How to Install Apache on Debian 9 Server

Apache is an open-source and cross-platform HTTP server that powers a large number of websites. Apache web server is the most widely-used web server in the world. It also has many powerful features, dynamically loadable modules with other popular software. In this tutorial, we will explain how to install Apache web server on Debian 9.

Install Apache on Debian 9#

Apache installation is very easy because Apache is available in the default Debian repositories.

Prerequisites#

You need Debian 9 server with a non-root user account and make sure that you have full root access.

At first, we will update the package index and then will install the apache2 package using below commands :

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

Here, we use sudo as command so these operations are executed with root privileges and it will prompt you to enter your regular user password to verify.

Once Apache is installed and it will start apache2 service automatically.

Adjusting the Firewall#

After Apache installation make sure that your firewall allows HTTP and HTTPS traffic. You can check “WWW” profile enables traffic or not by typing :

sudo ufw app info "WWW Full"

Output
Profile: WWW Full
Title: Web Server (HTTP,HTTPS)
Description: Web Server (HTTP,HTTPS)

Ports:
   80,443/tcp

Allow incoming HTTP and HTTPS traffic for this profile:

sudo ufw allow in "WWW Full"

Testing Apache Installation#

You can also check Apache status by execute below command :

sudo systemctl status apache2

It will show you output like below :

Output
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-03-23 16:30:47 UTC; 13min ago
  Main PID: 491 (apache2)
    CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
            ├─ 491 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
            ├─1723 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
            └─1724 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Another method to check is, open your web browser, type your server IP address or domain name http://YOUR_SERVER_IP and you will see the default Apache welcome page as shown below:

Manage Apache Processes#

Now your web server is installed and up to run so we will see some basic management commands.

To stop Apache service you can run :

sudo systemctl stop apache2

You can again start Apache service by type :

sudo systemctl start apache2

To do Restart (stop and start) the Apache service:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

If you have need to making configuration changes, Apache can reload without dropping connections. For this, use this command:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

If you want to disable the Apache service type:

sudo systemctl disable apache2

To re-enable the service to start up at boot, type:

sudo systemctl enable apache2

Finally, you have successfully installed Apache on your Debian 9 server.