Site does not exist error for a2ensite

Question

I have cmsplus.dev under /etc/apache2/sites-available with the following code,

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName www.cmsplus.dev
    ServerAlias cmsplus.dev

    DocumentRoot /var/www/cmsplus.dev/public

    LogLevel warn
    ErrorLog /var/www/cmsplus.dev/log/error.log
    CustomLog /var/www/cmsplus.dev/log/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Now when I use sudo /usr/sbin/a2ensite cmsplus.dev, I am getting the error,

ERROR: Site cmsplus.dev does not exist!

My webserver Apache/2.4.6 (Ubuntu)

How to solve this issue?

Traveler_3994 · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-26 07:26:25Z

690

Solved the issue by adding .conf extension to site configuration files.

Apache a2ensite results in:

Error! Site Does Not Exist

Problem; If you found the error while trying to enable a site using:

sudo a2ensite example.com

but it returns:

Error: example.com does not exist

a2ensite is simply a Perl script that only works with filenames ending .conf

Therefore, I have to rename my setting file for example.com to example.com.conf as might be achieved as follows:

mv /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

Success

edited Jul 26, 2019 at 7:26

Traveler_3994

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answered Dec 15, 2013 at 6:54

Anshad Vattapoyil

23.3k18 gold badges88 silver badges132 bronze badges

26

Weird! This used to work fine without an extension in Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10.
– FloatingRock
Mar 26, 2014 at 11:21
Same for me. Like says Guilherme the apache2.conf changed between ubuntu or Apache versions.
– Nicolas Zozol
Aug 11, 2014 at 13:35
7

As an alternative I believe you could just edit the apache.conf file. The relevant line is "IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf" Remove the .conf on the end and you'll be back to what worked in 12.04. I think this may be a change Debian made that trickeled into Ubuntu, but I'm not sure.
– Josiah
Sep 11, 2014 at 3:19
2

Why is this answers 3rd? This is the correct way of doing it.
– nish
Sep 29, 2014 at 6:41
I had already given up after changing pretty much everything... I will remember to add the .conf extension from now on...
– wtf8_decode
Mar 2, 2015 at 17:53

| Show 4 more comments

consuela · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-27 11:45:45Z

96

You probably updated your Ubuntu installation and one of the updates included the upgrade of Apache to version 2.4.x

In Apache 2.4.x the vhost configuration files, located in the /etc/apache2/sites-available directory, must have the .conf extension.

Using terminal (mv command), rename all your existing configuration files and add the .conf extension to all of them.

mv /etc/apache2/sites-available/cmsplus.dev /etc/apache2/sites-available/cmsplus.dev.conf

If you get a "Permission denied" error, then add "sudo " in front of your terminal commands.

You do not need to make any other changes to the configuration files.

Enable the vhost(s):

a2ensite cmsplus.dev.conf

And then reload Apache:

service apache2 reload

Your sites should be up and running now.

UPDATE: As mentioned here, a Linux distribution that you installed changed the configuration to Include *.conf only. Therefore it has nothing to do with Apache 2.2 or 2.4

edited May 27, 2017 at 11:45

answered Aug 18, 2014 at 10:28

consuela

1,6956 gold badges21 silver badges24 bronze badges

1

Strange, I got the error when I tried to enable a site using a path: "sudo a2ensite /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf". On the other hand opening a console window within the sites-available directory and running "sudo a2ensite example.com.conf" executed perfectly.
– Mark Lee
Aug 27, 2021 at 19:53
I also tried within sites available folder and. just worked that ubuntu 20.04
– Supun Madhushanka
Oct 12, 2022 at 4:48
@MarkLee, the a2ensite command doesn't expect a path. Just sudo a2ensite example.com should have worked regardless of the directory you were in
– Chris Davies
Mar 29, 2023 at 11:28

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Guilherme · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-19 19:11:18Z

28

There's another good way, just edit the file apache2.conf theres a line at the end

IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

just remove the .conf at the end, like this

IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*

and restart the server.

(I tried this only in the Ubuntu 13.10, when I updated it.)

edited Jun 19, 2014 at 19:11

answered Apr 29, 2014 at 21:35

Guilherme

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1

Hmm... I tried this on Ubuntu 14.04 and it didn't work. Adding .conf to the config files did, though.
– Clifton Labrum
Jun 16, 2014 at 19:32
strange, I had this error when I updated my ubuntu 12.04 to 13.10 (because I substituted unintentionally the apache config files). In the 14.04 update I remembered to not substitute, and I did had any trouble.
– Guilherme
Jun 19, 2014 at 19:08
This is really not a good way. Files under sites-enabled are symlinks to the corresponding files under sites-available and should just be removed to disable the site - that is in fact what a2dissite does a2ensite correspondingly enables the site.
– Dokbua
May 15, 2020 at 9:47

Add a comment |

cslotty · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-01 10:26:40Z

8

I just had the same problem. I'd say it has nothing to do with the apache.conf.

a2ensite must have changed - line 532 is the line that enforces the .conf suffix:

else {
    $dir    = 'sites';
    $sffx   = '.conf';
    $reload = 'reload';
}

If you change it to:

else {
    $dir    = 'sites';
    #$sffx   = '.conf';
    $sffx   = '';
    $reload = 'reload';
}

...it will work without any suffix.

Of course you wouldn't want to change the a2ensite script, but changing the conf file's suffix is the correct way.

It's probably just a way of enforcing the ".conf"-suffix.

answered Oct 1, 2014 at 10:26

cslotty

1,74620 silver badges29 bronze badges

See this question too: askubuntu.com/questions/362682/…
– cslotty
Oct 2, 2014 at 15:03

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Giacomo1968 · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-18 03:22:11Z

So .. quickest way is rename site config names ending in ".conf"

mv /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.conf

a2ensite mysite.conf

other notes on previous comments:

IncludeOptional wasn't introduced until apache 2.36 - making change above followed by restart on 2.2 will leave your server down!
also, version 2.2 a2ensite can't be hacked as described

as well, since your sites-available file is actually a configuration file, it should be named that way anyway..

In general do not restart services (webservers are one type of service):

folks can't find them if they are not running! Think linux not MS Windows..

Servers can run for many years - live update, reload config, etc.

The cloud doesn't mean you have to restart to load a configuration file.

When changing configuration of a service use "reload" not "restart".
restart stops the service then starts service - if there is a any problem in your change to the config, the service will not restart.
reload will give an error but the service never shuts down giving you a chance to fix the config error which could only be bad syntax.

debian or ubunto [service-name for this thread is apache2]

service {service-name} {start} {stop} {reload} ..

other os's left as an excersize for the reader.

kator · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-13 04:30:22Z

6

Worked after I added .conf to the configuration file

answered Nov 13, 2016 at 4:30

kator

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Dave · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-13 06:03:51Z

6

I realise that's not the case here but it might help someone.

Double-check you didn't create the conf file in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled by mistake. You get the same error.

answered Jan 13, 2019 at 6:03

Dave

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Where should the file be?
– Lucas Steffen
Oct 4, 2022 at 2:32
2

@LucasSteffen /etc/apache2/sites-available. From memory, the one in sites-enabled is created automatically
– Dave
Oct 5, 2022 at 5:05
1

There are so many online "guides" that get this wrong.
– Trunk
Apr 11, 2023 at 14:09

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Alexandre Ribeiro · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-04 19:51:52Z

I have just upgraded the Ubuntu Server version from 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS.

Indeed, as said above, the .conf extension to Apache 2.4.x is needed to the websites vhost files that resides on sites-available directory.

Before read this question I did not have a clue what was going on with the server.

Pretty nice solution.

Just summarizing I did the following steps on Terminal:

1) Access sites-enabled folder

$ cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled

2) Because the command a2dissite will not work with deprecated files (without .conf) remove the old website files that was published

$ sudo rm <my-old-website-without-.conf>

3) Rename the website vhost files changing its extension adding .conf to the end

$ sudo mv /etc/apache2/sites-available/mywebsite /etc/apache2/sites-available/mywebsite.conf

4) Republish the new and correct vhost file

$ sudo a2ensite mywebsite.conf

5) Check the website on browser and have fun! :)

Thanks, that's the only thing that did it for me: cleaning sites-enabled before re-enabling them. — Clément, Feb 3, 2022 at 3:31

SysManSD · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-09 15:14:26Z

2

In my case with Ubuntu 14.04.3 and Apache 2.4.7, the problem was that I copied site1.conf to make site2.conf available, and by copying, something happend and I could not a2ensite site2.conf with the error described in thread.

The solution for me, was to rename site2.conf to site2 and then again rename site2 to site2.conf. After that I was able to a2ensite site2.conf.

answered Dec 9, 2015 at 15:14

SysManSD

211 bronze badge

1

yes, this is working in Ubuntu 20. cd /etc/apache2/sites-available, mv mysite.conf mysite && mv mysite mysite.conf. Then a2ensite mysite.conf shows Enabling site mysite. Then we can systemctl start apache2 or systemctl reload apache2
– Junior Mayhé
Feb 16, 2022 at 19:07

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Bằng Rikimaru · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-31 08:07:58Z

0

I had the same issue, because of I tried to use absolute path.

 sudo a2ensite /etc/apache2/sites-available/test.conf

instead just run

 sudo a2ensite test.conf

it will work after

sudo systemctl reload apache2

answered May 31, 2023 at 8:07

Bằng Rikimaru

1,5622 gold badges27 silver badges52 bronze badges

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Balaji Perumal · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-15 06:34:58Z

-2

Try like this..

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName www.cmsplus.dev
    ServerAlias cmsplus.dev

    DocumentRoot /var/www/cmsplus.dev/public

    LogLevel warn
    ErrorLog /var/www/cmsplus.dev/log/error.log
    CustomLog /var/www/cmsplus.dev/log/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

and add entry in /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 www.cmsplus.dev

restart apache..

answered Dec 15, 2013 at 6:34

Balaji Perumal

8601 gold badge6 silver badges20 bronze badges

Now it's giving me the default It works page instead of the settings.
– Anshad Vattapoyil
Dec 15, 2013 at 6:44
Do you have multiple virtual hosts configuration? Can you post whole file content?
– Balaji Perumal
Dec 15, 2013 at 6:50
3

Thanks, solved this issue by just adding .conf extension to these site configuration files.
– Anshad Vattapoyil
Dec 15, 2013 at 6:51

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