How to setup a name based VirtualHost on linux mint 18.3

Verify by checking the status of apache service.

linuxhelp ~ # systemctl status apache2.service 
● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2  bad  vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2018-03-26 08:01:26 IST  59s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
   CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
           ├─31119 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─31122 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           └─31123 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Mar 26 08:01:25 linuxhelp systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Apache2 web server...
Mar 26 08:01:25 linuxhelp apache2[31097]:  * Starting Apache httpd web server apache2
Mar 26 08:01:25 linuxhelp apache2[31097]: AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server' s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.
Mar 26 08:01:26 linuxhelp apache2[31097]:  *
Mar 26 08:01:26 linuxhelp systemd[1]: Started LSB: Apache2 web server.

To verify whether the Web server is working or not, open the web browser and navigate to the URL http://your-ip-address.

Create two directories for the websites www.virtualhost1.com and www.virtualhost2.com.

linuxhelp ~ # mkdir -p /var/www/html/www.virtualhost1.com
linuxhelp ~ # mkdir -p /var/www/html/www.virtualhost2.com

Now you need to create an “ index.html” file for both websites. This will be served by the Apache web server. Create an index.html file for “ www.virtualhost1.com” virtual host:

linuxhelp ~ # vim /var/www/html/www.virtualhost1.com/index.html
Add the following content:
< html> 
    < head> 
        < title> www.virtualhost1.com< /title> 
    < /head> 
    < body> 
        < h1> Welcome To www.virtualhost1.com website< /h1> 
    < /body> 
< /html> 
~          

Similarly, create an index.html file for “ www.virtualhost2.com” virtual host

linuxhelp ~ # vim /var/www/html/www.virtualhost2.com/index.html
add the following lines
< html> 
    < head> 
        < title> www.virtualhost2.com< /title> 
    < /head> 
    < body> 
        < h1> Welcome To www.virtualhost2.com website< /h1> 
    < /body> 
< /html> 

Save and close the file.

You must change the ownership of these two virtual directories to “ www-data,” so that Apache can read and write data.

linuxhelp ~ # chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/www.virtualhost1.com/
linuxhelp ~ # chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/www.virtualhost2.com/

Also, you need to make the Apache web root (/var/www/html) directory world readable so that everyone can read files from that directory.

linuxhelp ~ # chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/

By default, Apache comes with a default virtual host file called “ 000-default.conf.” You need to disable this virtual host file first.

linuxhelp ~ # a2dissite 000-default.conf 
Site 000-default disabled.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  service apache2 reload

Now, create a virtual host file “ www.virtualhost1.com.conf” for the virtual host www.virtualhost1.com.
Add the following lines.

linuxhelp ~ # vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/www.virtualhost1.com.conf
< VirtualHost *:80> 
ServerAdmin admin@virtualhost1.com
ServerName  www.virtualhost1.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/www.virtualhost1.com

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.virtualhost1.com_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.virtualhost1.com_access.log combined
< /VirtualHost> 
~             

Similarly, create a virtual host file “ www.virtualhost2.com.conf” for the virtual host www.virtualhost2.com.

vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/www.virtualhost2.com.conf

< VirtualHost *:80> 
ServerAdmin admin@virtualhost2.com
ServerName  www.virtualhost2.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/www.virtualhost2.com

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.virtualhost1.com_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.virtualhost1.com_access.log combined
< /VirtualHost> 

Save and close the file.

After creating the virtual host files, you need to enable a new virtual host.

linuxhelp ~ # a2ensite www.virtualhost1.com.conf
Enabling site www.virtualhost1.com.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  service apache2 reload
linuxhelp ~ # a2ensite www.virtualhost2.com.conf
Enabling site www.virtualhost2.com.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  service apache2 reload

linuxhelp ~ # systemctl restart apache2.service

linuxhelp ~ # vim /etc/hosts
192.168.7.234   www.virtualhost1.com
192.168.7.234   www.virtualhost2.com