Mini Servers: Apache 2.2.9 Perl 5.10 Service

Mini Servers: Compact but fully functional.

Apache 2.2.9 Perl 5.10

Mini Server 10 running as a service

This page covers running our mini server (describe on the previous page) as a service, its big brother Uniform Server 3.5-Appolo automates this process. We are not going to take this easy option! Well you would never learn anything by doing that, the manual alternative although slightly more difficult provides an insight into Apache and Uniform Servers flexibility.

Note: Check support section for download details

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Specification

The server has the following specification:

• Server shall run as a service
• Static HTML and Dynamic Perl pages shall be served.
• SSI shall be enabled
• The server shall log all web requests.
• All unused modules shall be disabled.

The only difference in this specification server is no longer portable but run as a service. This means every time you restart your PC the Apache server will automatically start. The advantage of this, when running a server permanently connected to the Internet should a power interruption occur the server will automatically restart when power is restored. If other elements of the system have been set accordingly them your Internet presence will also be restored.

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Security Issues

Security issues remain as explained on the previous two pages. I would like to stress this is about as best as it gets. If you take this and pop it on a Unix box you can harden the server a little more however they are also faced with the same issues.

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Changes

Interestingly if you run the portable version of this sever on a dedicated disk the configuration file would remain unchanged. Use the two new batch files and you are ready to go.

However like many others I run this on C drive with loads of other software yep alarm bells security issue, I am neither complacent nor unaware of these issues, Apache is probably the most secure bit on kit I have on my PC. Anyway I digress; changes are all associated with paths more precisely relative and absolute.

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Relative

In theory Apache is quite happy to use relative paths for example “/” refers to the top level of the current disk. Uniform Server and our portable mini server use this to great advantage by defining a dedicated virtual disk “w”. However when changing across disk space Windows gets uptight about relative paths unless you can explicitly define a disk.

Absolute

Windows likes pegs hammered into the ground so to speak, hence when running as a service specifying absolute paths is essential to keep both parties happy for example c:\mini_server_10, the drive must be specified and then any folders etc.

No need to ramble on, just remember absolute paths are the order of the day so lets roll up ours sleeves and look at some code hacking.

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Configuring Apache

As mentioned above absolute paths are required in the configuration file. I have chosen to run the server on C drive from folder mini_server_10 you can use a different drive and or folder the choice is yours, just substitute accordingly. I have highlighted these absolute paths in bold interestingly these are the only changes required to our original configuration file.

Note: I have moved the server to port 8090 prevents clashing with other servers.

httpd.conf located in folder: C:\mini_server_10\usr\local\apache2\conf
# File name: http.conf # Created By: The Uniform Server Development Team # Edited Last By: Mike Gleaves (ric) # Main Apache 2.2.9 HTTP server configuration file. # Supports Perl # V 1.0 14-7-2008
# ================================================ # Modules # ================================================  LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so  LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so  LoadModule include_module modules/mod_include.so  LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so  LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so  LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so  LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
# ======================================== # Basic settings # ========================================  Listen 8090  ServerName localhost:8090  ServerAdmin fred@www.somedomain.com  UseCanonicalName Off  ServerSignature Off  HostnameLookups Off  ServerTokens Prod  ServerRoot "/usr/local/apache2"  DocumentRoot "/www"  PidFile /usr/local/apache2/logs/httpd.pid <IfModule mod_dir.c>   DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.pl index.cgi </IfModule> AddHandler server-parsed .shtml .shtm .sht
# ======================================== # HTTP and performance settings # ========================================  Timeout 300  KeepAlive On  MaxKeepAliveRequests 100  KeepAliveTimeout 15 <IfModule mpm_winnt.c>   ThreadsPerChild 64   MaxRequestsPerChild 0 </IfModule>
# ======================================== # Access control # ======================================== <Directory />   Options FollowSymLinks   Options None   AllowOverride None   Order deny,allow   Deny from all </Directory> <Directory "c:/mini_server_10/www">   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI   Order allow,deny   Allow from all </Directory>
# ======================================== # Access control cgi # ========================================  ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "c:/mini_server_10/cgi-bin/"  <Directory "c:/mini_server_10/cgi-bin">   AllowOverride None   Options None   Order allow,deny   Allow from all  </Directory>
# ======================================== # MIME encoding # ========================================  DefaultType text/plain  TypesConfig c:/mini_server_10/usr/local/apache2/conf/mime.types
# ======================================== # Logs: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit # ========================================  LogLevel warn  LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\"  \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined  LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common  LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer  LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent  ErrorLog "logs/error_log"  CustomLog "logs/access.log" combined # ========================================

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install.bat

Batch files to install and uninstall Apache as a service are not very complex; the trick is to supply all the right parameters as shown.

Install service employs a nice bit of defensive programming when run the first line checks Apache’s configuration file for errors. Errors are listed including line numbers once corrected rerun the batch file. The second line installs Apache as a service once installed the third line starts the service.

install.bat located in folder: C:\mini_server_10
echo. c:\mini_server_10\usr\local\apache2\bin\Apache.exe -k install -n "mini_server_10" echo. net start mini_server_10 echo. echo Type http://localhost:8090 into your browser to access server. echo. pause

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uninstall.bat

The uninstall batch file first stops the “mini_server_10” service and then proceeds to uninstall it.

uninstall.bat located in folder: C:\mini_server_10
echo. net stop mini_server_10 echo. c:\mini_server_10\usr\local\apache2\bin\Apache.exe -k uninstall -n "mini_server_10" echo. echo Done pause

Note 1: The service name mini_server_10 this along with a unique port number allows all mini servers to be run alongside each other.

Note 2: To avoid clashing with Uniform Server do not name the service Apache2.

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Command Line

After installing the Apache service with the above batch file you can start and stop the "mini_server_10" service at anytime using a command line this saves uninstalling the service every time you want to stop the server:

• net stop mini_server_10
• net start mini_server_10

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Support files

Each mini server is complete and zipped into a single self-extracting archive file.

Download

Download this server from SourceForge Project Page save the file mini_server_10.exe to drive C.

Note: Check out the mini server's support and download page detailing how to obtain full binaries for Apache and Perl.

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Extract files

Double click on mini_server_10.exe, starts the extraction process. No need to change the folder destination, click extract, this creates a new folder mini_server_10 containing the following files and folders:

Top level folder mini_server_10 contains two files: 1) install.bat - Double click to install and start server as a service. 2) uninstall.bat - Double click to stop and uninstall server service. cgi-bin folder: Folder where you place all your Perl scripts. Contains single page web site demo test2. tmp folder: Stores temporary files such as sessions bin folder: Perl program lib folder: Perl libraies and modules apache2 folder: Contains all files associate with the Apache server www folder: This is where you put your web site or sites Test sites: test1 and test2 are test sites these are included to provide an idea of the servers capability's. Delete these folders and copy your sites into this folder (Referred to as the document root folder)

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Test

Testing is straight forward.

1. Install the server by double clicking on install.bat (Checks config file, installs service and runs it)
2. Type http://localhost:8090/ into the browser address bar.
3. An index page is displayed, check out the test site test1.

Note 1: The server automatically starts when your PC is restarted (that’s the reason for installing as a service.)

Note 2: Adding extra pages or changing your web site there is no need to either restart or uninstall the server.

Note 3: Stop the service before making changes to Apache's configuration file; restarting service guarantees the new changes will be picked up.

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Your web site

Open the folder www located in folder *mini_server_10\www delete everything in this folder and copy your site in to it.

Note: Make sure one of your pages in folder www is named index.html or index.htm, otherwise you will need to type a page name in every time to access your site.

e.g. http://localhost:8090/somepage.html

Problems - shebang

I found this to be a real pain you need to change the “shebang” depending on how you run the mini server, portable or as a service. If you're running CGI's on Windows use the portable server, this will allow you to move the scripts to a Unix system without change!

The following lists the “shebang” required to get your cgi scripts working:

• Reference Unix: #!/usr/bin/perl
• Mini Portable Server: #!/usr/bin/perl
• Mini Server run as service: #!c:/mini_server_10/usr/bin/perl

Note: If you use the Unix "shebang" on a mini server installed as a service you will receive this error message in

Apache's error log: (OS 3) The system cannot find the path specified

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Change drive letter and or folder

The server requires a fixed location currently: c:\mini_server_10

You can move the server to any drive and folder for example e:\my_server\mini_server_10

To do this you need to edit threer files:

• install.bat
• uninstall.bat
• httpd.conf (located in folder C:\mini_server_10\usr\local\apache2\conf)

Find all occurrences of c:\mini_server_10 and replace with e:\my_server\mini_server_10

In addition you need to change all Perl scripts that use a Shebang:

#!c:/mini_server_10/usr/bin/perl
To:
#!e:/my_server/mini_server_10/usr/bin/perl

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Change server default port

• Open file: httpd.conf (Located in folder: C:\mini_server_10\usr\local\apache2\conf)
• Locate the lines:
  Listen 8090
  ServerName localhost:8090
  
• Change to:
  Listen 8080
  ServerName localhost:8080

This moves the server to the standard secondary web server port

Note: Type http://localhost:8080 into a browser to view the site.

If port already in use try any value above 2000

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Multi Servers

You can run more than one copy of this server as a service.

To do this you need to:

1. Create a new folder and copy the contents of folder mini_server_10 to it.
2. Edit the files as for (Change drive letter and or folder)
3. Change the port see above.
4. Edit install.bat and uninstall.bat, change the service name from Apache10 to something unique e.g. Apache10x

Note: You can run the mini servers alongside Uniform Server 3.5-Apollo however you must start Uniform Server first.

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Summary

That concludes server 3, I have shown how to run it either in a portable or service configuration. It is a very powerful mini server you can use for either testing or putting your web site on-line (production server). Perl is a very powerful CGI scripting language allowing you to produce dynamic web sites.

Both PHP and Perl have integrated database support using this capability enhances functionality of any dynamic web site. To complete the mini server series I have included a mini MySQL server.

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Ric