Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

Installing Apache2 on Windows

As was the case with the Linux version, Apache2 for Windows needs to be downloaded from http://www.apache.org.   The file in question, however, is not a source file that needs compiled and configured; it is a Microsoft Installer file which is installed by the Windows installer. On Microsoft platforms, there is no requirement to have the compiler and development packages installed. All that is needed for installing Apache2 is an out of the box Windows workstation. However, on Windows it is much trickier to make all the required changes in the parameter files. Parameters on Windows are somewhat different from those on Linux.

So, to install Apache2 on MS-Windows, first download the Microsoft installer file (extension ".msi") named apache_2.0.53-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi. In this case, the directory from which the installation will be performed looks like this:

Apache software is free software, licensed under the Apache license, which differs slightly from GNU GPL. The next screen asks for acknowledgement of their license.  This is usually done quite routinely, and the license itself is not very restrictive, so click away and agree to it.

The next important page asks the user to define network parameters such as the host name, the domain and the administrator's email address. It also offers the choice between a single user installation, started manually on port 8080; and the usual installation, for all users, on the default port 80. For the purpose of this book, the installation for all users was selected.

The default installation on port 80 requires administrator privileges because all network ports between 0 and 1024 are privileged ports, which means that only users with administrative privileges can start or stop services assigned to these ports.  In other words, Apache must be installed by the local administrator.

The screen looks like this:

The next screen offers the possibility to change the installation destination. The default destination is the directory Program Files on the C: drive. This drive normally contains all the operating system software, however, the OS can suffer if the C: drive is full.

The Apache web server, like all other web servers maintains a detailed log of server requests and server errors. On a busy system, it can take a substantial amount of disk space. Occasional cleaning is recommended, but it is also wise not to put the server on the C: drive in the first place.

This, of course, applies to all third party software, not just Apache. In particular, on my PC, Oracle, Perl, Cygwin, Apache, PHP and some GNU utilities are all installed on the D: drive. Keeping separate things separate makes the backup and the operating system easier to maintain and upgrade.

Clicking on the "Next" button completes the installation and starts the Apache web server. If http://localhost is placed in the browser, the "feather" should now be visible. On MS Windows systems, the default browser is Internet Explorer.

The next figure verifies the successful installation of the Apache2 web server, displayed in the IE. If this picture is not visible, the web server is not successfully installed and the user cannot proceed. The most frequent reason for problems is the existence of the IIS (Internet Information server), Microsoft Web Server which is installed and started by default on the server installations of Windows 2000.

If Apache2 instead of the IIS is desired, shut down IIS in the "Services" screen of the "Control Panel"->"Administrative Tools" menu.

The Apache web server is now installed. The next thing to do is to install PHP in the D:\PHP directory.

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