Apache Upgrades

[jardows]

I just started working at a local college, and one of my projects is to upgrade the server to latest versions for security (We are waaaaaayyyy behind). We are running a Linux server with Apache 1.3.19, with OpenSSL, modssl, PHP, and FP extensions, and using MySQL. This is a production server, and I can't afford to break it! Any tips or links to 'simple' directions so I can't go wrong?

Jacob Meadows

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Could you just start building a "second server" on that machine using a different port to start with. Then when it is ready for production, adjust your configs as needed, shut down the old one and start the new one. Mike Wills
IBM iSeries (AS/400) Programmer

http://www.koldark.net

 

[jardows]

That would probably work, but how do I install it to make sure the older versions don't cross with the new ones? I only have surface knowledge of Linux, so also how could I install the new "server" on a different port?

Jacob

 

[RhythmAce]

What linux distro are you running the servers on? I've been using Red Hat since 5.1 and have been able to do an upgrade with no problems every time. But this last time when I upgraded to 8.0, all heck broke loose and I had to scramble to reconfigure quite a few things on my system. In your case, I would just do one upgrade at a time rather than the whole system. You will find that the latest version of apache, handles SSL differently from the older versions. For example, you can no longer have mixed secure and unsecure vhosts on the same server. Apache used to have all of its configs in httpd.conf but now you need the SSL vhosts in ssl.conf. Visit

http://www.apache.org

and read up on the version you want to install. What you want to find out is pretty much what you are doing now and that is to find out what kind of problems you are going to come across before you get there. When you are ready to do the upgrade, download the tarball or rpm that will work best for your system. Which one you choose depends on if your system uses the rpm manager or you want to configure and build apache to your specific needs. The rpm version usually has most of the commonly used modules built in.

 

[jardows]

We are running a HIGHLY customized version of RedHat 5.1. We started with that version, and had a Linux guy compile from source all the upgrades, so I don't think there will be any binary upgrades available :-( Our Linux guy left a little over a year ago without leaving any documentation on what he had done, and there hasn't been any updates since. Mainly we just want to update for security reasons, so we plan on staying with Apache 1.3. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any good current documentation on how to install or upgrade a server with all these packages working together.

Jacob Meadows
Network Tech, Baptist Bible College