Manual-Guide-Hosting-a-Website-on-a-CentOS-VM

In my previous article, I provided a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a CentOS VM with Vagrant. In this post, I'll walk you through the process of hosting an HTML template on CentOS with the help of httpd on a Vagrant-managed VM.

Tools used

• Ready-made template: Free HTML website templates from [tooplate.com]
• Vagrant: Automates the creation and management of virtual environments.
• CentOS: A free, enterprise-class Linux distribution, ideal for server environments.
• Git Bash: A command-line tool that allows users to run Git commands and other Unix-based utilities on Windows.

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Create and Initialize a Vagrant Directory

• Navigate to your vagrant-vms directory and create a new directory named finance using the command mkdir finance.

  

• Initialize Vagrant in this directory with: vagrant init eurolinux-vagrant/centos-stream-9.

  

2. Configure the Vagrantfile

• Open the Vagrantfile in the finance directory with vim Vagrantfile.

  

• Press i to enter insert mode, then uncomment and modify the lines for the IP address and memory size. Change the IP from 192.168.33.10 to 192.168.56.22.

Before

After

• Press esc button on your PC to switch back to command mode.
• Type :wq to save and exit the file.

3. Launch the VM

• Start the VM with the command vagrant up.

  

• Once the VM is up, log in to the VM with the vagrant ssh command.

  

• Switch to the root user by running sudo -i.

  

4. Update the VM Hostname

• Change the hostname by editing the /etc/hostname file with vi /etc/hostname.

• vi: is the default editor that comes with the LINUX operating system.

  

• Once the editor is up, type the new name, and type :wq to save and exit the vim editor.

  

• Apply the new hostname by running hostname finance.

5. We will require the following packages:

• httpd: The package is needed to host websites on CentOS.
• wget: A tool for downloading files, such as HTML templates.
• vim: A text editor for modifying files.
• unzip: A utility for extracting files from ZIP archives.

6. Install necessary packages

• Install the required packages using the command: yum install httpd wget vim unzip zip -y.

• The complete message at the end signifies the installation was Successful.

  

7. Start the httpd Service

• Start and enable the httpd service with the following commands:

  • systemctl start httpd
  • systemctl enable httpd

  

8. Check the VM's IP Address

• Verify the IP address with ip addr show.

  

• Test access by navigating to http://192.168.56.22/ in your web browser.

  

9. Download an HTML Template

• Select a free HTML website template from [tooplate.com], For this project, I chose the Mini finance template.

  

• Copy the download link from the browser's developer tools (F12).

  

  

10. Download and Extract the Template

• Navigate to the HTML folder with cd var/www/html/

• Navigate to the directory to the tmp directory with cd /tmp/

• Download the template using wget https://www.tooplate.com/zip-templates/2135_mini_finance.zip

  

• Unzip the downloaded file with unzip 2135_mini_finance.zip

  

• Confirm operation was successful

  

11. Deploy the Template to the Web Server

• Use command cd 2135_mini_finance to navigate to the HTML template directory

• Copy the template files to the web server's root directory with cp -r * /var/www/html/

• Confirm copy was successful

  

12. Restart the httpd Service

• Ensure the httpd service is running smoothly by restarting it and checking its status: - systemctl start httpd - systemctl status httpd

13. Verify the Website Visit http://192.168.56.22/ in your browser to confirm the website is up and running.