Administering Apache

Sure, you know that Netcraft tests have for a while provided empirical evidence of Apache's usefulness and ubiquity. But if you're called upon to use Apache in your workplace (or if you care to serve pages for fun off your home box), you might need more to go on. Chromatic took some busy time out of his life to write this review of Administering Apache, which he says takes a "calculated, strategic approach" to what has become one of the world's most important pieces of software.

Administering Apache author Mark Arnold, Jeff Almeida, & Clint Miller pages 513 publisher McGraw Hill rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 0-07-212291-9 summary This task-oriented guide presents a comprehensive overview of Apache's features, suitable for the small homepage provider and the huge virtual-domain farm.

The Scoop It's hard to know where to begin using something as powerful and flexible as Apache. Serving basic pages is easy, but how do you keep track of visitors? How do you provide unique and appropriate content? What happens when you need more than just a static server?

Adminstering Apache takes a calculated, strategic approach. Dedicating the first chapter to the needs of various entities (corporation, small business, large ISP, small ISP), it discusses the Apache features that will come into play. While the book can be read from start to finish as a tutorial, following one of the roadmaps is the quickest way to get things up and running.

What's to Like? People who love details will appreciate many sections, like the comprehensive configuration information. The book passes the usefulness test, having served as an authoritative reference on multiple occasions. For example, the installing/compiling chapter has an excellent list of modules and configuration suggestions that came in handy with a recent project. (The index alone fills 19 full pages of two-column, small print text.)

Instead of grouping all of the possible httpd.conf directives in one section, the authors cover them by topic. Localisation information can be found in the content chapter, while logging directives live in chapter 5. This division of information fits the topical philosophy, increasing the work's reference value.

While by no means essential data or a comprehensive reference, the chapter on creating new Apache modules was very interesting. The authors write a sample module in C to implement a new MIME type handler. The program's evolution and refinement demonstrates Apache's design and API, as well as good module programming practices.

The scope of the book covers more than just Apache. Aside from obvious topics of security and networking issues, the text includes firewall and proxy information, pages of related Internet sites, and even sample bash scripts to create new homepage users and directories for ISPs. Other sections discuss HTTP and CGI from protocol and implementation standpoints. (Besides, any other book dedicated to Apache business use that doesn't have a section on paid referrer logs is incomplete.)

What's to Consider? As with Apache itself, there is a strong Unix flavor to the text. The single Windows NT chapter is only five pages long, focusing on a few important differences from the Unix version. The other chapters are reasonably cross-platform (though most of the CGI examples are shell scripts, not Perl or PHP).

While a definitive guide would easily double the size of the book, precious little space covers common modules. Besides brief descriptions of distributed modules, the only real discussion involves mod_ssl, though a few have links provided. Also, the book concentrates on Apache in a commercial environment. Perhaps the corporate intranet server best approximates the single-user, small-site setup common for developers' personal pages.

From a writing standpoint, some sections are best left as references. The authors deserve sympathy for writing two pages describing log format string substitutions -- let alone testing and editing them. Though filled, in places, with almost too much information, the writing never becomes muddied. Still, you won't stay awake nights reading some chapters.

The Summary While not the most exciting book to grace your shelf, Administering Apache is a detailed and useful guide to the Apache web server. More than an introduction, it will be a good reference, not just for the mechanics of the software, but for the technique and mindset necessary to maintain an installation in a business environment. Table of Contents

1. Planning Ahead
2. Creating the Web Server
3. Creating the Web Site
4. Manipulating Content
5. Using Logs
6. Securing the Server, the Content, and the Connection
7. Creating Homepage Web Sites
8. Creating Virtual Domain Web Sites
9. Proxying with Apache
10. Troubleshooting
11. Using Apache on Windows NT
12. Programming the Apache Server

Appendix

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.