Install and Configure Apache on CentOS

This tutorial covers installing Apache on CentOS along with some basic configuration to get it up and running.

Install Apache

Here we are installing Apache and SSL right away in case we ever need it.

$ yum install httpd mod_ssl 

Once thats done turn on the Apache service so that it automatically starts on boot.

$ chkconfig --level 2345 httpd on 

Finally we can start the Apache service.

$ /etc/init.d/httpd start 

Open HTTP/HTTPS Ports

We are going to open up ports 80 and 443 for http and https protocols in iptables.

$ vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables 

Add the following lines (make sure its above the reject statement).

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 

Restart the iptables service for the changes to take effect.

$ /etc/init.d/iptables restart 

Disable Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux)

This makes sure other computers can connect to the server.

$ vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux 

Make sure the SELINUX setting is set to disabled

SELINUX=disabled 

May require a system reboot at this point for this one to take effect.