Change Apache document root folder to secondary hard drive

I installed the ubuntu 12.04 server edition for my server pc . i had installed lamp server. i need to change the var/www location to my secondary hard disk location. i was configured so many time to at gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default here is my code

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    #DocumentRoot /var/www
    DocumentRoot /media/myserver/
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    #<Directory /var/www/>
        <Directory /media/myserver/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>

    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel warn

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
    <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

and also used

sudo chown -R var/www /media/myserver/

and

chmod -R 755 /media/myserver/

still i was not able to connect my /media/myserver and my browser show the following message

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Please tell anyone how to mount myserver at my var/www, thanks advance

You'll have to edit apache2.conf and 000-default.conf to change the document root of apache.

The Apache server is installed on /var/www/html.This is the default root directory of apache.

Either change the root directory of Apache or move the project to /var/www/html.

1. To change Apache's root directory, run:

    cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
   

2. Then open the 000-default.conf file using the command:

    nano 000-default.conf
   

3. Edit the DocumentRoot option:

    DocumentRoot /path/to/my/project
   

4. Then restart the apache server:

    sudo service apache2 restart
   

If you get Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server after changing the root of apache then do follow these steps

1. Find the apache2.conf located in /etc/apache2 and open it using:

    nano apache2.conf
   

2. Use Ctrl+W and search for Directory (It should be in line 153)

3. It should look like this

    <Directory />
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all denied
    </Directory>
   

4. Change it to

    <Directory />
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
   

5. Restart apache

    sudo service apache2 restart
   

I made a script that changes apache root in a single command. You can find it on my github.

Maybe a little bit late. But still..

You should edit your directory permissions in apache.conf under /etc/apache2

Search for this

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
</Directory>

and add this code under of it, which gives the permission to access your directory

 <Directory /media/myserver/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride None
            Require all granted
    </Directory>

Simply change the document root in your activated configuration. /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default and then Make sure reloading your apache.

So try with this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    DocumentRoot /media/myserver/
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /media/myserver/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>

    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel warn

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Then the proper permission should be given like this:

sudo adduser <username> www-data
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /media/myserver/
sudo chmod -R g+rw /media/myserver/

1. you modify apache2.conf. Replace /var/www/ with /your/path:

   <Directory /your/path/>
       Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
       AllowOverride None
       Require all granted
   </Directory>
   

2. Modify the 000-default.conf file:

   DocumentRoot /your/path/
   

3. Change the ownership of the directories to yourself from file manager or terminal (e.g. sudo chown pi: path). Without this you will get this error message:

   You don't have permission to access / on this server.