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Zope/Apache Virtual Host

Created by . Last modified on 2003/08/05.

This document explains how I set up Zope and Apache to serve virtual hosts with separate Zope servers and databases. The example involves two virtual hosts, site1 and site2, being served from a RedHat 6.0 GNU/Linux host.

As always, if I have explained something poorly or totally munged the examples, or you see something that could be made more elegant or secure, please let me know.

Zope Sites

There are four Zope sites served from two databases (and two ZServer instances) on this host. The two databases are zope0 and site3. zope0 serves no public content; it simply contains within its subfolders the sites called site1 and site2. site3 has its own Zope instance and its own database. Requests for content result in the following:

RequestResult
http://zope0.mydomain.comAll objects in the zope0 database
http://www.site1.comhttp://www.zope0.com/Site1
http://www.site2.comhttp://www.zope0.com/Site2
http://www.site3.comAll objects in the site3 database

Filesystem

My directory structure includes the following:

/home/httpd/Apache home directory
/home/httpd/cgi-bin/*Script subdirectories for each site
/home/httpd/zope/*Zope-specific files for each site
/usr/local/Zope2/The Zope home

httpd.conf

Note: The lines ending with "\" are continued on the following line and appear in the original file on a single line.

Lines 4, 12, 26 and 38 allow each site to have its own set of scripts. zope0, site2 and site2 use the same directory because they use the same Zope database and so must use the same Zope.cgi script.

zope0

zope0 is the database for site1 and site2. It has no public content of its own. Its only meaningful content is the management interface.

 1  <VirtualHost 192.168.1.1>
 2  ServerName zope0.mydomain.com
 3  # ...other Apache stuff...
 4  ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/
 5  RewriteEngine on
 6  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  ^(.*)
 7  RewriteRule ^(.*) /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi$1 \
       [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l]
 8  </VirtualHost>

Line 7 sends all requests through the Zope.cgi script.

site1

site1 is mostly served by Zope. It has a few static files that are served by Apache; these requests are prefixed with "/static".

 9  <VirtualHost 192.168.1.2>
10  ServerName www.site1.com
11  # ...other Apache stuff...
12  ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/
13  RewriteEngine on
14  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
15  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  ^(.*)
16  RewriteRule ^/Site1(.*) /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi/Site1$1 \
17     [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l]
18  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
19  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  ^(.*)
20  RewriteRule ^(.*) /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi/Site1$1 \
21     [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l]
22  </VirtualHost>

Lines 14 and 18 prevent requests beginning with "/static" from being rewritten; they will be handled by Apache directly.

There are two sets of rewrite rules so that, if a request begins with "/Site1", it will not be rewritten with a "/Site1" prepended to it. This would result in the URLs getting progressively longer as you navigate the site, with multiple "/Site1" strings added. If anyone knows of a more elegant solution to this, please let me know.

site2

site2 is served completely by Zope; there are no static files.

23  <VirtualHost 192.168.1.3>
24  ServerName www.site2.com
25  # ...other Apache stuff...
26  ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/
27  RewriteEngine on
28  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  ^(.*)
29  RewriteRule ^/Site2(.*) /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi/Site2$1 \
30     [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l]
31  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  ^(.*)
32  RewriteRule ^(.*) /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi/Site2$1 \
33     [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l]
34  </VirtualHost>

This is very similar to the rewrite rules for site1.

site3

site3 has its own Zope database and its own Zope instance. It is served mostly by Apache; requests beginning with "/Objects" are passed to Zope.

35  <VirtualHost 192.168.1.4>
36  ServerName www.site3.com
37  # ...other Apache stuff...
38  ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/site3/
39  RewriteEngine on
40  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  ^(.*)
41  RewriteRule ^/Objects(.*) /home/httpd/cgi-bin/site3/Zope.cgi$1 \
42     [e=HTTP_CGI_AUTHORIZATION:%1,t=application/x-httpd-cgi,l]
43  </VirtualHost>

Line 41 points any request beginning with "/Objects" to the appropriate Zope.cgi script.

Zope.cgi

There is a Zope.cgi for each database contained in the appropriate directory in /home/httpd/cgi-bin.

/home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi

#!/usr/local/Zope2/pcgi/pcgi-wrapper
PCGI_NAME=Main
PCGI_MODULE_PATH=/usr/local/Zope2/lib/python/Main.py
PCGI_PUBLISHER=/usr/local/Zope2/pcgi/pcgi_publisher.py
PCGI_EXE=/usr/local/bin/python
PCGI_SOCKET_FILE=/home/httpd/zope/zope0/pcgi.soc
PCGI_PID_FILE=/home/httpd/zope/zope0/pcgi.pid
PCGI_ERROR_LOG=/home/httpd/zope/zope0/pcgi.log
PCGI_DISPLAY_ERRORS=1
BOBO_REALM=Zope
INSTANCE_HOME=/home/httpd/zope/zope0

/home/httpd/cgi-bin/site3/Zope.cgi

#!/usr/local/Zope2/pcgi/pcgi-wrapper
PCGI_NAME=Main
PCGI_MODULE_PATH=/usr/local/Zope2/lib/python/Main.py
PCGI_PUBLISHER=/usr/local/Zope2/pcgi/pcgi_publisher.py
PCGI_EXE=/usr/local/bin/python
PCGI_SOCKET_FILE=/home/httpd/zope/site3/pcgi.soc
PCGI_PID_FILE=/home/httpd/zope/site3/pcgi.pid
PCGI_ERROR_LOG=/home/httpd/zope/site3/pcgi.log
PCGI_DISPLAY_ERRORS=1
BOBO_REALM=Zope
INSTANCE_HOME=/home/httpd/zope/site3

Database Files

The proper database files are replicated for each site in /home/httpd/zope. In particular, each site has its own access file and database directory.

$ ll /home/httpd/zope/zope0
total 680
-rw-r-----   1 www      mail           19 Jun 18 13:42 access
-rw-rw-r--   1 www      mail            5 Aug 12 10:51 manager.pid
-rw-r--r--   1 www      mail         2791 Aug 12 10:51 pcgi.log
-rw-r--r--   1 www      mail            5 Aug 12 10:51 pcgi.pid
srwxrwxrwx   1 www      mail            0 Aug 12 10:51 pcgi.soc=
drwxr-xr-x   3 www      mail         1024 Aug 12 10:51 var/
-rw-rw-r--   1 www      mail       684954 Aug 18 19:38 z2.log

$ ll /home/httpd/zope/site3
total 5
-rw-r-----   1 www      mail           37 Aug 13 14:28 access
-rw-rw-r--   1 www      mail            5 Aug 13 14:21 manager.pid
-rw-rw-r--   1 www      mail           80 Aug 13 14:21 pcgi.log
-rw-r--r--   1 www      mail            5 Aug 13 14:21 pcgi.pid
srwxrwxrwx   1 www      mail            0 Aug 13 14:21 pcgi.soc=
drwx--x--x   3 www      mail         1024 Aug 13 12:06 var/
-rw-rw-r--   1 www      mail            0 Aug 13 12:06 z2.log

Startup

Refer to my Starting/Stopping Zope HOWTO for specific information about how I start Zope. In effect, I run these two commands as root to start up the servers:

su www -c 'python /usr/local/Zope2/z2.py \
   -p /home/httpd/cgi-bin/zope0/Zope.cgi \
   -w "" -m "" -f 8021 -t 2 \
   INSTANCE_HOME=/home/httpd/zope/zope0 \
   >> /home/httpd/zope/zope0/z2.log 2>&1 &'

su www -c 'python /usr/local/Zope2/z2.py \
   -p /home/httpd/cgi-bin/site3/Zope.cgi \
   -w "" -m "" -f 8022 -t 2 \
   -Z /home/httpd/zope/site3/manager.pid \
   INSTANCE_HOME=/home/httpd/zope/site3 \
   >> /home/httpd/zope/site3/z2.log 2>&1 &'

I use the manager (the -Z option) on site3 but not on zope0.
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