Setup ===== The scripts apache2ctl, a2enmod, a2ensite, ... and the init script have some support for handling multiple instances of apache2 running on the same machine. The basic idea is to copy /etc/apache2 to /etc/apache2-xxx. An example script that demonstrates what else needs to be done can be found in /usr/share/doc/apache2/examples/setup-instance. Use with: sh /usr/share/doc/apache2/examples/setup-instance xxx Adjust the configuration in /etc/apache2-xxx, especially the listen ports in ports.conf and in the virtual host directives in /etc/apache2-xxx/sites-enabled/*. You can then use a2enmod-xxx, apache2ctl-xxx, ... as usual, and they will affect the new instance of apache2. If you use systemd, the service name of your new instance is "apache2@xxx.service". Otherwise the script installed an init script named /etc/init.d/apache2-xxx. To start the new apache2 instance on boot, use - if you use systemd, run: systemctl enable apache2@xxx - if you use sysv-init with dependency based boot sequence (the default): If you don't have ssl keys with passphrases, you may want to set 'X-Interactive: false' in /etc/init.d/apache2-xxx to reduce boot time. Then execute: insserv apache2-xxx - otherwise: ln -s ../init.d/apache2-xxx /etc/rc2.d/S80apache2-xxx To make 'apache2ctl-xxx status' work, you need to set APACHE_STATUSURL in /etc/apache2-xxx/envvars. Upgrades ======== Since only the configuration files in /etc/apache2 are in the package, the configuration of other instances won't change if the default configuration changes. Possibly ways to deal with this are: - Use symlinks to the files in /etc/apache2 where possible instead of copying the files. - Don't modify /etc/apache2 at all but use it to track the default configuration. You can then merge the changes into the /etc/apache2-xxx dirs. It may be a good idea to use a version control system for /etc/apache2 to keep track of the changes. See the package etckeeper for keeping the whole /etc dir under version control. An advanced scheme may be for every /etc/apache2* dir to be a separate git repository so that you can easily pull/push changes from one dir to another. Package removal =============== The Apache 2 package will only remove the default configuration files and directories. htcacheclean service ==================== The apache-htcacheclean service can be handled in the same way as the main apache2 script. You can create an 'apache-htcacheclean@instance.service' service under systemd or you can copy /etc/init.d/apache-htcacheclean as /etc/init.d/apache-htcacheclean-xxx under SystemV. The parameters of the service can be customized with /etc/default/apache-htcacheclean-xxx (that is created by the setup-instance helper script). Environment variables ===================== The following environment variables can be used to influence many scripts. The default apache2 configuration will make use of them, too. Most can be set in /etc/apache2-xxx/envvars. Variables set in /etc/apache2-xxx/envvars must be exported. variable default value -------- ------------- APACHE_CONFDIR /etc/apache2 or /etc/apache2-xxx APACHE_ENVVARS $APACHE_CONFDIR/envvars APACHE_HTTPD /usr/sbin/apache2 APACHE_ARGUMENTS empty if $APACHE_CONFDIR = /etc/apache2 "-d $APACHE_CONFDIR" otherwise APACHE_RUN_USER www-data APACHE_RUN_GROUP www-data APACHE_PID_FILE /var/run/apache2/apache2.pid or /var/run/apache2-xxx/apache2.pid APACHE_RUN_DIR /var/run/apache2 or /var/run/apache2-xxx APACHE_LOCK_DIR /var/lock/apache2 or /var/lock/apache2-xxx APACHE_LOG_DIR /var/log/apache2 or /var/log/apache2-xxx APACHE_MODS_AVAILABLE $APACHE_CONFDIR/mods-available APACHE_MODS_ENABLED $APACHE_CONFDIR/mods-enabled APACHE_SITES_AVAILABLE $APACHE_CONFDIR/sites-available APACHE_SITES_ENABLED $APACHE_CONFDIR/sites-enabled APACHE_LYNX www-browser -dump APACHE_STATUSURL http://localhost:80/server-status