Installing an Apache server on Windows

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you, step by step, through the installation of Apache 2.2, along with PHP 5 and MySQL 5 (and phpMyAdmin), under Windows.
For this tutorial, we used apache_2.2.4-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi, php-5.2.1-Win32.zip, mysql-essential-5.0.37-win32.msi and phpMyAdmin-2.10.0.2-english.7z, on a machine running Windows XP Pro SP2.

Summary

• Introduction
• Apache
• PHP
• MySQL
• phpMyAdmin
• Finally

All links

• Apache HTTP Server (download page). Choose Win32 Binary (MSI Installer).
• PHP (download page). Choose the zip package in the Windows Binaries section.
• MySQL (download page). Choose the latest stable version, then choose Windows Essentials (x86).
• phpMyAdmin (download page). Choose whichever file you want (the zip may be simpler to use though).

Apache

Running the installer

On the Server Information screen :

• in Network Domain, enter your domain name if you own one, or anything you want (it's not important but this field is mandatory). We entered patheticcockroach.com.
• in Server Name, enter your domain name with www. before. We entered www.patheticcockroach.com (not important either, but mandatory too).
• in Administrator's Email Address, enter your e-mail if you want to, or any nospam@IwontgiveMyAddress.com :). We entered our real e-mail (not important either, but mandatory too).
• check Install Apache HTTP Server 2.2 programs and shortcuts for for All Users, as a Service -- Recommended.

On the Setup Type screen : choose Custom.

On the Custom Setup screen : choose what you want to install. You can leave all the default values if you want. We left the default component settings (full installation), and changed the install path to E:\INTERNET\Apache Group\Apache2.2\.

Configuring Apache

You know have a new icon in your taskbar : the Apache Monitor. Whith this little tool, you can with a few clicks turn on/off or restart your Apache server. If you close it, you can find it again in the Start menu (Programs → Apache HTTP Server 2.2.4 → Control Apache Server → Monitor Apache Servers. Then, go to your Apache folder (for us it's E:\INTERNET\Apache Group\Apache2.2), and open httpd.conf (located in the conf folder). Here are a few important parameters (there is more help about them in the httpd.conf file itself, so we just list them) :

• search for Listen 80 : this is the port listened by Apache, we changed it to Listen 8080.
• search for ServerAdmin : it is followed by the e-mail you entered during setup.
• search for ServerName : it is followed by the domain name you entered during setup, and the port : www.domainname.com:port.
• search for DocumentRoot : change the value to the folder from wich you want to serve your website. We changed it to G:/SERVER/HTTP (note the slash (/) instead of the backslash (\)).
• search for

  #
  # This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
  #

  and change the value to the same as DocumentRoot's. We changed it to <Directory "G:/SERVER/HTTP">.
  A bit later in this section, replace AllowOverride None with AllowOverride All (this is not mandatory but will be necessary to use .htaccess files, which we'll need later with phpMyAdmin).
  You may also want to replace
  • Allow from all with Deny from all
  • Options Indexes FollowSymLinks with Options FollowSymLinks
  (only if you know what you're doing).
• search for DirectoryIndex : this is the name of the index file that Apache will serve if asked for a directory. We set it to DirectoryIndex index.php index.htm index.html
• AccessFileName defines the name of the file that will let us protect folders with a password. We added

  AccessFileName win.htaccess

  at the beginning of the httpd.conf file (we'll need it with phpMyAdmin - we have to change it because Windows refuses filenames starting with a dot).

Result

Congrats, you're done with Apache ! Wanna see the result ? Okay, but not too long, we still have some work to do.
In your taskbar, double click on the Apache Monitor icon. Huh ? It's rather raw, isn't it ? Don't worry, that's not your site :). Press restart : this will stop the server, and relaunch it with the modified httpd.conf.
Put some html pages in the folder you entered in the DocumentRoot field (see above).
Open your favorite browser (I hope it's not MSIE, btw ;)), and in the address bar, type http://127.0.0.1:8080 (where 8080 is the port we chose a bit earlier in the tutorial). Here are your pages, and you could share it with anyone on the web, if they had your IP and if you let Apache go through your firewall.

PHP

Close Apache (not mandatory but let's act cleanly).

Unzipping the stuff

Extract your php file (for us it was php-5.2.1-Win32.zip) in some folder. We extracted it in E:\INTERNET\PHP.

Configuring PHP

Go to your PHP folder (for us it's E:\INTERNET\PHP). Copy php.ini-dist as php.ini, and open this php.ini.

• search for extension_dir and set it to the appropriate value : for us, it's E:/INTERNET/PHP/ext/
• search for upload_max_filesize : this is the maximum size of uploaded files (uploaded in a form treated with a PHP script). We didn't change it, but we thought it might interest you.
• search for

  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
  ; Dynamic Extensions ;
  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

  this is a list of extensions, that you need to uncomment (remove the ;) in order to load them. We uncommented php_gd2.dll (to create pictures, cf our turing number PHP script), php_mbstring.dll (I don't remember why), php_mysql.dll (needed for MySQL queries) and php_pgsql.dll (needed for PostgreSQL queries)
• search for [mail function] and set SMTP to the smtp server of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) (eg, for us it was SMTP = smtp.noos.fr). Uncomment sendmail_from = me@example.com (and replace me@example.com with the address that you want to appear in the From field when your server sends an e-mail)

Configuring Apache to work with PHP

Go to your Apache folder and open httpd.conf (located in the conf folder) :

• add

  <IfModule actions_module>
  Action application/x-httpd-php "E:/INTERNET/PHP/php.exe"
  </IfModule>

  at the beginning of the file (of course, replace the path by yours).
• add

  <IfModule so_module>
  LoadModule php5_module "E:/INTERNET/PHP/php5apache2_2.dll"
  PHPIniDir "E:/INTERNET/PHP"
  </IfModule>

  at the beginning of the file (replace the path by yours).
• search for

      # If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you
      # probably should define those extensions to indicate media types:
      #
      AddType application/x-compress .Z
      AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

  and add AddType application/x-httpd-php .php after it.

In your PHP directory (for us, E:\INTERNET\PHP), copy the file libmysql.dll and paste it into the bin directory of your Apache folder (ie, for us E:\INTERNET\Apache Group\Apache2.2\bin).

Hello World

Well, time for another break. With notepad, create a file named somename.php, containing :

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save it into your server directory (for us it's C:/SERVER/HTTP). Now launch Apache (or restart it). With your browser go to http://127.0.0.1:8080/somename.php. You should see a page listing a lot of things about your server :)

MySQL

Close Apache (not mandatory but...)

Running the installer

On the Setup Type screen : choose Custom.

On the Custom Setup screen : choose what you want to install. You can leave all the default values if you want. We left the default component settings, and changed the install path to E:\INTERNET\MySQL.

On the MySQL.com Sign-Up screen : do whatever you want... we chose Skip Sign-Up.

On the Wizard Completed screen : leave the Configure the MySQL server now checkbox ckecked. This opens the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard.

Configuring MySQL

If it isn't already opened, launch the MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard (In the Start menu, go to Programs → MySQL → MySQL Server 5.0 → MySQL Server Instance Config Wizard).

On the Please select a configuration type screen : choose Standard Configuration.

On the Please set the Windows options screen : let the default options (Install As Windows Service, Launch the MySQL Server automatically)).

On the Please set the security options screen : just set the root password.

Creating the links to launch and close MySQL

You can use batch files to quickly launch or stop the MySQL service.
See the tutorial about batch files if you need help.
For instance, create a file named MySQL_launch.bat with the following content :

net start MySQL

(where MySQL is the name you gave to the MySQL service during the installation process).
Create another file named MySQL_stop.bat with the following content :

net stop MySQL

Now, to launch the MySQL Server, all you have to do is run MySQL_launch.bat. To close the MySQL Server, run MySQL_stop.bat. You can create a link to these batch files and put these links in the start menu, but this tut isn't the place to explain this).
If you get stuck because of these files, tell us on the forum : we can send you our batch files.
A last note : you can do the same kind of batch files with the Apache2 service.

Result

Sorry, nothing new to see here. Move on to the next section, there'll be much more things to see.

phpMyAdmin

Unzipping the stuff

Extract your phpMyAdmin file (for us it was phpMyAdmin-2.10.0.2-english.7z) in a folder within your server's folder. We extracted it in G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\phpMyAdmin. Move all the files and folders into G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\phpMyAdmin (instead of leaving them in the original G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\phpMyAdmin\phpMyAdmin-2.10.0.2-english).

Configuring phpMyAdmin

Create a config directory in your phpMyAdmin folder (G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\phpMyAdmin for us).
Launch Apache and MySQL (if they aren't already running), and with your browser, go to http://127.0.0.1:8080/Restricted/phpMyAdmin/ (or to wherever you installed phpMyAdmin). You get an error message with a link to the setup script.
Go to the setup script. Find the Servers section and click on Add.
Enter the MySQL root password in the Password for config auth field.
Finish adding this server (click on the green Add button).
In the Configuration section, click on Save.
Copy G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\phpMyAdmin\config\config.inc.php to G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php.
Go to http://127.0.0.1:8080/Restricted/phpMyAdmin/ again.
Here you are, phpMyAdmin is configured.

Just a last security feature

You probably noticed that you don't need any password to use phpMyAdmin, which means that virtually anyone can access your database through phpMyAdmin. Let's add some protection.

• In your phpMyAdmin folder (or higher if you want to protect other folders : all folder below this folder will be protected), create a folder named, for instance, pass.
• In this folder, create a file named win.htaccess with the following content :

  deny from all

• Always in this folder, create a file named, for instance pass.txt with the following content (for instance too) :

  username:password
  anotherusername:anotherpassword

  This file contains informations about users (username) linked to their password.
• In the folder above pass (pass's parent folder), create a file named win.htaccess with the following content :

  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Please log in"
  AuthUserFile G:/SERVER/HTTP/Restricted/pass/pass.txt
  require valid-user

  (replace G:/SERVER/HTTP/Restricted/pass/pass.txt with the full path to the password file)

To sum up : for instance, we have 3 files :

• G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\win.htaccess

  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Please log in"
  AuthUserFile G:/SERVER/HTTP/Restricted/pass/pass.txt
  require valid-user

• G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\pass\win.htaccess

  deny from all

• G:\SERVER\HTTP\Restricted\pass\pass.txt

  patheticcockroach:mypassword

Now go back to your browser, to http://127.0.0.1:8080/Restricted/phpMyAdmin/ : it asks for a username and a passord, for us it's patheticcockroach and mypassword.

Finally

Congrats, you now have a brand new Apache HTTP Server with PHP and MySQL support, running phpMyAdmin as a database administration tool.
What's more your phpMyAdmin folder (and perhaps other folders, or even your whole server) is secured by a password.
Do not forget to keep links to the Apache Monitor, MySQL_launch.bat and MySQL_stop.bat for easier use (but you can still use the common Windows Service management system).