To automatically restart Apache after a crash, you can use a process manager like Systemd or supervisord. Here's how to do it with Systemd:

1. Create a new Systemd service file: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/apache.service

2. Add the following lines to the service file:

   [Unit]
   Description=Apache Web Server
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apache2ctl start
   ExecReload=/usr/sbin/apache2ctl graceful
   ExecStop=/usr/sbin/apache2ctl stop
   PIDFile=/var/run/apache2/apache2.pid
   Restart=always
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   
   

3. Save the file and exit the editor.

4. Reload the Systemd configuration: sudo systemctl daemon-reload

5. Start the new service: sudo systemctl start apache

6. Check the status of the service: sudo systemctl status apache

Now, whenever Apache crashes, Systemd will automatically restart it.

Thanks for your Quick reply, do I restart the apache server via Cron job?

@mrjames 

It's not recommended to use Cron to automatically restart Apache after a crash, as Cron is designed for scheduled tasks and may not be reliable in detecting when Apache has crashed. It's better to use a dedicated process manager like Systemd or supervisord to ensure that Apache is restarted promptly and reliably.

However, if you still want to use Cron for this purpose, you can create a Cron job that checks if Apache is running, and if not, restarts it. Here's how:

1. Open the Cron configuration file: sudo crontab -e

2. Add the following line to the file:

   * * * * * ps aux | grep apache2 | grep -v grep || /usr/sbin/service apache2 start
   

This will run the command "ps aux | grep apache2 | grep -v grep" every minute, which checks if Apache is running. If the command returns no output (i.e., Apache is not running), the second part of the command "/usr/sbin/service apache2 start" will start Apache.

3. Save the file and exit the editor.

Note that this approach may not be as reliable as using a dedicated process manager, as there may be a delay between the time Apache crashes and the Cron job detects it and restarts it. Additionally, this approach may not work if there are multiple instances of Apache running, or if the Apache process name is different (e.g., "httpd" instead of "apache2").