Installing and configuring the Apache web server

In this recipe, we will simply install the Apache web server from the Ubuntu package repository. We will also look at the basic configuration options and set up our first web page.

Getting ready

You will need access to a root account or an account with sudo privileges.

I will be using Apache to refer to the Apache web server. The Apache web server is the most popular project by the Apache Foundation and is generally known as just Apache.

How to do it…

Follow these steps to install and configure the Apache web server:

1. Install Apache2 from the Ubuntu package repository:

   $ sudo apt-get update
   $ sudo apt-get install apache2
   

2. Check if Apache2 has installed successfully. The command wget should download the index.html file:

   $ wget 127.0.0.1
   

   
3. You can also open a browser on a local machine and point it to the server IP address. You should see a default It works! page customized for Ubuntu:
   
4. Now, let's proceed with creating our first virtual host...