Introducing the Apache Web Server

The Apache Web Server or Apache HTTP Server, most commonly simply called Apache, is the most widely used web server on the internet. In 2009 the Apache web server became the first to surpass the 100 million web site milestone, a credit to this well established, well maintained and long running application. Over 55% of web sites are served by an Apache web server on a wide range of platforms, though the majority of web servers using Apache are Linux servers.

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the Apache Software Foundation and is available for a wide range of operating systems including Unix, Linux, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. The Apache web server is open source software whose licence allows for the distribution of both open and closed source derivatives of the source code.

The Apache web server is primarily used to display both static and dynamic content on the world wide web. Apache supports a wide variety of features, many of which are implemented as compiled modules to extend the functionality beyond that of a simple web server. Apache's core functionality can be extended to include server side programming languages including Perl, Python, Tcl, PHP and Ruby, SSL and TLS, proxying, URL rewriting, and filtering support. Many web based applications are written with the specific features that Apache provides and can only be used on an Apache web server, examples of which include Freeside, phpbb, mediawiki, Serendipity, osCommerce and many, many more. Most of the applications written for the Apache Web server are open source and covered by the GPL, making them free for Linux server administrators to install and use on their Linux server.

Installing the Apache web server on your Linux server and configuring it for use to display a single or multiple websites is easy and can be achieved in a very short period of time. Linux Server How To shall endevour to walk you through the installation of Apache and provide guidance on basic configuration. We shall examine how to install Apache using the Apt package manager and also compile Apache from source with some common configuration options.

If you intend to use the Apache web server to display a customer management system, ticketing system or any other application that is for internal use only your Linux server will be accessable on your Local Area Network by its IP address or by careful manipulation of your client computers host files. If you intend to use your Linux server to display a personal or corporate website over the internet you will require an internet connection with a routable IP address so that the general public can access your Apache web server. This connection should have a reasonable amount of outbound bandwidth to accommodate the traffic that the server will create. You will also require a domain name and a minimum of two DNS servers that also have routable IP addresses so that the domain can be accessed. If you are unfamiliar with the function of a domain name and the necessity of DNS servers please consider reading How to Register a Domain as it provides an excellent primer on how to register a domain and what uses your domain can be put to once registered.