Apache 2.4: AH01630: client denied by server configuration

Question

I upgraded from Apache 2.2 to 2.4 and i'm having trouble getting everything working again. The error in /var/log/apache2/error.log is:

[Sat May 07 22:36:38.152432 2016] [authz_core:error] [pid 30664] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:54441] AH01630: client denied by server configuration: /var/www/html/

The strange thing is, /var/www/html isn't used at all in /etc/apache2.

Steps taken to solve this:

• use require instead of order
• disable access_compat.load (still disabled)
• chmod 777 on /srv/www/abc (has been reverted now)
• reading a lot of similar problems

My apache2.conf:

Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default
PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}
Timeout 300
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 5

User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}

HostnameLookups Off

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
LogLevel warn

IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.load
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.conf
Include ports.conf

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

<Directory /usr/share>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /srv/www>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

AccessFileName .htaccess

<FilesMatch "^\.ht">
    Require all granted
</FilesMatch>

LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

IncludeOptional conf-enabled/*.conf
IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

My vhost.conf:

<Directory /srv/www/abc>
        Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +Includes
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot /srv/www/abc

        ServerName xxx.xxx.nl
</VirtualHost>

What am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

/var/www/html/ is usually declared in /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf. If you haven't deleted that file or its symlink at /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf or removed the directive DocumentRoot /var/www/html in it, that's where the /var/www/html/ directory is configured.

If you've put your vhost.conf into /etc/apache2/sites-available/, but haven't called a2ensite vhost.conf afterwards (which will create an according symlink in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/, it won't be recognized.