Multiple vhosts on one and the same docker contain

Question

I'm trying to run two different domains on one and the same Docker container and port.

The Docker container runs CentOS. docker-compose.yml looks like so:

web:
  image: fab/centos
  ports:
    - "80:80"
  volumes:
    - ./src/httpd.conf:/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
    - ./src:/var/www/html
    - ./src/hosts:/etc/hosts
  environment:
   - VIRTUAL_HOST=dummy.dev,tests.dev

I also declared both .dev domain names inside of /etc/hosts on the host computer (OS X.)

It's been a while since I configured virtual hosts. My understanding was that I just needed to declare them and that Apache would automatically serve the proper files depending on the HTTP HOST being requested.

This is what I have, added at the end of httpd.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80> # first host = default host
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/default
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/dummy
    ServerName dummy.dev
    ServerAdmin [e-mail]
    ErrorLog logs/dummy.dev-error_log
    CustomLog logs/dummy.dev-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/tests
    ServerName tests.dev
    ServerAdmin [e-mail]
    ErrorLog logs/tests.dev-error_log
    CustomLog logs/tests.dev-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

However, in practice, visiting either dummy.dev or tests.dev actually serves /var/www/html/default. This is as if Apache didn't realize which host is being called (though a dump of $_SERVER in PHP does show the expected HTTP_HOST value, i.e.: either 127.0.0.1, dummy.dev or tests.dev depending on which URL I visit.)

What did I miss?

It's unclear to me whether this is an Apache issue or a Docker one.

(Please note this is a different question from how to host multiple apps on the same domain with different port. In my case, I do want the virtual hosts to be all inside/on the same app/port/container.)

Answer 1

Turns out this was an Apache configuration issue.

I needed to explicitly enable domain-named virtualhosts, like so:

NameVirtualHost *:80

This answer helped.

Docker had nothing to do with the matter.

Answer 2

The fab/centos does not exist in public docker hub, so not sure why you are experiencing the issue.

My recommendation would be to take a step back and try to make it work with a simple example.

docker search apache yields eboraas/apache as most starred image, so I'll use that one for the example.

In a test directory, use your sample:

File: httpd.conf

<VirtualHost *:80> # first host = default host
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/default
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/dummy
    ServerName dummy.dev
    ServerAdmin [e-mail]
    ErrorLog logs/dummy.dev-error_log
    CustomLog logs/dummy.dev-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/tests
    ServerName tests.dev
    ServerAdmin [e-mail]
    ErrorLog logs/tests.dev-error_log
    CustomLog logs/tests.dev-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

Then create the vhost websites & the logs directory.

mkdir -p logs; for i in default tests dummy; do mkdir -p $i; echo "hello $i" > $i/index.html; done

Finally, run docker.

docker run -it -v $(pwd):/var/www/html -v $(pwd)/httpd.conf:/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf -v $(pwd)/logs:/etc/apache2/logs -p 9090:80 --rm --name apache_c eboraas/apache

Note that I use basically the same volumes as you did in your docker-compose.yml, except that I use site-available instead of changing the httpd.conf.

To test, make sure you have tests.dev and dummy.dev in your /etc/hosts pointing at the right Docker IP and test:

$> curl dummy.dev:9090
hello dummy
$> curl tests.dev:9090
hello tests

From this point, build up on top of this by first trying the docker apache image that you are using, then try with your custom /etc/hosts file, then put it back in a docker-compose file