A Walkthrough Of Apache, Mod_SSL, MySQL and PHP Setup

by Suhas Prasad

Jump To:

1. Objective
2. Assumptions, Ports Details and Procedures
3. MySQL Installation
4. PHP and Apache Setup
5. Final Testing
6. Conclusion and Credits

Objective:

Our objective is to setup a web server that will allow us to host sites, provide usefull scripting and database tools, and create a secure environment for e-commerce transactions on a FreeBSD machine. We will use the following packages:

• Apache is the result of Apache HTTP Server Project. It is currently the most popular web server. Its popularity can be credited to its versatility and its cost(its free :-)).
• MySQL is one of the fastest and most reliable open source databases available today. MySQL, as Apache, is a package available for free.
• PHP is a popular versatile scripting language that is well suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP is also a free package.
• Mod_SSL and OpenSSL These packages are added so that we can conduct secure connections. We are going to install Apache2 which includes these packages.

This walkthrough is meant to be a simple, to the point setup of these tools and packages. The brief explanations and procedures are just the surface of the concepts. The goal here is to just get you through the installation process.

What you should get out of this walkthrough:

• Apache2
  • Learn how to install the Apache2 Web Server
  • Learn how to create a self-signed certificate
  • Learn how to start and stop the server
• MySQL
  • Learn how to check the status of the MySQL Server
  • Learn to interact with it from the command line
  • Learn basics on how to interact with MySQL using PHP
• PHP
  • Get PHP installed on your server
  • Learn one way to check if PHP is up and running

Next: Ports Details and Procedures

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