Trouble with Alias directive on apache2 server

Question

I have some media in the directory /mnt/sda1 that I would like to embed in my webpage with root at /var/www.

I tried adding to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf:

Alias /media/ "/mnt/sda1/"
<Directory "/mnt/sda1/">
    Order allow, deny
    Allow from all
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

But when I attempt to go to mydomain.net/media/file.html I get a 404 error. Writing "http://mydomain.net/media/video.mp4" as the source for a video in html also does not work.

I've tried writing the path with and without quotes and trailing slashes.

I'm not sure where to go from here. Everything I see online points me to what I've already done. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

If the Alias command is set, and applied, but accessing a file is denied by an Directory statement, you'll get an access denied error. 404 - not found, means apache couldn't resolve the HTTP request to a file.

First check the obvious. Did you reload the daemon, when you edited the file.

Check apachectl -S to see if the correct VirtualHost file is being loaded against mydomain.net.
check apachectl -M to be sure that mod_alias is being loaded (if not Alias is meaningless).
check apachectl configtest to be sure that you haven't typo'd a config file

My guess, is that you've not reloaded the file properly, as it looks right otherwise

Answer 2

All aliases in apache 2.4 have to be configured in the /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/alias.conf file they are ignored in the virtual host files.