Apache name-based virtual hosts and reverse DNS
On some operating systems such as Ubuntu, you can setup virtual hosts quite easily with the default Apache server (installed with APT). The global configuration file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf contains the following line as the last line by default:
Include sites-enabled/
This means all virtual hosts configurations are loaded from the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory in alphabetical order. If you list this directory, you will find there is already a symbolic link 000-default that points to /etc/apache2/sites-available/default. This default virtual host configuration file does not contain a ServerName directive, and neither does the global configuration file (/etc/apache2/apache2.conf) by default. The default port.conf contains the following line:
NameVirtualHost *:80
This means all the following name-virtual hosts will follow this NameVirtualHost directive, which receives requests on all interfaces on the server. [1]
Basically, you can place your own virtual host configuration file in /etc/apache2/sites-available directory and use the a2ensite command to enable this configuration (by creating a symbolic link at /etc/apache2/sites-enabled that Apache will load). If you owns a domain example.com and a subdomain wiki.example.com that both points to the IP address of this server, you can create a virtual host with ServerName wiki.example.com (the argument to <VirtualHost> is *:80 in this case). If the configuration filename is wiki, you can use a2ensite wiki command to enable it.
Given these, let’s see how Apache handles requests for virtual hosts. When a request arrives, the server will find the best (most specific) matching <VirtualHost> argument based on the IP address and port used by the request. If there is more than one virtual host containing this best-match address and port combination, Apache will further compare the ServerName and ServerAlias directives to the server name present in the request. [2]
If you try to visit wiki.example.com you actually request the IP of this server. The Apache server will handle this request by comparing active virtual host configurations. It first checks 000-default, but detects no ServerName directive (neither does the global configuration as mentioned before). As a result, it performs a reverse DNS lookup to find the ServerName. [3] If you have not setup a reverse DNS for this IP to wiki.example.com, the match will fail and Apache continues to match the next virtual host, wiki, which does have a ServerName, wiki.example.com, and this is a match. Apache will respond with this virtual host.
However, if you have recently setup a reverse DNS for IP of your server to wiki.example.com, a different result will come out. When you access wiki.example.com, Apache first checks 000-default, and performs a reverse DNS resolution only to find wiki.example.com as the result for ServerName, and this is a match. Apache will respond with 000-default instead of wiki and you will browse Web page for 000-default rather than wiki. To solve this problem, you can either set a global ServerName with example.com at /etc/apache2/apache2.conf or specify a ServerName for 000-default. In this way, the Apache will match the right ServerName with your request even if you setup a reverse DNS for one of the virtual hosts.