Initial web server configuration Dr Jim Briggs 1WUCM1

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

Apache web server Most commonly used web server software Open source Free to use Based on NCSA httpd software (early 1990s) Current version is 2.2 – 2.0 still supported – 1.3 deprecated – 2.3/2.4 in development The Apache HTTP Server ("httpd") is a project of The Apache Software Foundation ( WUCM13

Installation Three choices for Apache: – From source code – From distributed binaries, for Windows, Linux etc. – As part of a larger package LAMP/WAMP/XAMPP stacks Most Linux distros For Windows the binary is a standard windows installer package WUCM14

Configuration Apache is configured using text files – http.conf main Apache server configuration file may "include" other configuration files – mime.types relates media types to file name extensions should never need to change WUCM15

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: WUCM16 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 WUCM17 Options none AllowOverride none Order allow, deny Deny from all

Minimum basic configuration file WUCM18 # 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 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"

Apache as a service Apache can be run as a "service" Default in version 2 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 WUCM110

Apache as a console application Start – From Start menu – assuming install ok – From a command prompt: httpd.exe Stop – Control-C – httpd.exe –k shutdown from another window WUCM111

Apache running from a console WUCM112

Default web site WUCM113

Apache topics to read up on Authentication, Authorization, and Access Control CGI: dynamic content – suEXEC support Virtual hosts Content negotiation Log files WUCM114