Here’s the steps I followed to install Apache web server on Windows 7 with php.

I have been running an application on a Windows XP PC for years.  The application was web enabled on top of Apache for Windows.  This note captures the steps to move my application over to my Win7 PC; since I’ve done this before, this should be easy.  Well no, I had some bumps and these notes are to help me for next time.

For starters, I decided to follow the nice how-to found at Badprog.

1. Install Apache httpd.

• Download from here
• For Network Domain, I entered my domain name.
• For Server Name, I entered my private IP address, 192.168.x.x
• I verified my setup, by trying http://192.168.x.x.  Look for “It Works!”

.2. Install PHP

• Download from here. I used VC9 x86 Thread Safe (2012-Nov-21 21:22:38), v5.4.9
• unzip and copy to C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP
• rename folder to php-5.4.9

3. Configure

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\httpd.conf

 LoadModule php5_module "C:/Program files (x86)/\
 PHP/php-5.4.9/php5apache2_2.dll"
 LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
 LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
 AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
 # for .htaccess
 AllowOverride All
 # for dir_module
 DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
 <Directory "C:/public_html">
 Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
 # at end of file:
 PHPIniDir "C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/php-5.4.9"

• In same directory create a .htpasswd file
• In c:\public_html, create file phptest.php

 <?php
 phpinfo();
 ?>
 

• create file .htaccess

AuthUserFile "C:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/.htpasswd"
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName EnterPassword
AuthType Basic require user j****k

• verify http://192.168.100.153/phptest.php
• C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\php-5.4.9:
  • rename php.ini-development -> php.ini

 date.timezone = "America/Chicago"
 ForceType application/x-httpd-php

Key stuck point for me when setting up my Apache Web Server on Windows 7:

Remember: restart httpd with “Run as Administrator” !!

Whenever the httpd.conf file is changed you need to restart the Apache web server.  Just selecting and running Restart doesn’t work, except if you run it as an Administrator. From the Start menu, find Restart, the right-mouse click it, and select “Run as Administrator.” It took me two hours to figure this out.  Since my old installation was on Windows XP, I never had this issue.

4. Configure SSL

• edit file: “C:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/extra/httpd-ssl.con”

 DocumentRoot "c:/public_html"
 Servername cisco163.kozikfamily.net:443
 SSLCertificateFile "C:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/cisco163_kozikfamily_net.crt"
 SSLCertificateKeyFile "C:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/cisco163.kozikfamily.net.key"
 SSLCertificateChainFile "C:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/cisco163_kozikfamily_net.ca-bundle"

#Because of syntax error on Windows:
SSLSessionCache "shmcb:C:/Progra\~2/Zend/Apache2/logs/ssl_scache(512000)"

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I guess I don’t really need to get a certificate.  All I have to do is click “proceed anyway” and everything would still work. My app would be running over the Internet encrypted.  I didn’t like the user experience; I wanted to be able to use my app from any browser, securely.  So I decided to research registering my URL for an SSL certificate.

I picked the reseller service called ClickSSL. They sell all kinds of SSL certificates ranging from $11.95/yr upto $274/yr; there’s a range of services and security levels.  I picked their service called RapidSSL.  It was the cheapest and promised easy setup.  I learned that it’s building upon the GeoTrust branded SSL infrastructure.

SSL Certificate Setup Process

So I am not sure how much I want to restate right here, but the SSL setup process is complicated.  I had no idea what I was doing, so I totally followed the setup HOWTOs found at the RapidSSL website.

The first step is running a tool on your server (I use Apache on Win7, tool name: genrsa).  The tool is used to generate a Private Key. I named the output file my_domain_com.key. The key files (excerpt only) looks sort of like this:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEpQIBAAKCAQEAwUjy+PuNKKEcMyk0aRAzvRB4VRpJyHUhHGFxW4PVJwrTD7by
DlFsk1jYB5L6KRzv8pVv82jDax1gvb6TDk0Hiv9uLAynAno+MmoinXwVTatpClgN
...
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

The next step is to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR); I used a tool called openssl.  It used my key file from the previous step.  The CSR is your public key.  This is what is sent to GeoTrust; the Private Key is kept secure on your apache server.  The CSR tool generated file, I named it my_domain_com.csr. The CSR file contains:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
MIICrDCCAZQCAQAwZzELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxETAPBgNVBAgTCElsbGlub2lzMRMw
EQYDVQQHEwpOYXBlcnZpbGxlMQ0wCwYDVQQKEwRzZWxmMSEwHwYDVQQDExhjaXNj
...
-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

The next step in the process points you to the  SSL Certificate application webpage; it prompts you for a bunch of server information, including your fully qualified domain name and a credit card number.  It asks you to cut and paste your CSR (pubic key) into a web form. I submitted SSL application.

You get a web page asking  for an email address for from which a verification / authorization request can be mailed.    Note: this cannot be any email address, but it must be an administrator who sits on your FQDN.  For me, I picked admin@domain.com.  The SSL service sends an email with a link to a reply web page.  It will send you this email once a day for several days until you reply.  Once you reply, someone does some kind of manual check, and then a day or so later you get an email with your SSL certificate.

The SSL certificate looks like this:

Your RapidSSL certificate:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFNjCCBB6gAwIBAgIDCSa+MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMDwxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT
MRcwFQYDVQQKEw5HZW9UcnVzdCwgSW5jLjEUMBIGA1UEAxMLUmFwaWRTU0wgQ0Ew
HhcNMTIxMTExMTEwMjI1WhcNMTMxMjE0MjA0OTAxWjCBxzEpMCcGA1UEBRMgdUlJ
aG5RNkdjeG52RnA4WjFYcFlFMTdnTFdHWkZiZTkxEzARBgNVBAsTCkdUMDgyMDY2
...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

This certificate is what you paid the money for.  You need to save it in a file (I named mine my_domain_com.crt).  The file needs to be installed into your Apache web server. Also, you will get a pointer to a Intermediate CA Bundle file.  This file (eg my_domain_com.ca-bundle); this file needs to be saved into your Apache web server, too.  I followed the RapidSSL Instructions titled: Install certificate in Apache

There were a few updates that were need, but for me, the most important point was to remember the changes to the httpd-ssl.conf file:

SSLCertificateFile "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/my_domain_com.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/my_domain_com.key"
SSLCertificateChainFile "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/my_domain_com.ca-bundle"

The post Personal website now runs over https. Cheap SSL certificate from ClickSSL. appeared first on JackKozik.com.