howto / config-webserver

how to build and configure your webserver:

This webserver software combination is sometimes referred to as LAMP, (Linux with Apache, MySQL, and PHP)

This can be a complicated process, involving many steps. Although people who have experience compiling autoconf'ed packages shouldn't have a problem.

Essentially, these are instructions gathered from the various README or INSTALL files. They are intended to be followed as a rough guideline for getting a LAMP installation up and running - each administrator will need to customize the options for themselves. The first configuration for Apache doesn't actually build it, but creates the necessary files for building php.

Note: There are a few references to files or directories below that are noted with 'xx' in them. These are replacements for whichever the current versio numbers are.

download fresh source

grab the latest stable tar.gz version of these packages into /usr/local/src/

http://httpd.apache.org/dist/httpd/
http://www.php.net/downloads.php
https://www.zend.com/download.php 
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/

If you don't intend to serve secure pages, then you can skip any of the below sections that mention SSL. Otherwise, if you're planning on building SSL into your webserver, you'll need to grab the SSL packages:

http://www.modssl.org/source/
http://www.openssl.org/source/

make a backup copy of apache

cd /usr/local/
cp -r apache/ apache-old

unpack the source code

cd src/
gunzip package-name.tar.gz 
tar -tf package-name.tar | more
tar -xvf package-name.tar

build openssl

./config
make
make test
make install

configure mod_ssl

./configure --enable-shared=ssl --with-apache=../apache_1.x.xx

quick-pass configure apache

./configure

build mysql

This is the quick and dirty method, taken from the INSTALL-SOURCE directions.

groupadd mysql
useradd -g mysql mysql
gunzip < mysql-VERSION.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
cd mysql-VERSION
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
make
make install

# necessary only if you haven't installed MySQL before:
scripts/mysql_install_db

chown -R root  /usr/local/mysql
chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/var
chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql

cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
/usr/local/mysql/bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql &

After this, it's a very good idea to secure your installation. It can be a wise idea to require every user on the machine to use their own password. Remember - these passwords are independent of the login password.

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql
DELETE FROM user WHERE User='';
GRANT ALL ON * to root@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'set_a_password';

At this point, it might be a good idea to test your startup/shutdown script:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop|start

build php

Note: The compilation of php requires gnu's version of make, also known as gmake. On many linux systems, these are the same. If your system does not have gmake, you may need to build it before building php.

cd ../php-5.x
./configure --with-mysql --with-apache=../apache_1.x.xx \
	--enable-md5 --with-config-file-path=/etc
make clean
make
make install

copy php libraries into place

#pull over changes from the new php.ini-recommended to your version
vimdiff /etc/php.ini /usr/local/src/php-x.x.x/php.ini-recommended

copy Zend optimizer plug-in to proper place

cd ../ZendOptimizer-0.xx-php5.x.x-Linux-glibcX

#check to see if there is an old version:
ll /usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendOptimizer.so 
#if so, then make a backup copy of old plug-in
cp /usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendOptimizer.so /usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendOptimizer.so-old

#if not, then 
mkdir /usr/local/Zend
mkdir /usr/local/Zend/lib

#finally,
cp ZendOptimizer.so /usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendOptimizer.so

To use Apache's mod_rewrite, it must be passed as a variable in the configure step. This flag is optional, as it does put an extra strain on the CPU, though allows you to maintain "cool" URIs. The mod_rewrite module should have come bundled with your Apache source code, though it won't be enabled without being told to.

cd /usr/local/src/apache_1.x.xx 
./configure  --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-module=ssl \
--activate-module=src/modules/php5/libphp5.a --enable-module=rewrite
make
make certificate	#if you're using SSL
make install

edit configuration to recognize php files

edit /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf, and remove comments where it says:

# And for PHP 5.x, use:
#
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

test and start httpd with SSL enabled

If apache is currently running, you'll need to halt it before starting the newly compiled version.

/etc/init.d/httpd stop

#this will alert you to configuration issues before attempting to start apache 
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl configtest	
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start	#or startssl if running with SSL

Once you are confident with the way that your server is running, you will probably want to start up automatically when/if the machine reboots. Copying this file and making the appropriate entry in chkconfig (as root) should make this happen. Testing of these features, is of course a rather wise move.

$Id: config-webserver.html,v 1.32 2007/02/05 04:40:46 willn Exp $