CentOS - Nov 2017 - Strrange behavior of VirtualHosts in Apache (CentOS6)

Hello,

there is a short explanation about virtual hosts in Apache ...
https://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/ApacheVhostDefault

the `hostname` gives a different donmain name than what should be hosted ...
e.g.  `hostname` is  host.example.org and the domain to be hosted is
example.com, so I did this:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerName host.example.org
DocumentRoot /var/www/default
</VirtualHost>

# used to get let's encrypt for the mail server
<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerName mail.example.org
ServerAlias smtp.example.org
DocumentRoot /var/www/mail
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerName www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/domain
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
ServerAlias *.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/catchall
</VirtualHost>

the DocumentRoot directories are empty,
only in /var/www/default I have a PHP script:  host.php
<?php
header( "Content-type: text/plain" );
printf( "Host: '%s'\n", $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] );
?>

now the strange behavior;

http://mail.example.org/ <-- works
http://smtp.example.org/ <-- doen't work
http://smtp.example.org/host.php <-- gives the HTTP_HOST (PHP-script),
                                     but why?

http://www.example.com/  <-- works
http://hello.example.com/ <-- doesn't work
http://hello.example.com/host.php <-- gives the HTTP_HOST (PHP-script),
                                      but why?

doesn't work does mean, that access/errors are logged in logfile of wrong
virtual host ...

where is my mistake;

Thanks,
Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: CentOS [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Walter H.
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2017 4:32 AM
To: centos at centos.org
Subject: [CentOS] Strrange behavior of VirtualHosts in Apache (CentOS6)
> Hello,
> 
> there is a short explanation about virtual hosts in Apache ...
> https://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/ApacheVhostDefault
That page has not been updated since 2009, while it may be correct
there is no reason not to use the correct documentation, the section
of interest is short: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/name-based.html
> <VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
> ServerName host.example.org
> DocumentRoot /var/www/default
> </VirtualHost>
So this becomes your default vhost when a match is not found and explains
why the php file is invoked when the order of specificity falls through.
 
> http://mail.example.org/ <-- works
> http://smtp.example.org/ <-- doen't work
> http://smtp.example.org/host.php <-- gives the HTTP_HOST (PHP-script),
>                                      but why?
> 
> http://www.example.com/  <-- works
> http://hello.example.com/ <-- doesn't work
> http://hello.example.com/host.php <-- gives the HTTP_HOST (PHP-script),
>                                       but why?
Do you have the correct ip address in your vhost config? I would
bet if you read the log, you will see what is happening and how it differs from
what you expect.

Some more in-depth details at
https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/details.html

On Mon, November 13, 2017 15:54, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CentOS [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Walter H.
> Sent: Monday, November 13, 2017 4:32 AM
> To: centos at centos.org
> Subject: [CentOS] Strrange behavior of VirtualHosts in Apache (CentOS6)
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> there is a short explanation about virtual hosts in Apache ...
>> https://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/ApacheVhostDefault
>
> That page has not been updated since 2009, while it may be correct
> there is no reason not to use the correct documentation, the section
> of interest is short:
> https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/name-based.html
>> <VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
>> ServerName host.example.org
>> DocumentRoot /var/www/default
>> </VirtualHost>
>
> So this becomes your default vhost when a match is not found and explains
> why the php file is invoked when the order of specificity falls through.
>
>> http://mail.example.org/ <-- works
>> http://smtp.example.org/ <-- doen't work
>> http://smtp.example.org/host.php <-- gives the HTTP_HOST
(PHP-script),
>>                                      but why?
>>
>> http://www.example.com/  <-- works
>> http://hello.example.com/ <-- doesn't work
>> http://hello.example.com/host.php <-- gives the HTTP_HOST
(PHP-script),
>>                                       but why?
>
> Do you have the correct ip address in your vhost config?
yes
> I would
> bet if you read the log, you will see what is happening and how it differs
> from
> what you expect.
not really, the strange thing was something different;

httpd -S lists all vhosts, and at last
'Syntax OK'

and exact this was the strange; I'm used to add the port number to
ServerAlias and this was the mistake ...
httpd -S, didn't realize this

I removed the port numbers from ServerAlias entries and now it works :-)
> Some more in-depth details at
> https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/details.html
Greetings,
Walter