Troubleshooting - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

security settings. At least you should limit the user's engagement by using the directive
AllowOverRide. In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, .htaccess files are enabled
by default, but the user is not allowed to overwrite any Option directives when using
mod_userdir (see the /etc/apache2/mod_userdir.conf configuration file).

27.8 Troubleshooting

If Apache does not start, the Web page is not accessible, or users cannot connect to the
Web server, it is important to find the cause of the problem. Here are some typical
places to look for error explanations and important things to check.
First, rcapache2 (described in
(page 388)) is verbose about errors, so can be quite helpful if it is actually used for op-
erating Apache. Sometimes it is tempting to use the binary /usr/sbin/httpd2 for
starting or stopping the Web server. Avoid doing this and use the rcapache2 script
instead. rcapache2 even provides tips and hints for solving configuration errors.
Second, the importance of log files cannot be overemphasized. In case of both fatal and
nonfatal errors, the Apache log files, mainly the error log file, are the places to look for
causes. Additionally, you can control the verbosity of the logged messages with the
LogLevel directive if more detail is needed in the log files. By default, the error log
file is located at /var/log/apache2/error_log.
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.
A common mistake is to not open the ports for Apache in the firewall configuration of
the server. If you configure Apache with YaST, there is a separate option available to
take care of this specific issue (see
(page 381)). If you are configuring Apache manually, open firewall ports for HTTP and
HTTPS via YaST's firewall 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,
Section 27.3, "Starting and Stopping Apache"
Section 27.2.2, "Configuring Apache with YaST"
The Apache HTTP Server 409