Install and Configure the Caddy Web Server on CentOS 8

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Caddy is a fast, open-source, and security-focused web server written in Go . Caddy includes modern features such as support for virtual hosts, minification of static files, and HTTP/2. Caddy is also the first web-server that can obtain and renew SSL/TLS certificates automatically using Let’s Encrypt .

Before You Begin

  1. Familiarize yourself with our Getting Started guide and complete the steps for setting your Linode’s hostname and timezone .

  2. Complete the sections of our Securing Your Server guide to create a standard user account , and harden SSH access .

  3. Register (purchase) your site’s domain name and follow our Manage DNS Records guide to point the domain to your Linode.

  4. Update your system:

    sudo yum update
    
  5. Install the SELinux core policy Python utilities. This gives you the ability to manage SELinux settings in a fine-grained way.

     sudo yum install -y policycoreutils-python-utils
    

Install Caddy

  1. Install the dnf-command(cpor) plugin and enable caddy:

    sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(copr)'
    sudo dnf copr enable @caddy/caddy
    
  2. Install Caddy:

    sudo dnf install caddy
    
  3. To verify the installation of caddy type: caddy version An output similar to the following appears:

     v2.4.3 h1:Y1FaV2N4WO3rBqxSYA8UZsZTQdN+PwcoOcAiZTM8C0I=
    

Allow HTTP and HTTPS Connections

Caddy serves websites using HTTP and HTTPS protocols, so you need to allow access to the ports 80, and 443.

    sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
    sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
    sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Add Web Content

  1. Set up a home directory, web root, for your website:

    sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/example.com
    
  2. Use SELinux’s chcon command to change the file security context for web content:

     sudo chcon -t httpd_sys_content_t /var/www/example.com -R
     sudo chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/example.com -R
    
  3. Create a test page:

    echo '<!doctype html><head><title>Caddy Test Page</title></head><body><h1>Hello, World!</h1></body></html>' > /var/www/html/example.com/index.html
    

Configure the Caddyfile

Add your hostname and web root to the Caddy configuration. Use an editor of your choice and replace :80 with your domain name. Set the root directory of the site to /var/www/html/example.com Replace example.com with your site’s domain name:

File: /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
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example.com {
    root * /var/www/html/example.com
    file_server
}

Start and Enable the Caddy Service

  1. Temporarily set SELinux to permissive mode in order to start the Caddy service.

     sudo setenforce 0
    
  2. Enable the Caddy service:

    sudo systemctl start caddy
    
  3. Verify that the service is active:

     sudo systemctl status caddy
    

    An output similar to the following appears:

    ● caddy.service - Caddy
       Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/caddy.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
       Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-09-02 18:25:29 IST; 4s ago
         Docs: https://caddyserver.com/docs/
     Main PID: 19314 (caddy)
       CGroup: /system.slice/caddy.service
               └─19314 /usr/bin/caddy run --environ --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile...
    
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: SHELL=/sbin/nologin
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1270738..."}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy systemd[1]: Started Caddy.
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1316314...]}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1317837...0}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1324193..."}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1324632..."}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1325648..."}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1326034..."}
    Sep 02 18:25:29 caddy caddy[19314]: {"level":"info","ts":1630587329.1326299..."}
    Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
        

To check the latest logs without truncation use sudo journalctl -u caddy --no-pager | less +G.

  1. Set SELinux back to enforcing mode once you have successfully started the Caddy service.

     sudo setenforce 1
    
  2. Type your domain in the browser on your local machine and you should see the test page. If everything is configured correctly, you should see a green lock symbol in the URL bar, indicating that your connection is secure.

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