Install Caddy Web Server on AlmaLinux 9

In this guide from the Orcacore website, we intend to teach you to Install Caddy Web Server on AlmaLinux 9. Caddy is an open-source web server platform designed to be simple, easy to use, and secure. Written in Go with zero dependencies, Caddy is easy to download and runs on almost every platform that Go compiles.

By default, Caddy comes with support for automatic HTTPS by provisioning and renewing certificates through Let’s Encrypt. Caddy is the only one to provide these features out of the box, and it also comes with automatic redirection of HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

Compared to Apache and Nginx, Caddy’s configuration files are much smaller. Additionally, Caddy runs on TLS 1.3, the newest standard in transport security.

Table of Contents

Steps To Install Caddy Web Server on AlmaLinux 9

To complete this guide, you must log in to your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges and set up a basic firewall. To do this, you can follow our guide on the Initial Server Setup with AlmaLinux 9.

1. Install Caddy on AlmaLinux 9

First, you need to update your local package index with the following command:

sudo dnf update -y

By default, Caddy is not available in the default AlmaLinux repository. So you need to add the Copr repository to your server.

Enable Copr Repository

The Copr (Cool Other Package Repo) is a Fedora project to help make building and managing third-party package repositories easy.

To do this, run the following command:

sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(copr)' -y

Then, enable the Caddy repository on AlmaLinux 9 with the following command:

sudo dnf copr enable @caddy/caddy

Output
Repository successfully enabled.

Again, you need to run the system update to apply the changes:

sudo dnf update -y

Output
Copr repo for caddy owned by @caddy             1.5 kB/s | 1.4 kB     00:00
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!

Installing Caddy with DNF

Now use the following command to install Caddy on AlmaLinux 9:

sudo dnf install caddy -y

Next, start and enable your Caddy service with the commands below:

# sudo systemctl start caddy
# sudo systemctl enable caddy

Verify that your Caddy service is active and running on your server with the command below:

sudo systemctl status caddy

In your output, you will see:

Now that you have Caddy installed and running on your AlmaLinux 9, let’s see how to create a new site on the Caddy web server.

2. Create a new Caddy Site on AlmaLinux 9

This step is similar to the Apache virtual hosts or Nginx server blocks. First, create a directory for your site with the command below:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/your-domain/html

Then, you need to create a directory for the logs:

sudo mkdir /var/log/caddy

Set the correct ownership for both directories with the commands below:

# sudo chown caddy:caddy /var/www/your-domain/html -R
# sudo chown caddy:caddy /var/log/caddy

Now you need to create an index.html file in your new site directory with your favorite text editor. Here we use vi:

sudo vi /var/www/your-domain/html/index.html

Add the following content to the file:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hi</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to orcacore</h1>
</body>
</html>

When you are done, save and close the file.

Here, you need to edit the Caddy configuration file. Open the file with your favorite text editor. Here we use vi:

sudo vi /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Remove all the contents from the file and add the following contents to the file:

your-domain {
    root * /var/www/your-domain/html
    file_server
    encode gzip

    log {
        output file /var/log/caddy/your-domain.log
    }

    @static {
        file
        path *.ico *.css *.js *.gif *.jpg *.jpeg *.png *.svg *.woff *.pdf *.webp
    }
    header @static Cache-Control max-age=5184000

    tls admin@your-domain
}

When you are done, save and close the file.

Then, you need to validate your configuration with the command below:

caddy validate --adapter caddyfile --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Note: If the on-screen output results in a formatted warning, you can fix it by running the command below:

caddy fmt --overwrite /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Next, restart the Caddy service on AlmaLinux 9 to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart caddy

3. Configure Firewall for Caddy on AlmaLinux 9

Here we assumed that you have enabled the firewalld. Now you need to allow traffic on HTTP and HTTPS through the firewall with the following commands:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https

Reload the firewall to apply the new rules:

sudo systemctl reload firewalld

4. Access Caddy Web Server Page

At this point, you can access the Caddy web server by typing your domain name or server’s IP address in your web browser:

http://server-ip-or-domain

You will see the Welcome test page.

That’s it, you are done.

For more information, you can visit the Caddy Documentation Page.

Conclusion

At this point, you have learned to Install and Configure Caddy Web Server on AlmaLinux 9. It offers a modern, secure, and easy-to-use alternative to traditional web servers. With automatic HTTPS, simple configuration, and great performance out of the box, Caddy is an excellent choice for developers and sysadmins looking for a hassle-free web server setup.

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