School of
Computer Science and
Information Technology
COSC1300 / COSC1301
Web Servers and
Web Technology
Apache Installation
Week 3
Why Apache? Why Unix?
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Web Servers and
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Apache: (http://httpd.apache.org)
Ease of installation
Transparent configuration
Open source (and therefore free)
Popular (http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web server survey.html)
Extensible (many third party modules
http://modules.apache.org/)
• Very good documentation (http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/)
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Other platforms, other
servers
Web Servers and
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• Many commercial products are just a bundled
Apache.
─ Apache Tomcat
• Other Options:
─ IIS
─ NGINX
─ Lighttpd
─ GWS
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Apache Installation on UNIX
Web Servers and
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• Common general steps (from source code):
─ configure:
►generates a Makefile
─ make
►compiles the code and creates a executable binary
based on the Makefile settings
─ make install
►installs executable binary to final location
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Before you Install
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• While detailed instructions will be provided for the
installation of your web server, you should think
about what you are doing at each step.
• This will help you later in the assignment, in which
you are required to reinstall with a different
configuration without instructions.
• If you are having trouble, ask a lab assistant.
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Preparation
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• Log into iWeb1.cs.rmit.edu.au
• Change to your working directory
cd /iweb/username
*NOTE: Replace username with your own username.
• You will be compiling Apache and PHP from source,
so you will need the source code. Create a directory
to hold the source code and copy it there
mkdir src
cd src
cp /public/courses/WebServersAndWebTechnology/src/httpd-2.0.58.tar.gz .
cp /public/courses/WebServersAndWebTechnology/src/php-5.1.4.tar.gz .
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Preparation
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• Uncompress and unarchive the source code (often
called a tarball):
gtar zxvf httpd-2.0.58.tar.gz
gtar zxvf php-5.1.4.tar.gz
• This will create directories httpd-2.0.58 and php-
5.1.4. (httpd-2.0.58 is the Apache source directory.
httpd is the HTTP daemon. You will examine this in
the topic “The Web”.)
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Compiling the Apache Source
Code
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• Before installing any software you should read any
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associated README and INSTALL files.
Change into the Apache directory (/iweb/username
/src/httpd-2.0.58)
cd /iweb/username/src/httpd-2.0.58
─ and type:
less README
─ and
less INSTALL
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Compiling the Apache Source
Code
Web Servers and
Web Technology
• Now you should run the configure script that comes
with Apache.
─ Your port needs to be different from the ports of other
students. You should use 5 followed by the last four digits
of your student number. (Example: If your student
number is s3212234, then use port number 52234)
./configure --prefix=/iweb/username/apache2 \
--with-port= Your port \
--enable-so \
--with-mpm=prefork
─ Ask a lab assistant if you have any doubt.
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Compiling the Apache Source
Code
Web Servers and
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NOW SPEND SOME TIME TRYING TO
UNDERSTAND THE COMMAND YOU JUST
TYPED.
DISCUSS THIS WITH YOUR TUTOR.
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Compiling the Apache Source
Code
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• If the configure script finishes without error, you
should now compile Apache and copy the binaries to
the locations specified when you configured.
make
make install
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Starting Apache
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• If your installation was successful, you should now
be able to start Apache. Change to the bin directory
of your Apache installation and run the apachectl
script.
cd /iweb/username/apache2/bin
./apachectl start
• Check that you have an httpd process running by
typing:
ps -u username
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Ensuring that Apache
Responds
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• The Apache default page can now be viewed at:
http://iweb1.cs.rmit.edu.au: Your port
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Stop Apache
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cd /iweb/username/apache2/bin
./apachectl stop
• Note: You must stop apache before you commence your php installation.
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Apache DAEMON
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• httpd
─http daemon
• daemon
─dae·mon/ˈdēmən/
►Noun:(in
ancient Greek belief) A divinity or
supernatural being of a nature between gods
and humans.
►A background process that handles requests for
services such as print spooling and is dormant
when not required.
• Other types of daemons?
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Web Servers and
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PHP – Apache - MySql
http://www.youtube.com/v/PemsuAfc7Jw&feature/related
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Compiling the PHP Source Code
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• Change to the PHP directory
(/iweb/username/src/php-5.1.4):
cd /iweb/username/src/php-5.1.4
─ and type
less INSTALL
• Again, take into consideration that you are not
installing as root and that your installation will be in
a non-standard directory.
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Compiling the PHP Source Code
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• To configure the PHP for installation, go to your PHP
source directory, and type:
./configure \
--with-apxs2=/iweb/username/apache2/bin/apxs \
--prefix=/iweb/username/php5
• If the configure script finishes without error, you should now
compile PHP and copy the binaries to the locations specified
when you configured as follows:
make
make install
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Configuring Apache for PHP
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• You now need to tell Apache what to do with a PHP
file as follows:
─ Change to the conf directory of your Apache installation.
cd /iweb/username/apache2/conf
─ Backup the apache configuration file before you make any
changes to it.
cp httpd.conf httpd.conf.bak
─ Edit the file httpd.conf
nedit httpd.conf
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Configuring Apache for PHP
Web Servers and
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• Find the line:
AddType application/x-tar .tgz
• Below it add the lines
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
─ Note: these lines do not begin with a “#”, since lines that
begin with a “#” are comments and will not be read by
Apache)
• Ensure that you can find the following line in your
configuration file:
LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so
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Test PHP
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• Start Apache
cd /iweb/username/apache2/bin
./apachectl start
• Create a .php file called information.php
cd /iweb/username/apache2/htdocs
nedit information.php (this opens up the nedit text
editor)
─ In the text editor type the following php code:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
• In a browser open the following link:
http://iweb1.cs.rmit.edu.au: Your port /information.php
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Cleanup Source Files
Web Servers and
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cd /iweb/username/src/httpd-2.0.58
make distclean
cd /iweb/username/src/php.5.1.4
make distclean
cd /iweb/username/src
rm -rf httpd-2.0.58
rm -rf php.5.1.4
• It is important to clean up all source files.
• make distclean puts all of the files into their original
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state.
You must do this if you have to reinstall Apache.
By deleting the source files you are saving significant
space on the hard drive. The hard drives on iweb1
and iweb2 will fill up if students do not do this!
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Apache 2.0 versus Apache
2.2
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• http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/new features 2 0.html
─ Support for threading on Unix
─ Multi-platform support (MPMs)
─ providing native implementation for Windows and increase in
performance
─ mod ssl bundled
• http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/new features 2 2.html
─ Apache has very recently released version 2.2. We are not using
this as it does not have support for PHP yet!
─ Much better caching to improve web server performance.
─ Improved organisation of the configuration file.
─ Redesigned support for authentication and authorization.
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Multi-Processing Modules
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• Different platforms, different needs - more
information in the Web Server Performance lecture
• Some MPMs for Unix:
─ worker (hybrid of threading/processes)
─ prefork (original 1.3.x process based version)
• For Windows:
─ mpm_winnt
• What MPM are we using for our apache installation?
How does it work?
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Dynamic Shared Objects
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• Our installation uses DSOs,
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http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/dso.html These
are enable by including the --enable-so directive, to
load the mod_so module, during Apache
configuration.
DSOs can either be included when the server is
compiled, or, as we do with the PHP module,
included later by using the LoadModule directive in
Apache’s httpd.conf file (actually, the process of
installing PHP writes this line into the httpd.conf file
automatically).
The Apache apxs program is used to build DSO
modules.
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Static Modules
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• The alternative is to statically compile modules which
Apache is built. The simplest way to include the SSL
module, mod_ssl is to compile it statically.
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of DSO?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of Static
Modules?
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lighttpd, FastCGI and PHP
Web Servers and
Web Technology
• An emerging alternative to Apache is lighttpd
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http://lighttpd.org . As its name suggests, this server
is light (uses a small amount of memory per
process) and fast. According (to its own)
benchmarking, it is faster than Apache.
It uses FastCGI - a significant improvement on CGI to run PHP (and other script languages) scripts.
It’s also a great platform for rubyonrails http://rubyonrails.org
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