Apache is in itself just a simple web server. It was designed with the goal of serving web pages. Some commercial web servers have tried to pack many different features into a web server product, but such combination products tend to be open to substantial numbers of security vulnerabilities. The simplicity and modular design of the Apache HTTPD server brings a more secure product, and its track record especially when compared to other web servers shows it to be a stable and robust product.
This is not to say that Apache servers are incapable of providing dynamic content to users. There are many Apache modules that can be integrated to provide an almost infinite number of new features. Add-on products, such as PHP and mod_perl, can be used to create powerful web applications and generate dynamic web content. This chapter, however, will concentrate on the configuration of Apache itself. Here, we will discuss how to build and configure an Apache HTTPD web server and look at the different options that can be used to build a stable and secure web server.
Apache is in itself just a simple web server. It was designed with the goal of serving web pages. Some commercial web servers have tried to pack many different features into a web server product, but such combination products tend to be open to substantial numbers of security vulnerabilities. The simplicity and modular design of the Apache HTTPD server brings a more secure product, and its track record especially when compared to other web servers shows it to be a stable and robust product.
This is not to say that Apache servers are incapable of providing dynamic content to users. There are many Apache modules that can be integrated to provide an almost infinite number of new features. Add-on products, such as PHP and mod_perl, can be used to create powerful web applications and generate dynamic web content. This chapter, however, will concentrate on the configuration of Apache itself. Here, we will discuss how to build and configure an Apache HTTPD web server and look at the different options that can be used to build a stable and secure web server.