Class overview :

Class goals :

Content of Intro to Apache Web Server Administration

Getting started

• Apache
• Webservers
• Apache features
• Apache versions
• Installing Apache
• Installing XAMPP
• Compiling Apache
• Running Apache
• Running Apache automatically: Unix/Linux & MS Windows
• Checking Apache is running
• Serving webpages
• Location of the apache configuration file
• Setting the document root
• Applying configuration changes after testing
• A little HTTP: GET, POST & status codes
• Accessing a Web Server with the Telnet Program
• HTTP 1.1: persistent connections, chuncked transfers, byte serving, ETags, modified dates & conditional transfers, HTTP Pipelineing
• Googles SPDY — HTTP on Steroids, how it works & implementations

Basic configuration

• Configuring Apache
• Directives
• Modules
• Enabling/disabling modules in Debian
• Checking configurations
• Logging
• Configuring log-file contents
• Specifying log-files
• Logging errors
• Browser error messages
• Custom error pages
• Server and directory index pages
• Custom index pages
• Forbidding index pages
• Trailing slashes in directory paths
• Directory paths without trailing slashes
• Per-directory configuration
• <Location> example
• Other directives affecting where settings apply
• Wildcards & Regular expressions in container specifications
• Containers & Case insensitive file systems
• Order of merging of containers
• Context for container directives
• Accessing files from the network
• Per-directory configuration outside httpd.conf
• .htaccess file configuration
• Protecting files with passwords
• Creating a password file
• Maintaining an ht-password file
• Password authentication example
• Password authentication details
• When authentication fails — generating errors
• Authentication Information in Databases
• Restricting access by IP address
• Listening only on specific IP addresses
• Restricting access by IP address
• allow,deny and deny,allow
• Address and password authentication
• Character Sets and Human Languages
• Character Set
• Setting Content MIME Type
• Content Expirey
• Directory Options
• The different MPMs (Multi Processing Modules) available
• Tunable Parameters for Performance
• Enabling KeepAlive

Serving multiple sites with virtual hosts

• Multiple sites on a server
• Setting up virtual host names
• Testing host names
• Enabling virtual hosts
• Defining virtual hosts
• Configuring vitual hosts
• Using virtual hosts
• Host aliases
• Managing many hosts

Dynamic pages with CGI, Perl and PHP

• Dynamic pages
• CGI
• CGI programs
• Sample Unix shell CGI script
• Sample Perl CGI script
• Running CGI programs with Apache
• CGI parameters
• Perl CGI parameter example
• CGI issues
• PHP scripts
• Using mod_php
• PHP configuration
• PHP compiled code caching, persistent database connections
• Sample PHP scripts
• mod_perl
• Installing and using mod_perl
• Using ModPerl::Registry and ModPerl::PerlRun
• ModPerl::Registry v CGI Perl, speedup comparison
• Perl persistent database connections
• Other mod_perl features

Using modules

• Modules
• Loading modules
• mod_speling
• Which Modules Got Loaded ?
• mod_rewrite
• Why use mod_rewrite ?
• Rewrite Flags
• Rewrite Flags Flow Control
• Rewrite Flags Affect What is Sent to the Browser
• Rewrite Flags Affect Processing on the Server
• Internal Rewriting v Redirection
• Forcing Redirection
• Transforming URLs
• Conditional Rewrites
• RewriteCond File Tests
• When RewriteCond is done
• RewriteCond Browser-Dependent Pages
• RewriteCond Canonical URLS
• Preventing hot/deep linking
• Force use of SSL
• Time based access
• RewriteMap
• RewriteMap Example
• When Container tests and Rewrites are performed
• Deploying mod_rewrite
• Redirecting: mod_alias
• Per User Directories: mod_userdir
• Per User Directories: Better Security
• Directory Listings: mod_autoindex
• Directory Listings: IndexOptions
• Monitor Apache Performance with mod_status

Web Proxy with mod_proxy

• mod_proxy
• Forward Proxy
• Reverse Proxy / Gateway
• mod_proxy Support
• Proxy Modules And Other Related Modules
• Configuring a Forward Proxy
• Storage of Cached Pages
• Conguring What to Proxy Where
• Configuring a Reverse Proxy
• Basic Reverse Proxy Config
• Load Balancing with mod_proxy_balancer, worked example
• mod_proxy_balancer cluster manager
• Proxying by Rewriting
• Backend Optimisations
• Access to the Proxy Server

Tomcat with mod_jk connector

• Tomcat overview
• J2EE platform overview
• Apache JServ Protocol (Ajp)
• Installing Tomcat with Apache
• Testing Tomcat, Welcome Page
• Connecting Apache and Tomcat
• Using the Proxy connector
• Using the mod_jk connector
• Dynamic pages, servlets and JSP
• Java Servlets
• Servlet/JSP Containers
• Servlets v CGI
• Sample JSP

Serving pages using HTTPS with mod_ssl

• HTTP security
• HTTPS
• Installing mod_ssl
• Getting a certificate
• Configuring mod_ssl
• HTTP and HTTPS sites cohabiting
• HTTP and HTTPS virtual hosts