Installing Yaws server on Ubuntu 12.04 (Using a cloud service)

Posted by Lee Torres on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Lee Torres
Published on 2012-09-20T09:11:41Z Indexed on 2012/09/20 9:40 UTC
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I'm trying to get a Yaws web server working on a cloud service (Amazon AWS). I've compilled and installed a local copy on the server. My problem is that I can't get Yaws to run while running on either port 8000 or port 80.

I have the following configuration in yaws.conf:

port = 8000
listen = 0.0.0.0
docroot = /home/ubuntu/yaws/www/test
dir_listings = true

This produces the following successful launch/result:

Eshell V5.8.5 (abort with ^G)

=INFO REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:21:06 === Yaws: Using config file /home/ubuntu/yaws.conf

=INFO REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:21:06 === Ctlfile : /home/ubuntu/.yaws/yaws/default/CTL

=INFO REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:21:06 === Yaws: Listening to 0.0.0.0:8000 for <3> virtual servers: - http://domU-12-31-39-0B-1A-F6:8000 under /home/ubuntu/yaws/www/trial -

=INFO REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:21:06 === Yaws: Listening to 0.0.0.0:4443 for <1> virtual servers: -

When I try to access the the url (http://ec2-72-44-47-235.compute-1.amazonaws.com), it never connects. I've tried using paping to check if port 80 or 8000 is open(http://code.google.com/p/paping/) and I get a "Host can not be resolved" error, so obviously something isn't working.

I've also tried setting the yaws.conf so its at Port 80, appearing like this:

port = 8000
listen = 0.0.0.0
docroot = /home/ubuntu/yaws/www/test
dir_listings = true

and I get the following error:

=ERROR REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:24:47 === Yaws: Failed to listen 0.0.0.0:80 : {error,eacces}

=ERROR REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:24:47 === Can't listen to socket: {error,eacces}         
=ERROR REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:24:47 === Top proc died, terminate gserv =ERROR REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:24:47 === Top proc died, terminate gserv =INFO REPORT==== 16-Sep-2012::17:24:47 === application: yaws exited: {shutdown,{yaws_app,start,[normal,[]]}} type: permanent {"Kernel pid terminated",application_controller," {application_start_failure,yaws,>>>>>>{shutdown,>{yaws_app,start,[normal,[]]}}}"}

I've also opened up the port 80 using iptables. Running sudo iptables -L gives this output:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT tcp -- ip-192-168-2-0.ec2.internal ip-192-168-2-16.ec2.internal tcp dpt:http      
ACCEPT tcp -- 0.0.0.0 anywhere tcp dpt:http ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:http ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:http

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination

In addition, I've gone to the security group panel in the Amazon AWS configuration area, and add ports 80, 8000, and 8080 to ip source 0.0.0.0

Please note: if you try to access the URL of the virtual server now, it likely won't connect because I'm not running currently running the yaws daemon. I've tested it when I've run yaws either through yaws or yaws -i

Thanks for the patience