If you need to host basic HTML files or a simple website on a Red Hat Linux system, setting up a lightweight web server like Apache HTTP Server or Nginx is a straightforward process. Here’s how you can get an HTML server up and running on your Red Hat machine:

Installing Apache HTTP Server

1. Open a terminal and use the yum package manager to install Apache:

sudo yum install httpd

2. Once installed, start the Apache service:

sudo systemctl start httpd

3. Verify that the service is running:

sudo systemctl status httpd

4. Allow HTTP traffic through the firewall:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

5. Your default Apache document root is /var/www/html/. You can place your HTML files here or configure Apache to use a different directory.

Testing the Server

With Apache installed and running, you can test your server by accessing http://YOUR_SERVER_IP from a web browser. You should see the default Apache homepage (see below) if everything is set up correctly.

Configuring Apache

The main Apache configuration file is /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. Here you can customize settings like listening ports, virtual hosts, directory permissions, and more.

For basic HTML hosting, you likely won’t need to modify too many settings. But it’s a good idea to configure at least:

• ServerName to match your domain/IP
• DocumentRoot to point to your website files directory

Setting Up Nginx

As an alternative to Apache, you can use the lightweight Nginx web server:

1. Install Nginx:

sudo yum install nginx

2. Start the Nginx service:

sudo systemctl start nginx  

3. Allow HTTP traffic and verify Nginx is running.

sudo systemctl status nginx

This will show you the current status of the Nginx service. You should see something like “Active: active (running)” if it started successfully.

To allow HTTP traffic through the firewall for Nginx:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

This will open port 80 to allow regular HTTP traffic.

If you plan to also enable HTTPS on your server, you’ll want to allow that traffic as well:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https

This opens port 443 for HTTPS.

After allowing the HTTP/HTTPS traffic through the firewall, you can test your Nginx server by visiting http://YOUR_SERVER_IP in a web browser. You should see the default Nginx landing page.

With the firewall rules added, you can test your server at http://YOUR_SERVER_IP, if everything is fine you should see the default HTTP Server Test Page. That means you are now ready to host you website.

With Nginx set up, you now have a lightweight web server ready to serve your HTML content. Be sure to secure your server, enable HTTPS, and consider performance optimizations for production environments.

Nginx configuration is done in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and virtual host files in /etc/nginx/conf.d/.

With either Apache or Nginx set up, you now have a web server ready to serve your HTML content. Be sure to secure your server, enable HTTPS, and consider performance optimizations for production environments.