Farhill of CyberHome

This document explains how to install, configure and run Apache 2.0 under Microsoft Windows.

Because of the current versioning policies on Microsoft Windows operating system families, this document assumes the following:

Windows NT: This means all versions of Windows that are based on the Windows NT kernel. Includes Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows .Net Server 2003.
Windows 9x: This means older, consumer-oriented versions of Windows. Includes Windows 95 (also OSR2), Windows 98 and Windows ME.

Operating System Requirements

The primary Windows platform for running Apache 2.0 is Windows NT. The binary installer only works with the x86 family of processors, such as Intel and AMD processors. Running Apache on Windows 9x is not thoroughly tested, and it is never recommended on production systems.

On all operating systems, TCP/IP networking must be installed and working. If running on Windows 95, the Winsock 2 upgrade must be installed. Winsock 2 for Windows 95 can be downloaded from here.

On Windows NT 4.0, installing Service Pack 6 is strongly recommended, as Service Pack 4 created known issues with TCP/IP and Winsock integrity that were resolved in later Service Packs.

Downloading Apache for Windows

Information on the latest versions of Apache can be found on the web site of the Apache web server at http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi.

e.g. Win32 Binary (MSI Installer): apache_2.2.3-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi

There you will find the current release, as well as more recent alpha or beta test versions, and a list of HTTP and FTP mirrors from which you can download the Apache web server. Please use a mirror near to you for a fast and reliable download.

For Windows installations you should download the version of Apache for Windows with the .msi extension. This is a single Microsoft Installer file, which contains a ready-to-run version of Apache. There is a separate .zip file, which contains only the source code. You can compile Apache yourself with the Microsoft Visual C++ (Visual Studio) tools.

Installing Apache for Windows

You need Microsoft Installer 1.2 or above for the installation to work. On Windows 9x you can update your Microsoft Installer to version 2.0 here and on Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 the version 2.0 update can be found here. Windows XP does not need this update.

Note that you cannot install two versions of Apache 2.0 on the same computer with the binary installer. You can, however, install a version of the 1.3 series and a version of the 2.0 series on the same computer without problems. If you need to have two different 2.0 versions on the same computer, you have to compile and install Apache from the source.

Run the Apache .msi file you downloaded above. The installation will ask you for these things:

1. Network Domain. Enter the DNS domain in which your server is or will be registered in. For example, if your server's full DNS name is server.mydomain.net, you would type mydomain.net here.

2. Server Name. Your server's full DNS name. From the example above, you would type server.mydomain.net here.

3. Administrator's Email Address. Enter the server administrator's or webmaster's email address here. This address will be displayed along with error messages to the client by default.

4. For whom to install Apache Select for All Users, on Port 80, as a Service - Recommended if you'd like your new Apache to listen at port 80 for incoming traffic. It will run as a service (that is, Apache will run even if no one is logged in on the server at the moment) Select only for the Current User, on Port 8080, when started Manually if you'd like to install Apache for your personal experimenting or if you already have another WWW server running on port 80.

5. The installation type. Select Typical for everything except the source code and libraries for module development. With Custom you can specify what to install. A full install will require about 13 megabytes of free disk space. This does not include the size of your web site(s).

6. Where to install. The default path is C:\Program Files\Apache Group under which a directory called Apache2 will be created by default.

During the installation, Apache will configure the files in the conf subdirectory to reflect the chosen installation directory. However, if any of the configuration files in this directory already exist, they will not be overwritten. Instead, the new copy of the corresponding file will be left with the extension .default. So, for example, if conf\httpd.conf already exists, it will be renamed as conf\httpd.conf.default. After the installation you should manually check to see what new settings are in the .default file, and if necessary, update your existing configuration file.

Also, if you already have a file called htdocs\index.html, it will not be overwritten (and no index.html.default will be installed either). This means it should be safe to install Apache over an existing installation, although you would have to stop the existing running server before doing the installation, and then start the new one after the installation is finished.

After installing Apache, you must edit the configuration files in the conf subdirectory as required. These files will be configured during the installation so that Apache is ready to be run from the directory it was installed into, with the documents server from the subdirectory htdocs. There are lots of other options which you should set before you really start using Apache. However, to get started quickly, the files should work as installed.

Customizing Apache for Windows

Apache is configured by the files in the conf subdirectory. These are the same files used to configure the Unix version, but there are a few different directives for Apache on Windows. See the directive index for all the available directives.

Minimization configure in httpd.conf file:

1. Change DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs" to
DocumentRoot "D:/My Website Directory".

2. Change DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var to
DirectoryIndex index.html (index.html is your website first netpage, You may change to other, e.g. index.php.)

The main differences in Apache for Windows are:

Because Apache for Windows is multithreaded, it does not use a separate process for each request, as Apache does on Unix. Instead there are usually only two Apache processes running: a parent process, and a child which handles the requests. Within the child process each request is handled by a separate thread.

The process management directives are also different:

MaxRequestsPerChild: Like the Unix directive, this controls how many requests a single child process will serve before exiting. However, unlike on Unix, a single process serves all the requests at once, not just one. If this is set, it is recommended that a very high number is used. The recommended default, MaxRequestsPerChild 0, causes the child process to never exit.

Warning: The server configuration file is reread when a new child process is started. If you have modified httpd.conf, the new child may not start or you may receive unexpected results.

ThreadsPerChild: This directive is new. It tells the server how many threads it should use. This is the maximum number of connections the server can handle at once, so be sure to set this number high enough for your site if you get a lot of hits. The recommended default is ThreadsPerChild 50.

The directives that accept filenames as arguments must use Windows filenames instead of Unix ones. However, because Apache uses Unix-style names internally, you must use forward slashes, not backslashes. Drive letters can be used; if omitted, the drive with the Apache executable will be assumed.

Apache for Windows contains the ability to load modules at runtime, without recompiling the server. If Apache is compiled normally, it will install a number of optional modules in the \Apache2\modules directory. To activate these or other modules, the new LoadModule directive must be used. For example, to activate the status module, use the following (in addition to the status-activating directives in access.conf):

LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so

Information on creating loadable modules is also available.

Apache can also load ISAPI (Internet Server Application Programming Interface) extensions (i.e. internet server applications), such as those used by Microsoft IIS and other Windows servers. More information is available. Note that Apache cannot load ISAPI Filters.

When running CGI scripts, the method Apache uses to find the interpreter for the script is configurable using the ScriptInterpreterSource directive.

Since it is often difficult to manage files with names like .htaccess in Windows, you may find it useful to change the name of this per-directory configuration file using the AccessFilename directive.

Any errors during Apache startup are logged into the Windows event log when running on Windows NT. This mechanism acts as a backup for those situations where Apache cannot even access the normally used error.log file. You can view the Windows event log by using the Event Viewer application on Windows NT 4.0, and the Event Viewer MMC snap-in on newer versions of Windows.

Note that there is no startup error logging on Windows 9x because no Windows event log exists on those operating systems.

Running Apache as a Service

Apache can be run as a service on Windows NT. There is some highly experimental support for similar behavior on Windows 9x.

You can install Apache as a service automatically during the installation. If you chose to install for all users, the installation will create an Apache service for you. If you specify to install for yourself only, you can manually register Apache as a service after the installation. You have to be a member of the Administrators group for the service installation to succeed.

Apache comes with a utility called the Apache Service Monitor. With it you can see and manage the state of all installed Apache services on any machine on your network. To be able to manage an Apache service with the monitor, you have to first install the service (either automatically via the installation or manually).

Testing the Installation

After starting Apache (either in a console window or as a service) it will be listening on port 80 (unless you changed the Listen directive in the configuration files or installed Apache only for the current user). To connect to the server and access the default page, launch a browser and enter this URL:

http://localhost/

Apache should respond with a welcome page and a link to the Apache manual. If nothing happens or you get an error, look in the error.log file in the logs subdirectory. If your host is not connected to the net, or if you have serious problems with your DNS (Domain Name Service) configuration, you may have to use this URL:

http://127.0.0.1/

If you happen to be running Apache on an alternate port, you need to explicitly put that in the URL:

http://127.0.0.1:8080/

Once your basic installation is working, you should configure it properly by editing the files in the conf subdirectory. Again, if you change the configuration of the Windows NT service for Apache, first attempt to start it from the command line to make sure that the service starts with no errors.

Because Apache cannot share the same port with another TCP/IP application, you may need to stop, uninstall or reconfigure certain other services before running Apache. These conflicting services include other WWW servers and some firewall implementations.