Apache persists on not wanting to redirect to https

Question

I know many people have ask similar not to say the same question before:

How can I redirect http to https (Using Apache)?/Why does it not do so?

There is even a "code" snippet on the Wikipedia page of HTTP 301 status code that redirects to https.

But after hours of searching I tried many different methods out of with only one is working:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="https://example.org">

as a default page at /var/www/html/index.html

Even though it successfully redirects it is more than ugly and also not really liked by search engines and increases loading time.

To get us all on one level this is my Apache configuration. I also use Django in combination with Apache in case that has any relevance.

So here is a listing of all my attempts:

1. Use another VirtualHost

   <VirtualHost *:80>
       Redirect permanent / https://example.org/
   </VirtualHost>
   

2. Use a rewrite that redirect everything that not connects on port 443 to the corresponding https page:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !443
   RewriteRule ^(/(.*))?$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]`
   

3. Use the implementation mentioned from Wikipedia:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]
   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%1/$1 [R=301,L]
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.org/$1 [R,L]
   

I tried these options (where it made sense) in both apache2.conf and .htaccess files. Obviously with no success. Weirdly enough when I visit example.org and then after it has loaded manually type example.org/# the last two methods worked. I have tried also with only example.org/ and the same procedure but without #. But that does not work.

What other options are there (for a 301-Redirect)? Why does this not work? And if it possible: How can I modify it to get it working?

Answer 1

the first redirect should work, if it doesn't don't think too hard, then you are simply not "landing" in that virtualhost/server/config, if you have more *:80 virtualhosts make sure they all have the ServerName directive with their own name, otherwise Apache won't know where to deliver the requests. To make sure you have configured your virtualhosts correctly you can type:

apachectl -S

...and make sure no virtualhosts have the same name (or none), otherwise the first match wins.

Also, try to connect locally, try against the ip directly, and use a non-caching browser to make sure you are seeing the correct response and not cached responses, or your name resolution is pointing to other server. As in:

curl -I -H"Host:myserver.example.com" http://192.168.1.10/

Briefly In virtualhost this is enough:

Redirect / https://myserver.example.com/