A particular sub-domain in a virtual host is not redirecting, but others succed

Question

I like my website to be accessible by example.org or https://example.org not www.example.org.

So I want http://www.example.org to redirect to http://example.org and http://www.example.org to https://example.org.

But an interesting thing happens:

https://www.example.org redirects to https://example.org but not http://www.example.org to http://example.org

My main.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.org

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName example.org

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    SSLCertificateFile /pathtocert.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /pathtokey.pem
</VirtualHost>

<Directory "/var/www/html">
    Options FollowSymlinks ExecCGI
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

My www.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.example.org
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

    RedirectPermanent / http://example.org

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName www.example.org

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

    RedirectPermanent / https://example.org

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    SSLCertificateFile /pathtocert.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /pathtokey.pem
</VirtualHost>



<Directory "/var/www/html">
    Options FollowSymlinks ExecCGI
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

So what seems to be the problem? Also shouldn't both http and https redirects fail or succeed together?

What happens instead of the redirect? Do you have any log lines from whe it hasn't worked as it should? — Jenny D, Aug 26 '17 at 19:45
Really, Mr Finch, I would have expected that configuring apache would be trivial to you... maybe give Root a call? — Jenny D, Aug 26 '17 at 19:46
@JennyD Nice try Miss Shaw, I am not letting you anywhere near the server. — Finch, Aug 30 '17 at 20:35

Finch · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-04T23:27:42.013

The issue is with DNS 'A' and 'AAAA' records for the domain. There is a pre-configured A/AAAA record for www which is causing all the issues. I removed them and added a new one *.example.org. DNS redirects all wildcard subdomains to the server. The onus is now on the web server on how to deal with them.

It works fine now.

Also check this: How to redirect all wildcard subdomain to a particular subdomain? Having issues with a subdomain which runs nextcloud server

Danduk82 · Answer 2 · 2017-08-26T19:42:04.243

You might want to setup a rewrite, you might want something like this:

<VirtualHost *:80> RewriteEngine On # this redirect only www.example.org to https RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example.org [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.org [NC] # this redirects anything to its https equivalent RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R,L] </VirtualHost>

alternatively, I guess you should simply modify your redirect rule in the *:80 from RedirectPermanent / http://example.orgto RedirectPermanent / https://example.org . The redirect has to point to https, not http...

A particular sub-domain in a virtual host is not redirecting, but others succed

2 Answers2