Problem

I have installed Apache 2.2.3 on my web server. After installation, I made some changes in httpd.conf file and created the required directory for DocumentRoot but when I tried to start the HTTPD service I got the below error:

[root@dbappweb ~]# service httpd start
Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 302 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:
DocumentRoot must be a directory
[FAILED]

DocumentRoot is defined in the httpd.conf file was a directory and when I checked the httpd syntax then I got that there was no syntax error as shown below.

[root@dbappweb ~]# httpd -t
Syntax OK

Reason

Starting of httpd service was being failed because the SELinux feature was Enforcing, it can be checked using the command getenforce.

[root@dbappweb ~]# getenforce
Enforcing

Solution

To resolve the above issue you need to disable the SELinux feature. To disable the SELinux feature you need to edit the /etc/selinux/config file. Change the value of SELINUX from enforcing to disabled. After changing the value you need to reboot the server.

[root@dbappweb ~]# vi /etc/selinux/config

.
.

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

.
.

Once the server is rebooted these changes will come into effect which can be verified using the command getenforce and its output should be disabled.

[root@dbappweb ~]# getenforce
Disabled

Now You can start the apache service successfully.

[root@dbappweb ~]# service httpd start
Starting httpd: [ OK ]

Note: I faced the above problem on RHEL 5.8 while installing the Apache 2.2.3