Creating Apache virtual hosts

Apache virtual hosts are an ideal place to use Puppet templates, because they generally consist of boilerplate code with just a few different bits of information for each site.

How to do it…

Here's a recipe to manage a simple virtual host:

1. Create the file modules/apache/manifests/vhost.pp with the following contents:

   # Manage an Apache virtual host
   define apache::vhost($domain='UNSET',$root='UNSET') {
     include apache
   
     if $domain == 'UNSET' {
       $vhost_domain = $name
     } else {
       $vhost_domain = $domain
     }
   
     if $root == 'UNSET' {
       $vhost_root = "/var/www/${name}"
     } else {
       $vhost_root = $root
     }
   
     file { "/etc/apache2/sites-available/${vhost_domain}.conf":
       content => template('apache/vhost.erb'),
       require => Package['apache2-mpm-prefork'],
       notify  => Exec["enable-${vhost_domain}-vhost"],
     }
   
     exec { "enable-${vhost_domain}-vhost":
       command     => "/usr/sbin/a2ensite ${vhost_domain}.conf",
       require     => File["...