How to Host Your First Simple Web Page with Apache on Ubuntu

From a Blank Server to a Live Web Page

The ‘Ubuntu System Administration Guide’ provides a clear, step-by-step tutorial on how to serve your first static HTML page using the Apache web server.

The Process

1. Create a Web Root: First, you’ll create a directory for your application’s files, for example, `/var/www/html/myapp`.
2. Create an `index.html` File: Inside your new directory, you’ll create a basic `index.html` file. This is the default file that a web server looks for when a visitor accesses a directory.
3. Configure Apache: You’ll then edit Apache’s default site configuration file (`/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf`). The key change is updating the `DocumentRoot` directive to point to your new application directory:

   DocumentRoot /var/www/html/myapp

4. Restart and View: After restarting the Apache service (`systemctl restart apache2`), you can open a web browser and navigate to your server’s IP address to see your ‘Hello’ page live on the internet.

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This post is based from content of the book Ubuntu System adminstration guide. And the book can be found here https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mattias-Hemmingsson/author/B0FF5CQX13