Setup Varnish and Apache 2 on Ubuntu 17.04 / 17.10
Please note: Ubuntu 17.04 and Ubuntu 17.10 have reached end-of-life status, they will not receieve any further updates. We advise users to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu.
Install Apache2
First run the commands below to install Apache2 webserver.
apt-get update
apt-get install apache2
After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 to always startup everytime the server boots up.
systemctl stop apache2.service
systemctl start apache2.service
systemctl enable apache2.service
By default apache2 HTTP service automatically is bound to port 80 and 443 for HTTPS.
Install Varnish
Run the commands below to install Varnish
apt-get install varnish
After installing Varnish, the commands below can be used to start, stop and enable Varnish to always start up when the server boots
systemctl stop varnish.service
systemctl start varnish.service
systemctl enable varnish.service
Switch Apache 2 default port To 8080
Open Apache2 default port configuration file at /etc/apache2/ports.conf and change the Listen value to 8080
To quickly change the port run the commands below to open Apache2 default port configuration file.
nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf
Then make sure the file has these lines. Save when done.
# If you just change the port or add more ports here, you will likely also
# have to change the VirtualHost statement in
# /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8080
Listen 127.0.0.1:8080
Next, open the Apache2 default virtualhost config file.
nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
Then make the change below.
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8080>
Save then file and exit.
Then restart Apache2
systemctl restart apache2.service
If you wish to access Apache2 directly, you’ll have to enter the server IP or hostname followed by port # 8080.
example, http://VPS_IP_ADDRESS:8080
Configure Varnish to use port 80
To assign port 80 to Varnish, run the commands below.
Varnish default configure file is location at /etc/default/varnish
Open it by running the commands below:
nano /etc/default/varnish
Then look for the config block under Alternative 2 and make the highlighted changes as shown below.
## Alternative 2, Configuration with VCL
#
# Listen on port 6081, administration on localhost:6082, and forward to
# one content server selected by the vcl file, based on the request.
#
DAEMON_OPTS="-a :80 \
-T localhost:6082 \
-f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
-S /etc/varnish/secret \
-s malloc,256m"
Save the file when you’re done.
Next, run the commands below to open the default.vcl file
nano /etc/varnish/default.vcl
Then verify the line shown below is what you see.
# Default backend definition. Set this to point to your content server.
backend default {
.host = "127.0.0.1";
.port = "8080";
}
Save the file and close out.
Next, run the commands below to start Varnish if it won’t start.
/usr/sbin/varnishd -a :80 -b localhost:8080
After that, restart both Apache2 and Varnish
systemctl restart apache2.service
systemctl restart varnish.service
If everything is setup correctly, Varnish should be the default listener of port 80. To test, run the commands below.
curl -I http://localhost
The results should be something like the one below
root@vps:~# curl -I http://localhost
HTTP/1.1 2OO OK
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2017 17:04:09 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.Z7 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Tue, 07 Nov 2017 16:41:16 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Type: text/html
X-Varnish: 32770 4
Age: 63
Via: 1.1 varnish (Varnish/5.0)
ETag: W/"2aa6-55d673d5f2da7-gzip"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Connection: keep-alive
root@vps:~#