Hi all,

I am encountering problem with setting up Apache secure server on a old RH 9.0 box.

The web server is running alright and http requests work fine.

I had recompiled with --enable-ssl and the both http and https requests work if I set the DocumentRoot to the default /usr/local/apache2/htdocs. But whenever I change it to my server specific /home/web/homepage, I get a 403 forbidden error message "You don't have permission to access / on this server." for https requests only. But the http request still works very fine ! :O

Since http works, it is perhaps not an issue with access permissions to files and folders.

The error_log shows:

[Tue Dec 11 12:00:55 2007] [notice] Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.4 OpenSSL/0.9.7a PHP/5.2.2 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Dec 11 12:02:51 2007] [notice] SIGHUP received. Attempting to restart
[Tue Dec 11 12:02:51 2007] [warn] RSA server certificate is a CA certificate (BasicConstraints: CA == TRUE !?)
[Tue Dec 11 12:02:51 2007] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName (CN) `liquid.sscu.iisc.ernet.in' does NOT match server name!?
[Tue Dec 11 12:02:51 2007] [notice] Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.4 OpenSSL/0.9.7a PHP/5.2.2 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Dec 11 12:02:55 2007] [error] [client 10.96.10.10] client denied by server configuration: /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/

I could not figure out the problem from the error message. Any help or suggestion will be appreciated.


Thanks,
Suman Chakrabarty.

Well, I have solved the above problem just after posting the thread !

The indication was in "Tue Dec 11 12:02:55 2007] [error] [client 10.96.10.10] client denied by server configuration: /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/"

I did not know that SSL needs separate DocumentRoot setting in httpd-ssl.conf ! When I change it from /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/ to /home/web/homepage, it works perfectly !

Now I have a second related question to ask. I want to serve a few folders (e.g. webmail) ONLY under https, and NOT http. How do I achieve that ?


Thanks,
Suman.

Only plug the https where you want to use it. If someone tries http, create some .htaccess that redirects to https.