Setting up an apache2 webserver on openSUSE Leap 15.0

Setting up an apache2 webserver on openSUSE Leap 15.0#

Created: 2018-06-25

The goal of this blog post is to properly remember what I did to create my root-server setup using openSUSE Leap 15.0:

Two detailed and very useful references for a start are:

Here there are just the bare commands without verbose explanation given. All of them should be run with root privileges.

Basic webserver setup#

  • Install the required packages:

    zypper install apache2 \
               php7 php7-mysql apache2-mod_php7 \
               mariadb mariadb-tools \
               phpMyAdmin

  • Enable Apache modules:

    a2enmod php7 rewrite

  • Open the necessary ports in the Firewall (firewalld):

    firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=8888/tcp  # For Jupyter only!
firewall-cmd --reload

  • Start and enable (on each restart) all services:

    systemctl start  apache2 mysql
systemctl enable apache2 mysql

  • Configure the mySQL database and follow the instructions given:

    mysql_secure_installation

Setting up the directories#

The used directory structure for the websites and services is as follows:

/srv/www/myMkDocsSite  (https://www.domain.org/)
        /myMediaWiki   (https://wiki.domain.org/)
        /jupyter       (https://www.domain.org:8888)

As Jupyter comes with it’s own web server, one only has to add Apache2 configurations for myMkDocsSite and myMediaWiki. Those configuration files are located in the

/etc/apache2/vhosts.d

directory and have the *.conf extension. The myMkDocsSite.conf may look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/srv/www/myMkDocsSite"
    ServerName www.domain.org
    ServerAlias domain.org
    ServerAdmin joe@mail.com
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error_log
    TransferLog /var/log/apache2/access_log
    HostnameLookups Off
    UseCanonicalName Off
    ServerSignature Off
    <Directory "/srv/www/octave.space">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        <IfModule !mod_access_compat.c>
            Require all granted
        </IfModule>
        <IfModule mod_access_compat.c>
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
        </IfModule>
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Remember, that for dynamic websites the Apache2 server process might need write privileges. Therefore the owner of the respective directories should be wwwrun and can be set with:

chown -R wwwrun:www <directory>

Now the content of a file index.html should be displayed when typing “http://www.domain.org/” (note: HTTPS comes later!).

Webserver HTTPS setup#

Fortunately, these days one has not to pay to be able to use the HTTPS protocol, one can easily make use of services like the Let’s encrypt project.

  • Install the required packages:

    zypper install certbot python-certbot python-certbot-apache

  • Enable the SSL module and ensure the correct server flags:

    a2enmod ssl
a2enflag SSL

  • Get the certificate by following the output of:

    certbot --apache

    This command usually updates the Apache2 configuration file, e.g. myMkDocsSite.conf above. If there are more websites, just call the certbot command above again to extend the certificate.

  • Update the certificate regulary by establishing a cronjob:

    crontab -e

    and add the lines:

    # renew all certificates methode: renew
10 5 1 * *  root    /usr/bin/certbot renew

Mediawiki setup#

To setup a Mediawiki one can basically follow the installation guide. Additionally, the following extensions should be installed:

With openSUSE Leap, the following extra packages are useful to be installed for all the above:

zypper install git ImageMagick make \
               php7-APCu php7-fileinfo php7-imagick php7-intl php7-mbstring

After that run

php myMediaWiki/maintenance/update.php

to update the MediaWiki database for that extension.

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