Hosting

Question 1

What is Apache in the context of web hosting?

Answer 1

Apache is one of the most established web servers used to host websites and web apps.

Question 2

What are the two types of proxies used in hosting?

Answer 2

Forward proxy and reverse proxy.

Question 3

What is a forward proxy?

Answer 3

A server that sits between clients and the internet, forwarding requests from clients to web servers.

Question 4

What is a reverse proxy?

Answer 4

A server that sits in front of web servers, forwarding client requests to them and sending responses back to the client.

Question 5

What is NGINX commonly used for?

Answer 5

NGINX is used as a reverse proxy for load balancing, SSL termination, and caching.

Question 6

What does the Apache Dockerfile do?

Answer 6

It creates a Docker image that uses Apache to serve an HTML file on port 80.

Question 7

What is the content of the Apache Dockerfile?

Answer 7

It uses the httpd:latest base image, copies index.html to the default document root, and exposes port 80.

Question 8

How do you build the Apache Docker image?

Answer 8

docker build -t apache-image .

Question 9

How do you run the Apache container?

Answer 9

docker run –name apache-container -p 8081:80 apache-image

Question 10

Why do we use port 8081 instead of port 80?

Answer 10

Because ports below 1024 are restricted; 8081 is an available unprivileged port.

Question 11

How do you access a running Apache container’s shell?

Answer 11

docker exec -it apache-container /bin/bash

Question 12

Where is Apache’s configuration file located in the container?

Answer 12

/usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

Question 13

How can you copy Apache’s configuration file to your host machine?

Answer 13

docker cp apache-container:/usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf .

Question 14

What is the DocumentRoot directive in Apache?

Answer 14

It defines the directory from which Apache serves files.

Question 15

What is HTTPS?

Answer 15

HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP using TLS to encrypt communication between client and server.

Question 16

What does TLS stand for?

Answer 16

Transport Layer Security.

Question 17

Why is TLS used in web hosting?

Answer 17

To secure communication by encrypting data between client and server.

Question 18

What is required to set up TLS?

Answer 18

A valid certificate and private key.

Question 19

What is a self-signed certificate?

Answer 19

A certificate created and signed by the user instead of a Certificate Authority, used for testing.

Question 20

How do you generate a self-signed certificate using OpenSSL?

Answer 20

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -out selfsigned.crt -keyout private.key -subj “/C=UK/ST=Merseyside/L=Liverpool/O=MyOrg/CN=www.example.com”

Question 21

What does the -x509 flag do in OpenSSL?

Answer 21

It specifies that a self-signed certificate should be created.

Question 22

What does the -nodes flag do in OpenSSL?

Answer 22

It tells OpenSSL not to encrypt the private key.

Question 23

What does -newkey rsa:2048 do in OpenSSL?

Answer 23

It generates a new 2048-bit RSA private key.

Question 24

What is httpd-ssl.conf?

Answer 24

A custom Apache configuration file used to enable SSL on port 443.

Question 25

What settings are in httpd-ssl.conf?

Answer 25

SSL engine on, certificate and key file paths, document root, and server name.

Question 26

How do you update the Apache Dockerfile to enable HTTPS?

Answer 26

Add certificate and config files, enable SSL modules via sed, and include the SSL config.

Question 27

What does the sed command do in the Apache Dockerfile?

Answer 27

It uncomments lines in httpd.conf to enable required modules like ssl_module.

Question 28

What is the purpose of the socache_shmcb_module in Apache?

Answer 28

It enables session caching to improve SSL performance.

Question 29

What does the RUN echo command do in the Dockerfile?

Answer 29

It appends the Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf line to Apache’s httpd.conf.

Question 30

What ports are exposed in the updated Dockerfile?

Answer 30

Port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS.

Question 31

How do you run the Apache container with HTTPS support?

Answer 31

docker run --name apache-ssl-container -p 8081:80 -p 8082:443 apache-ssl-image

Question 32

Why does the browser show a warning with a self-signed certificate?

Answer 32

Because it isn’t issued by a trusted Certificate Authority, so the identity of the site can’t be verified.

Question 33

What should you use for production instead of a self-signed certificate?

Answer 33

A certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority, like Let’s Encrypt.

Question 34

What is a reverse proxy in NGINX?

Answer 34

A server that receives HTTP requests from clients and forwards them to backend servers like Apache.

Question 35

What Docker command creates a shared network for containers?

Answer 35

docker network create web-net

Question 36

Why is Docker networking important for NGINX and Apache integration?

Answer 36

It allows the NGINX container to resolve and communicate with the Apache container by name.

Question 37

What are the contexts in an NGINX configuration file?

Answer 37

Main, events, http, server, and location.

Question 38

What does the listen directive do in NGINX?

Answer 38

It specifies which port and protocol the server listens on.

Question 39

What does server_name do in NGINX?

Answer 39

It defines the domain name(s) handled by that server block.

Question 40

What does location do in NGINX?

Answer 40

It defines how requests for specific paths are handled.

Question 41

What does proxy_pass do in NGINX?

Answer 41

It forwards incoming requests to a specified backend server.

Question 42

What is the purpose of the upstream directive in NGINX?

Answer 42

It defines a group of backend servers for load balancing.

Question 43

What does the sample NGINX config `proxy_pass http://apache-server;` do?

Answer 43

It forwards incoming HTTP requests to the Apache server.

Question 44

What does removing /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf do in the Dockerfile?

Answer 44

It removes the default NGINX config to avoid conflicts with the custom config.

Question 45

What does the custom NGINX Dockerfile do?

Answer 45

It builds a container using the official NGINX image with a custom reverse proxy configuration.

Question 46

How do you build the custom NGINX image?

Answer 46

docker build -f Nginx.Dockerfile -t nginx-reverse-proxy .

Question 47

How do you run Apache and NGINX containers together using a shared network?

Answer 47

docker run -d --name apache-container --network web-net apache-image && docker run -d --name nginx-proxy --network web-net -p 8083:80 nginx-reverse-proxy

Question 48

What happens when you visit http://localhost:8083/?

Answer 48

You access the Apache website through the NGINX reverse proxy.