Unable to get /server-status mod working with Apache2 on Ubuntu

OK with a lot of trial and error I solved it.

The rewrite rule apparently cannot be above or below the WordPress stuff in the .htaccess of the root and it has to be in the middle as shown below or at least this is the only way that has worked for me so far:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# rewrite rule for server-status to prevent 404 error
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/server-status

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Also, I learned that for those of us running Cloud Flare (which is a lot, including digitalocean.com I noticed) you need to install the cloudflare mod or else limiting access by IP doesn’t work. https://www.cloudflare.com/resources-downloads#mod_cloudflare

Perhaps Digital Ocean should consider adding mod_cloudflare to their stock WordPress one click install image and maybe others.

Thanks for the help.

You’re getting a 403 Forbidden error because Apache is configured to only allow localhost to access /server-status:

	Allow from 127.0.0.1 ::1

You can allow access from your IP address like this:

<Location /server-status>
	...
	Allow from 127.0.0.1 ::1
	Allow from Your.IP.Address.Here
</Location>

As for the 404 error, it looks like Wordpress is trying to serve /server-status because of the rewrite rules. There should be a few RewriteCond lines in the .htaccess, add the following line below them:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/server-status

What worked for me was to turn RewriteEngine Off for the /server-status Location

<Location /server-status> SetHandler server-status Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.1 ::1 RewriteEngine Off </Location> ExtendedStatus On

Hope it helps