Mastering Ubuntu: Effortlessly Configure All Your Subdomains and Domains with Terminal Magic

Introduction

Setting up subdomains and domains on Ubuntu is a crucial step for establishing a website. Subdomains are useful for organizing and categorizing website content, while domains are essential for making a website accessible through a unique address.

Understanding Subdomains and Domains

Subdomains and domains are essential components of the Domain Name System (DNS) and play a significant role in identifying and organizing websites on the internet.

A domain is a unique name that represents a specific website or IP address, such as google.com or 172.217.6.174. It is used to identify and locate a website on the internet and is registered by individuals or organizations through domain registrars.

A subdomain is a subset of a domain and is used to divide a website into different sections or categories. For example, blog.google.com is a subdomain of google.com, used specifically for the blog section of Google’s website.

Setting Up Subdomains and Domains on Ubuntu

Step 1: Install Apache

First, we need to install Apache, which is the web server software that will handle our domain and subdomain requests.

Open the terminal on your Ubuntu server and update the package lists by running the command:

sudo apt update

Next, install the Apache web server by running the command:

sudo apt install apache2

Step 2: Configure Apache

Once Apache is installed, we need to make some changes to its configuration file.

Open the Apache configuration file using nano or your preferred text editor:

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

Find the line that says “DocumentRoot /var/www/html” and change it to the directory where you want to store your main domain’s files.

For example:

DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com

Save and close the file.

Step 3: Create a Virtual Host for the Subdomain

Next, we need to create a virtual host file for our subdomain. This file will tell Apache how to handle requests for the subdomain.

Create a new Virtual Host file using nano or your preferred text editor:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/subdomain.example.com.conf

Add the following lines to the file, replacing “subdomain” with the name of your subdomain and “example.com” with your main domain.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName subdomain.example.com
ServerAlias www.subdomain.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/subdomain.example.com
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save and close the file.

Step 4: Enable the Virtual Hosts

Now we need to enable our virtual host files. This will allow Apache to serve requests for our main domain and subdomain.

First, disable the default virtual host by running the command:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Next, enable the virtual host for our main domain:

sudo a2ensite example.com.conf

Then, enable the virtual host file for our subdomain:

sudo a2ensite subdomain.example.com.conf

Finally, reload Apache for the changes to take effect:

sudo service apache2 reload

Step 5: Configure DNS

In order for our subdomain to work, we need to configure the DNS settings for our domain. This will vary depending on your domain registrar, but the basic steps are as follows:

• Log into your domain registrar’s website.

• Find the DNS settings for your domain.

• Add an “A” record with the subdomain as the “name” and your server’s IP address as the “value”.

• Save the changes.

These changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate, so be patient.

Step 6: Test the Subdomain

To test if everything is working correctly, you can create a simple HTML file in the directory you specified as the DocumentRoot for your subdomain.

For example, if you set the DocumentRoot for your subdomain as /var/www/subdomain.example.com, create a file called “index.html” in that directory:

sudo nano /var/www/subdomain.example.com/index.html

Add some content to the file, such as “Welcome to my subdomain!” and save it.

Now, in your web browser, go to http://subdomain.example.com. If everything is set up correctly, you should see the content you added to your “index.html” file.

Tips for Troubleshooting Common Issues:

• Double-check the spelling of your subdomain and domain names in all configuration files.

• Make sure you have added the “A” record for your subdomain in your DNS settings.

• Check the Apache error logs for any issues by running the command: sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log

• If you are still having issues, try restarting Apache by running the command: sudo service apache2 restart