s default host file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

The file will look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
        # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
        # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
        # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
        # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
        # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
        # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
        #ServerName www.example.com

        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        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.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

        # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
        # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
        # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
        # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
        # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
        #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

Here you have the DocumentRoot property, which you can change to another path to host your website. It should be a valid one, and also, the user who runs Apache should have enoguh privileges on it.

If you change the path, follow again the previous steps where we uploaded the website. Remember that after changin the config files, a restart of Apache service is required:

sudo service apache2 restart

That’s all!