How to bring up another instance of Apache? 2

[SirCharles]

Can you just copy current httpd executable to another area on disk, change the config file in the new area, and the startup script to bring up another instance of Apache? Or do you need to recompile the httpd executable?

Otherwise, what is recommended procedure?
Last time I did this, I recompiled everything as I needed to add some modules anyway. I did this after moving all the source for all the modules to the new area. It involved recompiling all the modules first. Where I'm not adding or removing any modules...

 

[danielhozac]

Why would you need several instances of Apache running?

//Daniel

 

[SirCharles]

One for a production version and one for a development or testing version.

 

[danielhozac]

Do you really need a separate instance of Apache for that? Wouldn't virtual hosts do?

//Daniel

 

[SirCharles]

Normally, I believe, it would.

 

[tarn]

If your OS is Linux/*nix then yes you can install or compile Apache into another directory structure but you obviously cannot use the same port (unless you have 2 IP addresses {probably even on a virtual interface eth1:1?}) anyway.

Web appliances like Colbalt RAQ's run one instance for production (user facing) and another instance for Administration (admin user facing).

You just need to be careful with lock files and ports (all in the httpd.conf.

Good Luck
Laurie.

 

[SirCharles]

So, you have to re-compile? Or can I just move the executable over and modify the httpd.conf config file?

 

[danielhozac]

You should be able to use the same executable, just supply command line switches for which configuration file to use.

//Daniel

 

[tarn]

Ok .... Answer:

I just did the following on my test server (Red Hat 7.2 with Apache 1.3.27) here:

1) cp /usr/sbin/httpd /usr/sbin/httpd2
2) cp /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd2.conf
3) vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd2.conf and:
a) change port to 81
b) change any ref for lock,scoreboard, log files etc to have an appended 2 after the 'httpd' part
c) made document root to be /var/

http://www/html2

d) saved file
4) mkdir /var/

http://www/html2

5) cp /var/

http://www/html/*

/var/

http://www/html2

6) vi /var/

http://www/html2/index.html

and add some big CLUE WORD
7) chmod -R 755 /var/

http://www/html2

Then finaly
8) /usr/sbin/httpd2 -f /etc/httpd/conf/httpd2.conf
This starts the second webserver (othere was and is already running on port 80)

Oh and from a browser do:

http://192.168.1.17:81

and there is my other site, knock off the 81 and my orig site is there too

Easy or what?

For production you will need to be a bit more thorough though!

Good Luck
Laurie.

 

[tarn]

What Daniel says is true, no real need to copy /usr/sbin/httpd .... but it just helps {me} disinguish whats running what at a quick glance of ps -ef | grep httpd2 :¬)

L.

 

[SirCharles]

Thanks to Laurie and Daniel. I also had to create an httpd.pid file with different number in it. Because
I'm referencing the 2nd run of apache from different location, the grep shows that up as well.