apache -- Virtual Diretory as in IIS -- plz help

[Maaz]

Dear Gurus

I have to configure something like "Virtual Directory(IIS)" in apache

DocumentRoot "/var/htdocs".

I have a directory /rprts2005 that have html files.
I created a symlink
ln -s /rprts /var/htdocs/sales2005

now from client I tried to acces the pages by typing the url:
http://ip/sales2005/page.html

Apache server give me the following error page.

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /sales2005/page.html on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at 10.0.0.1 Port 80

what should i do ?

Regards
Maaz

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Couple of things.

If the directory the virtual server refers to is empty, you will get this error. Put a basic html document in it to test.

Also, SELINUX might not allow documents to be in locations other than the DocumentRoot location defined in httpd.conf

For certain configurations you may neeed to turn off SELINUX

SEP

[Vernon Brown_4]

Make sure you have "FollowSymLinks" (spell)
set up in your Apache config file httpd.conf for your /var/htdocs directory. Also directories in the link would all need to be world readable.

[Maaz]

THANKS Dear SEP, and Vernon Brown for the Quick Help.

Yes SEP, SELinux was enabled on my system.. and I have disabled it.
ans Vernon Brown, I have no entry of "FollowSymLinks" in my httpd.conf for /var/htdocs directory... and I simply provide/write it into my /var/htdocs directory as:

Options FollowSymLinks

By following both of u(SEP, and Vernon) its working now
Thanks n Regards
Maaz

[Thomas Callahan]

The correct way to do this is with Alias statements and settings.

Alias /sales2005 /rpts


blah blah
blah


Pls look the usages and what options you may need/want inside the directives.

Thanks,
Tom Callahan
TESSCO Technologies Inc.
443.506.6216

[Maaz]

NICE/SUPERB help Thomas Callahan ;).

Millions of Thanks Thomas Callahan .
Regards
Maaz