added website on apache proxy server

Thank you for the excellent wiki and video. I followed it and the Apache Virtual Host video verbatim and got a site up and running very quickly. I'm attempting to host another website via the same apache reverse proxy and with the addition of the new site's .conf file (and running a2ensite, reloading and running certbot) pointing a browser at the new site still brings up the owncast site.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName stream.example.wtf
ServerAdmin admin@example.wtf

DocumentRoot /var/www/stream

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =stream.example.wtf
RewriteRule ^ https://%$2{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

The issue would seem to be in the owncast-le-ssl.conf file. ProxyPass directives seem to redirect the stream.example requests to port 8080 also. If I comment out the ProxyPass lines the stream webpage loads, but of course the owncast page doesn't.

Also the a2ensite and a2dissite commands seem to have no effect on either site after having enabled the stream website. I've tried reinstalling the stream .conf file as 0stream to move it above owncast, to no avail. I'm a bit over my head here and would appreciate any suggestions.

Hello! I can't quite tell what your configuration is based on your descriptions, but it sounds an Apache configuration error. I'd recommend taking a look at my video about Apache virtual hosts to get a solid grasp of how the configuration works: https://nerdonthestreet.com/episode/tech/apache-virtual-hosts

It sounds like you should have four virtual host configuration files:
- Owncast port 80 (redirects to port 443)
- Owncast port 443 (includes the WebSocket forwarding to port 8080)
- Your frontend webpage port 80 (redirects to port 443)
- Your frontend webpage port 443

Both the ServerName and DocumentRoot should be different between the Owncast files and the frontend webpage files. Looking at my instructions for Owncast, you shouldn't need to modify the Owncast configuration files to add another virtual host. Can you post all four of the configuration files, labeled a bit more clearly? None of the RewriteCond lines should need a server name typed out like you have it, so I'm confused why that's there, as well as why it's different from the ServerName line.

All that the a2ensite/a2dissite commands do is create symlinks from /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ to /etc/apache2/sites-available/ (with sites-enabled being read on Apache reload)– I cover this in the video I linked above.

Oh, I see that you reported your own post last night stating the RewriteCond line having a different URL than the ServerName line was a mistake. I assume you did that because the Edit button was broken (apologies for that– I've fixed it now, and applied the edit to your original post as you requested so those two lines match).

The rest of my prior message still applies. Let me know if that video helps and/or if you can give me a bit more information about your complete configuration.

I do also see now that you started off by saying you followed the virtual hosts video I linked you to… it's quite late here; perhaps I shouldn't reply to forum posts when I'm this tired. Anyway, it must not have been "verbatim" since it's not working (and you may not have paid close enough attention since you referred to the a2ensite/a2dissite commands as "having no effect" when I explained exactly what they do in that video).

If you've already watched the video, then the complete configuration (all vhost files) is all that's left to advance the topic. You're welcome to keep your actual domains in if it makes things easier (I don't consider that spam), although you can change them to example domains if you'd like, as long as you do it consistently.

Thank you for your quick response. For clarification the URL I have directed to the owncast app is live.seth.wtf. the second URL I'm attempting to include in this proxy server is stream.seth.wtf. Addressing the a2dissite - Thanks to your video I understand that the a2ensite and a2dissite commands just create and remove the symbolic links in the sites-enabled directory. I have found that only by disabling the owncast-le-ssl.conf link does the server direct my browser to the stream.seth.wtf root directory. Disabling the owncast.conf file still redirects stream.seth.wtf to the owncast site(live.seth.wtf) although it still says https://stream.seth.wtf in the browser address. Yes, I've reloaded apache2, emptied and  my browser cache after each change. I've now added a new stream virtual host file.  0stream, disabled and removed the original stream hostfiles and their associated ie-ssl files, rerun certbot, reloaded apache2, and reemptied the browser cache and pointing my browser to HTTP://stream.seth.wtf still redirects to port 8080 yet stream.seth.wtf is in the title bar. I assume *:80 virtual hosts redirect to the *:443 virtual hosts then the owncast-le-ssl.conf file is redirecting all SSL requests to port 8080.

I realize your time is valuable and I really appreciate your attention. I suspect this problem is reproducible and probably a conditional that needs attention. I'm just not there yet.

I hope I'm missing something obvious. Here are the current directories and virtual host files…

Regarding what's in the title bar (I assume you also mean URL bar), it's generally expected that whatever you type into the URL bar will stay there regardless of what webpage Apache sends back. The URL bar will only change if you do something like send an HTTP redirect header to actually redirect the web browser to a different URL, or include an HTML meta tag to do that. Otherwise, the configuration and fallbacks that Apache has in place are transparent to the client-side web browser. The browser doesn't know which Apache config file or Apache virtual hosts it's receiving data through.

I think I've spotted what you did wrong. This is your current owncast-le-ssl.conf file:


You've correctly identified that all traffic is being redirected (or, rather, proxied) to port 8080. The reason is because you put that configuration after the closing </VirtualHost> tag, which means it's just general configuration you've applied to your server (any files before it are applied first, hence why the HTTP to HTTPS redirects are working, but the configuration is still being applied).

The "additional configuration" from Step 9 of my guide is supposed to go inside of the <VirtualHost> … </VirtualHost> block. That will restrict the configuration to only traffic destined for that virtual host. You can see where I inserted it at this timestamp of my video– I actually put it before the SSL certificate lines, although off the top of my head, I think putting it after those lines would behave the same, as long as it's inside of the VirtualHost block.

Let me know if that helps!

Thank you so much. I was running out of hair to pull out. I must have looked at that video until I couldn't see what was plainly in front of me. I had to move the </IFModule> statement too. Next up for me, a dive into Javascript. This is a great resource.

Glad I could help! And thanks a bunch for joining the Nerd Club. I just added your website user to the group for that.