Initial web server configuration 1WUCM1

Overview Planning Testing the OS/Environment – IP setup Installation Configuration – Simple minimum details Testing – Default website – with the manuals! WUCM12

Planning For a live system: – Requirements Planning (Session 3) – Information Architecture and Website Structure (Session 4) – Name Planning (Session 5) – Interaction Planning – CGI environments (Session 6) – Security Planning (Session 7) – User Access Planning (Session 8) – Planning for Growth (Session 11) Much ‘a given’ for your practical work WUCM13

TCP/IP Configuration Check Check the Windows settings WUCM14

Apache web server Most commonly used web server software Open source Free to use Based on NCSA httpd software (early 1990s) Currently three versions: 2.2, 2.0 and 1.3 supported httpd.apache.org Note distinction between Apache Software Foundation and Apache HTTP Server WUCM15

Installation Two choices for Apache: – From source code – From distributed binaries, for Win32, Linux etc. For Win2000/XP the binary is a standard windows installer package – see tutorial notes WUCM16

Configuration Apache configured using text files. – http.conf the main Apache server configuration file – srm.conf server resource configuration – access.conf directory and file access restrictions – mime.types relates media types to file name extensions – magic lists recognisable byte sequences WUCM17

Configuration file syntax (1) A hash symbol ( # ) is used to introduce a comment There are two kinds of conf directive: – Variable assignment – Block directive The syntax of a variable assignment is: WUCM18 DocumentRoot "D:/WebRoot/Roger/htdocs"

Configuration file syntax (2) A block directive – looks a little like an HTML tag (but isn't) – serves to apply specific directives to specific parts of the Apache system WUCM19 Options none AllowOverride none Order allow, deny Deny from all

Minimum basic configuration file For Windows, Apache v1 WUCM110 # Simple conf file for the web site Roger ServerType standalone ServerRoot "C:/Apache" ServerName "H01.CommsLab.port.ac.uk" DocumentRoot "D:/WebRoot/Roger/htdocs" TransferLog "logs/access.log"

Log files Will be covered in Session 04 practical Brief example of common: WUCM [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET / HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /apache_pb.gif HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /manual/ HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /manual/images/apache_header.gif HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /manual/images/pixel.gif HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /manual/images/index.gif HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /manual/windows.html HTTP/1.1" [10/Feb/2002:17:59: ] "GET /manual/images/sub.gif HTTP/1.1"

Testing Apache can be run as an application – From Start menu – assuming install ok – From a command prompt Why no text cursor? WUCM112

Apache as a service Apache can also be run as "service"/"daemon" Default install of version 2 is as service Implications: – No user interface at all, not even a window! – Started automatically at server boot – Stopped automatically at shutdown – You may need to remove from "service list" to use a manual console WUCM113

Starting/Stopping Apache To start: – Change directory to Apache install – Open a DOS command prompt – Command apache To stop: – Open a new command prompt – Command apache –k shutdown – Wait a while – CTRL–C a valid alternative! WUCM114

Default web site WUCM115