Question:  Why do I see 403 Forbidden after creating a new VirtualHost on my apache webserver?

Submitted by: Joe Dickson

Answer: It may be that the directory or parent directory of your DocumentRoot needs execute permission.

chmod +x /path/to/directory

httpd - Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol Server

Synopsis
httpd [ -d serverroot ] [ -f config ] [ -C directive ] [ -c directive
] [ -D parameter ] [ -e level ] [ -E file ] [ -k start|restart|grace-
ful|stop ] [ -R directory ] [ -h ] [ -l ] [ -L ] [ -S ] [ -t ] [ -v ]
[ -V ] [ -X ]

On Windows systems, the following additional arguments are available:

httpd [ -k install|config|uninstall ] [ -n name ] [ -w ]

Summary
httpd is the Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server program.
It is designed to be run as a standalone daemon process. When used
like this it will create a pool of child processes or threads to han-
dle requests.

In general, httpd should not be invoked directly, but rather should be
invoked via apachectl on Unix-based systems or as a service on Windows
NT, 2000 and XP and as a console application on Windows 9x and ME. (more…)