Getting started with Apache "Again"!

[Ztruker]

I run a private Webserver (not on port 80) for my family. I have not done anything with it other than minor maintenance for 5 years or so. Currently running:

Apache 1.3.27
PHP 4.3.9
MySQL 3.23.49

I would like to upgrade to the latest of each plus upgrade any other software needed. As I said, it's been 5 years or more since I last really looked at Apache/PHP/MySQL so is there a good place for me to start again?

Since my Apache/PHP/MySQL is so old, can I even upgrade to the latest available for each or do I need to go through some intermediate releases?

Thank you

Rich K.

 

[Noway2]

Welcome to Tek-Tips!

What system (OS) are you running this on? Have you been maintaining the updates? This is especially important if you have been running Linux as these programs are a few years out of date, which would put you multiple distributions behind as well as several kernel updates.

Most of your PHP code should port right over to the current version, which I think is 5.3 off hand and you should be able to use MySQL dump command to save and restore your databases. One potential issue here is that there are a lot of new threats that have emerged that your code (and the applications at that revision) simply weren't designed to handle. This can be a real problem if you have any interactive pages that accept, and especially post, user submitted data.

You may find that things have changed a bit in Apache and will need to look carefully at the configuration files. Specifically your host declarations may have tags in them that don't apply anymore.

Given how out of date you are, I would recommend doing a full upgrade or even a wipe and re-install. Unless you have taken other steps to secure your system, such as running this web page on an internal network only that uses a VPN to access, running a web page on a port other than 80 won't buy you any security. A simple scan utility will find the port that you are running your server on in seconds. Whats worse is that anyone who goes to the trouble of running a such scan will undoubtedly read the version information of your programs and may take advantage of known vulnerabilities in these (older) versions.

 

[Ztruker]

I'm running on Windows XP Pro, SP3 + all updates.

I think the best approach for me, from what you describe, would be to update to the latest PHP and MySQL first, get everything working and backup it up, then look at updating Apache.

Can I run two instances of Apache on the same computer or would it be better to setup a test site on my other computer (Windows 7 Pro X64) to work on getting the latest Apache setup and running before updating the actual web server itself? I could run the web server code native or in XP Mode or under Oracle VirtualBox on the Win 7 system.

What I want to do is minimize any down time for the web server itself so being able to test and fix without interfering with the running web server would be me preference.

I do have several areas where my family can post messages and upload pictures to so getting up to the latest level of code is what I need to do.

 

[Noway2]

I am really not certain if you can run multiple instances of Apache on Windows. Running a copy on a separate computer, as a development environment makes a lot of sense and I think this is how many actual do their work.

I would go ahead and install the latest PHP, SQL, and Apache on your development system. Then begin porting over the design files. One impediment may be to change any paths, which could be an advantage on your separate dev PC in that you can use the same path structure, same ports, etc. Then when you get everything working you can update your actual server and then transfer the entire directory structure over. At this point you will have a fully updated and tested system.

 

[Ztruker]

Excellent! That's how I'll approach it.

Many thanks for your help.

I'm sure I'll be back as I start down the update path.