Apache2, re-direct blank.example.com to example.com/blank/blank - linux

Question

I'm having issues with this re-direct. I've tried the .htaccess method with RewriteRule and RewriteCond, as well as the VirtualDirectory method. Here's what I've tried for VirtualHost:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName blank.example.com
Redirect permanent / "http://example.com/blank/blank"
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName example.com
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /the/doc/root
# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
# modules, e.g.
#LogLevel info ssl:warn
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>
and this for .htaccess:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^blank.example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/blank/blank [R=301,L]
I'm not sure if it's needed or not, but blank.example.com is also pointed to localhost in /etc/hosts
Any tips on what I'm missing?

Answer 1

Here are a couple of things.
If you are wanting to just have a subdomain with it's own document root then your vhost needs to look like this. Then there is no need to redirect.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName blank.example.com
DocumentRoot /path/to/blank/blank
<Directory /path/to/blank/blank>
#enable .htaccess for this subdomain
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
If you are truly wanting to redirect your subdomain to the main domain.
Then remove this first vhost. it's not needed at all.
#This virtualhost is not needed
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName blank.example.com
Redirect permanent / "http://example.com/blank/blank"
</VirtualHost>
Then on your main VirtualHost add a server alias like so
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias blank.example.com
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /the/doc/root
<Directory /the/doc/root>
#enable .htaccess for this main domain
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
Then for your .htaccess rules
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^blank\.example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/blank/blank/$1 [R=301,L]
Restart Apache after all config file changes.