[SOLVED] Apache vhost directory never used

Issue

I’m setting a new server on Debian 9, but this time I’m struggling with the vhosts.

Basically, the vhosts never reach their DocumentRoot, but fallback on the default DocumentRoot (/var/www/html). As this is usually a simple matter of finding the right configuration, this time I don’t get it to work.

I reduced the conf files to the strict minimum to work on the problem. Let’s take 2 vhosts conf examples:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
    ServerName www.site1.com
    ServerAlias www.site1.com
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    DocumentRoot /var/www/site1
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
    ServerName www.site2.com
    ServerAlias www.site2.com
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    DocumentRoot /var/www/site2
</VirtualHost>

In this case, going either on www.site1.com or www.site2.com will fall to the default page on /var/www/html.

If I’m changing one of the 120.0.0.1:80 to *:80, it is immediately set as the working vhost. But if I set both on *:80, it will fall on the first in the list.

Meaning if I have this:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
    ServerName www.site1.com
    ServerAlias www.site1.com
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    DocumentRoot /var/www/site1
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.site2.com
    ServerAlias www.site2.com
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    DocumentRoot /var/www/site2
</VirtualHost>

www.site1.com and www.site2.com will lead to /var/www/site2. Same the other way.

But if I do this :

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.site1.com
    ServerAlias www.site1.com
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    DocumentRoot /var/www/site1
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.site2.com
    ServerAlias www.site2.com
    ServerAdmin [email protected]

    DocumentRoot /var/www/site2
</VirtualHost>

Then www.site1.com and www.site2.com will fall on www.site1.com.

I triple checked my apache.conf, ports.conf. They’re both on the default settings after a fresh install.

All the usual answers on "solved" similar posts have been tried and checked: apachectl -t returns a Syntax OK. All conf files end with .conf. The chmod have been set to various tries, including 755, 775 and 777. The matching user is set on the directories too. I tried to sudo everything, restarting, reloading, etc. I did reboot the server. I’ve set the log on debug, but I can’f find everything wrong in it (though I’m not sure what to look for).

Just in case, here’s my /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.1.1   sd-*****.dedibox.fr sd-****
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts

::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

and hostname:

sd-*****

I really don’t know what’s going on now. Thanks for any hint.

Solution

Okay, for some odd reasons I managed to get it to work with the second scheme, putting every vhost as *:80.

Although it works, I have no clue about why my usual settings didn't work this time, nor about what I did to get it to work…

Answered By - EmmanuelBeziat