Httpd Installation

Internal

• httpd

Overview

This article document installation on Linux RHEL. For Mac or Windows installation, go to Mac and Windows.

Compilation

httpd Compilation

Installation

yum install httpd

Create the Operational Account

httpd installed with yum

If httpd is installed with yum, the installation script usually creates a user ("apache"). If yes, use that user. The default behavior is for the httpd to start as a root (via /etc/init.d/httpd) and then switch to the Unix user declared as in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf as "User" and "Group".

httpd installed from scratch

Otherwise, if httpd is compiled from scratch, for security reasons, it's best if httpd is operated by its own Unix user and group, with as little permissions as possible.

groupadd -g 101 httpd
useradd -c "httpd operational user" -d /home/httpd -g httpd -m -u 101 httpd

Set Standard Environment

httpd installed with yum

Configuration directory: /etc/httpd/conf and /etc/httpd/conf.d.

The module directory: /usr/lib/httpd/modules (linked from /etc/httpd)

The run directory: /var/run/httpd (linked from /etc/httpd)

The log directory: /var/log/httpd (linked from /etc/httpd)

When installed with yum, httpd is designed to be operated by root, and switch to "apache" at runtime, so add the following aliases to ~root/.bashrc:

...
alias cda='cd /etc/httpd'
alias cdac='cd /etc/httpd/conf'
alias cdal='cd /var/log/httpd'
alias cdar='cd /var/run/httpd'
...

httpd installed from scratch

In <httpd-user>/.bashrc:

...
APACHE_HOME=/home/webr/httpd-2.2.17
PATH=${PATH}:${APACHE_HOME}/bin
export PATH APACHE_HOME
alias cda='cd ${APACHE_HOME}'
alias cdal='cd ${APACHE_HOME}/logs'
alias cdac='cd ${APACHE_HOME}/conf'
...

Create Start/Stop Scripts

httpd installed with yum

If httpd installed with yum, the startup scripts is already created (/etc/init.d/httpd). Use it.

httpd installed from scratch

Otherwise, create a similar one, place it in GitHub and link to it from here.

https://github.com/NovaOrdis/playground/tree/master/httpd

This also works:

$APACHE_HOME/bin/apachectl start
$APACHE_HOME/bin/apachectl stop

Start at Boot

init.d

chkconfig --level 2345 httpd on

systemd

Make httpd dependent on network services

For systemd, it is possible that httpd starts before the network, so the process does not find the network interfaces it needs. Symptoms are similar to:

Jan 06 21:09:04 now510.local httpd[806]: (99)Cannot assign requested address: AH00072: make_sock: could not bind to address 1.2.3.4:80
Jan 06 21:09:04 now510.local httpd[806]: no listening sockets available, shutting down

The solution is to declare httpd's dependency on network services. For details on how to do that, see how to declare a service dependency.

Enable

systemctl enable httpd

Configure iptables

iptables-save > /tmp/iptables.cfg

Add the following:

-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

right under the:

-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

line. Then:

iptables-restore < /tmp/iptables.cfg
iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables

If planning to only run the SSL version, do not add the port 80 line.

Configure

Prevent Access to the cgi-bin Script

Specify Require all denied in:

<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Require all denied
</Directory>

Other Configuration

Modify ${APACHE_HOME}/conf/httpd.conf. See:

httpd Configuration

Mac

brew install ?

Also see Compilation on Mac.

Windows

• Download the installer
• Install on port 80, as a service
• Install in C:/httpd-2.2.22 ...
• Configure the service to start manually (by default it starts automatically)
• Manually start/stop the service