Create a WWW-domain

Main settings

1. Enter a WWW-domain Name.
   Details

   The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   server_name <WWW-domain name>;

   The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   ServerName <WWW-domain name>

2. Aliases — enter the name of the alias(es) that you want to add for this WWW-domain. By default, after you enter a WWW-domain name the alias "www." is set automatically. The A-record is created for the alias. Learn more under Resource records.
   Details

   The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   server_name <WWW-domain name>;

   aliases of the WWW-domain are added:

   Nginx configuration file

   server_name <WWW-domain name> <WWW-domain aliases>;

   The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   ServerAlias <WWW-domain aliases>;

3. Enter a Root directory of the website. It contains the website files on the server. 
   Details

   The following strings are added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   set $root_path <path to the root directory>; root $root_path;

   The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   DocumentRoot <path to the root directory>

4. Select a content management system (CMS) in the Select a script field.  A CMS is used to add different content to a website (articles, photos, pages, etc.). If you don't have a CMS you will need to edit the website source file manually in order to add or edit the content.  ISPmanager supports CMS Drupal, Prestashop, WordPress, joomla, phpBB.
5. Select a WWW-domain Owner. This is an ISPmanager user.
   Details

   A directory with the username is created in /vhosts. The directory contains the Nginx configuration file .conf for the WWW-domain.A directory with the username is created in /conf/vhosts. The directory contains the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain.
6. Select an IP-address source:
   1. allocate automatically — the control panel selects an IP address from the pool in Settings → IP addresses.
   2. enter manually — you can select an IP address in the  IP address field from the list of IPs in Settings→ IP addresses.
      Details

      The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

      Nginx configuration file

      listen <IP address>:<port>;

      The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

      Apache configuration file

      <VirtualHost <IP address>:<port>>

      Port 80 is used per default for an insecure connection and port 443 is used for a secure one.
7. Enter the Administrator email that will be displayed on the web-server and WWWd-domain error pages.
   Details

   The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   ServerAdmin <Administrator email>

8. Select Encoding. It defines a set of characters to represent the content of your website:
   
   1. Do not select— use the default value for the database;
   2. utf-8 — contains any Unicode characters including Latin and Cyrillic ones. We recommend that you use this universal encoding; 
   Details

   The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   charset <encoding>;

   The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   AddDefaultCharset <encoding>

   Note

   To modify a list of encodings create the /usr/local/mgr5/etc/charset file and enter the required values.
9. Enter the Index page of the website. This page will open if a user tries to open a website buy its domain name but doesn't specify a certain page. E.g. trying to open www.example.com or www.example.com/test instead of www.example.com/index.php. You can enter several pages separated by spaces in descending order of priority. If the first page doesn't exist, the second one will open, etc. 
   Details

   The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   index <index pages>;

   The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   DirectoryIndex <index pages>

10. Check the SSI box to execute SSI commands before a page will be shown to users. SSI is a programming language which allows adding the dynamically generated content to a page.
    Details

    The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

    Nginx configuration file

    ssi on;

    The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

    Apache configuration file

    Options +Includes 

11. Select the Default domain check box. If several websites are associated with a single IP address and a user tries to open the website by its IP, the website marked as a "default domain" will be opened. If this option is not selected for any website, the first domain in the alphabetic order will be opened. 
    Details

    The following string in the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain

    Nginx configuration file

    listen <IP-address>:<port>;

    will be changed into

    Apache configuration file

    listen <IP-address>:<port> default;

    In /conf/vhosts-default/ a symlink to the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain is created.
    Note

    Enabling the Default domain name will check that the IP address specified for the domain is assigned to the existing default domain. If the domain exists, it won't be a default one any longer.
12. Select the Auto-subdomain creation method. This function allows creating subdomains automatically without modifying their configuration. Subdomains are added automatically when the subdirectory is created in the website root directory: 
    
    1. disabled — do not create subdomains;
    2. separate directory — subdomain files will be created in the subdirectories /var/www/www-root/data/ with the name of the subdomain. E.g. for the subdomain www.test.example.com which root directory is located in /var/www/www-root/data/example.com, the subdomain files must be created in  /var/www/www-root/data/test.example.com.
       Details

       The following strings are added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

       Nginx configuration file

       set $root_path /var/www/www-root/data/www; set $subdomain <WWW-domain name>; if ($host ~* ^((.*).<WWW-domain name>)$) { set $subdomain $1; } root $root_path/$subdomain;

       The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

       Apache configuration file

       VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/www-root/data/www/%0

    3. domain subdirectory — subdomain files will be created in subdirectories of the website root directory. E.g. for the subdomain www.test.example.com which root directory is located in/var/www/www-root/data/example.com, the subdomain files must be created in /var/www/www-root/data/example.com/test. 
       Details

       The following strings are added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

       Nginx configuration file

       set $root_path /var/www/www-root/data/www/<WWW-domain name>; set $subdomain ""; if ($host ~* ^((.*).<WWW-domain name>)$) { set $subdomain $2; } root $root_path/$subdomain;

       The following string is added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

       Apache configuration file

       VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/www-root/data/www/<WWW-domain name>/%1

       Note

       Selecting "separate directory" or "domain subdirectory" adds "*." into the  Aliases field.
    Note

    You can select Auto-subdomains provided that the Default option is disabled for the domain.

Secure connection 

Select the checkbox Secure connection (SSL) if you want to use the secure connection through the SSL protocol. You will need to install an SSL certificate on the website. 

ssl_certificate "/var/www/httpd-cert/www-root/<WWW-domain name>.crt"; ssl_certificate_key "/var/www/httpd-cert/www-root/<WWW-domain name>.key"; ssl_ciphers EECDH:+AES256:-3DES:RSA+AES:!NULL:!RC4; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam4096.pem listen [<IP-address>]:<port> ssl http2;

SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile "/var/www/httpd-cert/www-root/<WWW-domain name>.crt" SSLCertificateKeyFile "/var/www/httpd-cert/www-root/<WWW-domain name>.key" SSLHonorCipherOrder on SSLProtocol +TLSv1 +TLSv1.1 +TLSv1.2 SSLCipherSuite EECDH:+AES256:-3DES:RSA+AES:!NULL:!RC4

Secure connection parameters:

1. Select the HSTS option to enable encrypted connection and ensure better security. When HSTS is enabled for a website, browsers automatically change insecure requests to secure ones provided that the browser was connected to the website over a secure connection before. The server returns the response "301 Moved Permanently";
   Details

   The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000;"

   The following strings are added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   <IfModule headers_module> Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; preload" </IfModule>

2. Check the Redirect HTTP-requests to HTTPS box to change insecure requests to secure ones. The server returns the response "301 Moved Permanently.
   Details

   The following string is added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   return 301 https://$host:443$request_uri

   The following strings are added into the Apache configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

3. Change the SSL port if needed. It is used to open a secure connection. The default value is "443". 
   Details

   The port is specified in the Nginx configuration file of the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   listen [<IP address>]:<port> ssl http2;

   and in the Apache configuration file of the WWW-domain:

   Apache configuration file

   <VirtualHost <IP address>:<port>>

4. Select an SSL certificate that encrypts information transmitted between a user browser and a website.
   1. New self-signed — a free self-signed SSL certificate that is not trusted by browsers. When you open a website with a self-signed certificate, the browser will display a security alert. 
   2. New Let's Encrypt — a free trusted SSL certificate. 
   For more information please refer to the article  SSL certificates.

DDoS-protection 

You can set up a DDoS-protection tool that allows blocking IP addresses that send too many requests.  This feature is available only on Nginx. For more information please refer to the article  Install a web-server. 

To enable the DDoS protection tool, open the WWW-domain edit form and select the Enable DDoS protection checkbox. 

1. Requests per second — if the limit is exceeded,  requests from the IP address will be delayed for 5 minutes; 
2. Maximum peak attack size — if the limit is exceeded, new requests will be blocked. 

Support of dynamic content

PHP-scripts

To enable support of PHP scripts for the website, activate the PHP option:

1. PHP — select a PHP mode:
   • PHP as an Apache module — the apache mod_php module is used for PHP. One of its advantages is a higher speed capability.
   • PHP as CGI — PHP is run as a CGI script (Common Gateway Interface). It starts with each request and terminates after the script is executed.
   • PHP as FastCGI — Apache mod_fastcgi is used for PHP. 
   • FastCGI (Nginx + PHP-FPM) — dynamic content is managed by PHP-FPM.
2. Select a PHP (CGI) version for "CGI" and "FastCGI (Apache)". 
3. Disable the Use open_basedir option for "Apache module" if you want to allow PHP-scripts access all the server directories. With this option enables access to the WWW-domain root directory will be restricted. .

For more information please refer to the article  PHP modes .

CGI-scripts

To enable CGI-scripts for the website select the  CGI-scripts checkbox and select File extensions for the CGI-scripts.

location / { location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|svg|js|css|mp3|ogg|mpe?g|avi|zip|gz|bz2?|rar|swf)$ { try_files $uri $uri/ @fallback; } location / { try_files /does_not_exists @fallback; } } location @fallback { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080; proxy_redirect http://127.0.0.1:8080 /; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port $server_port; access_log off; }

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /var/www/<WWW-domain owner>/data/www/<domain name>/cgi-bin/ Options +ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script <file extensions>

Logs

1. Enable the option Access log to collect web-server statistics.
2. Enable the log analyzer for the WWW-domain:
   1. Select an Analyzer.
      Note

      This feature is available provided that Apache and the modules Awstats or Webalizer are installed. Learn more under Install a web-server
   2. Select a statistics Period. 
   3. Select a Report language.
   4. Enable the Restrict access to statistics option. Enter a Password and Confirm it. The login is the name of the WWW-domain owner.  
3. Error log — specify whether you want to store WWW-server error logs archives and rotate it.
4. Select a Rotation period.
5. Store archives —  enter the number of log file archives to be stored on the server. 

access_log /var/www/httpd-logs/<WWW-domain name>.access.log; error_log /var/www/httpd-logs/<WWW-domain name>.error.log notice;

CustomLog /var/www/httpd-logs/<WWW-domain name>.access.log combined ErrorLog /var/www/httpd-logs/<WWW-domain name>.error.log

To view the log go to Web-server settings → WWW-logs.

To view the reports go to Domains → WWW-domains → Statistics. Statistics for a WWW-domains is kept in /var/www//data/www//webstat.

Learn more under  Website statistics .

Optimization 

Website optimization allows improving your website performance. This option is available only for Nginx. 

1. Enable the Compression check box to compress static content, i.e. the files that are not modified very often: images, sounds, music, video, etc. Normally, such files occupy much space and slow down your website. Enter the Compression level. The maximum value is 9. The minimum — 1. We recommend that you set 5.
   Details

   The following strings are added into the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain:

   Nginx configuration file

   gzip on; gzip_comp_level <compression level>; gzip_disable "msie6"; gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript application/javascript

   Learn more in Enable compression .
2. Select the Caching check box to enable website content caching and specify how long the data will stay in cache. If you have caching turned on, slow operations that run when a user opens the website will be saved for a specified period. It allows performing fewer operations and showing the prepared data to users. However, if the cached content has been changed, it will be invisible to your users until the caching period expires.
   Details

   The location section of the Nginx configuration file for the WWW-domain

   Nginx configuration file

   location / { location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|svg|js|css|mp3|ogg|mpe?g|avi|zip|gz|bz2?|rar|swf)$ { try_files $uri $uri/ @fallback; }

   contains the string:

   Nginx configuration file

   expires <caching period>;

   Example:

   Nginx configuration file

   location / { location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|svg|js|css|mp3|ogg|mpe?g|avi|zip|gz|bz2?|rar|swf)$ { expires 2h; try_files $uri $uri/ @fallback; }