Operation Manual
20.8 Troubleshooting
If Apache does not start, the Web page is not accessible, or users cannot connect to the
Web server, it is important to nd the cause of the problem. Here are some typical
places to look for error explanations and important things to check:
Output of rcapache2
Instead of starting and stopping the Web server with the binary /usr/sbin/
httpd2, rather use the rcapache2 script instead (described in Section 20.3,
“Starting and Stopping Apache” (page 376)). It is verbose about errors, and it even
provides tips and hints for xing conguration errors.
Log Files and Verbosity
In case of both fatal and nonfatal errors, check the Apache log les for causes,
mainly the error log le located at /var/log/apache2/error_log by default.
Additionally, you can control the verbosity of the logged messages with the
LogLevel directive if more detail is needed in the log les.
TIP: A Simple Test
Watch the Apache log messages with the command tail -F
/var/log/apache2/my_error_log. Then run rcapache2 restart.
Now, try to connect with a browser and check the output.
Firewall and Ports
A common mistake is to not open the ports for Apache in the rewall conguration
of the server. If you congure Apache with YaST, there is a separate option available
to take care of this specic issue (see Section 20.2.3, “Conguring Apache with
YaST” (page 369)). If you are conguring Apache manually, open rewall ports
for HTTP and HTTPS via YaST's rewall module.
If the error cannot be tracked down with the help of any these, check the online Apache
bug database at http://httpd.apache.org/bug_report.html. Additionally,
the Apache user community can be reached via a mailing list available at http://
httpd.apache.org/userslist.html. A recommended newsgroup is comp
.infosystems.www.servers.unix.
The Apache HTTP Server 399