Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, 2nd Edition

Installing Apache

This section explains how to install the Apache 2 web server. We also show you how to optionally install and configure a secure web server that can serve https:// requests, including how to create a private key, a certificate request, and a simple self-signed certificate.

Installing a Secure Apache Server

This section describes how to prepare to install a secure version of the Apache web server so that you can support https:// URLs. If you don't need a secure server, skip this section and continue the basic Apache 2 install in "Installing a Regular Apache Server." You can find out more about secure web servers in Chapter 11.

There are two major differences encountered when installing Apache to use SSL versus installing Apache normally:

Secure Sockets Layer software is required.

There are several sources of Secure Sockets Layer software. The OpenSSL is probably the most-commonly used with Apache, and we show you how to obtain and install it in this section.

A site certificate needs to be obtained and configured.

A free, self-signed certificate can be created (and that's what we do in this section). You need to replace it with a purchased certificate from a Certification Authority when an application goes live.

Installing OpenSSL

To start your secure install, you need to set up the secure tools as follows:

1. Get the latest version of OpenSSL from http://www.openssl.org/source/. Download the Unix tar-ed and gzip-ed file under the heading "Tarball." For example, download the ...