VirtualHost always returns default host with Apache on Ubuntu 14.04

Question

I try to setup a virtual host besides the default localhost. Whenever I try to call my virtual host http://test I get the default Apache2 Index file t

Answer 1

If you have already tried the following:
1. Checked permissions of the document root and parent folder.
2. a2dissite 000-default etc.
3. Restarted apache with sudo service apache2 reload
And it is still not working then do the following:

1. Enable debug logging:
vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
LogLevel debug

2. Restart apache2 and monitor the logs
sudo service apache2 restart
tail -f /var/log/apache2/*.log

3. Notice if the IP of the server is showing in the logs as expected:

==> /var/log/apache2/other_vhosts_access.log <== ip-xxx-xx-xx-xx.eu-west-2.compute.internal:80 xx.78.xx.2xx - - [13/Sep/2017:18:40:44 +0100] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 3509 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:55.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/55.0"

You'll notice that instead of xxx.xx.xx.xx:80 like a typical IP address
I've got some FQDN like "ip-xxx-xx-xx-xx.eu-west-2.compute.internal:80"
I'm using AWS Elastic IP's to make a fixed IP for my Amazon EC2 web server.

4. Check the head of your virtual-hosts .conf file

# Added from nessus to make more secure
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK)
RewriteRule .* - [F]
ServerName mydomain.com
...

OK so what we see here is we're telling Apache to serve this vhost for requests from 127.0.0.1 or 11.22.33.44 on port 80. But the server never sees these IPs as it get's that weird FQDN and so it never matches! Eureka!

SOLUTION:
Add *:80 to the VirtualHost tag so it looks like this:

AND restart apache. I hope this helps. There may be other reasons but if this is the cause of your problem then it's time to sit back, have a cuppa tea and relax! If not then I hope you find the solution.

PS. Remember to put your logs back to warn rather than debug!