Switching Painlessly from IIS to Apache?

Sheik Yerboutii asks: "The recent downtime caused by the Code Red and NIMDA worms has prompted my Manager to start considering moving away from IIS to Apache. I've been tasked with finding out just how difficult it will be to move to the new webserver. I've got to find out things like how to install and configure it (relatively easy, it's all documented at www.apache.org) but also, things like what do we de now that we've been working in VBScript ASP for about 6 moths?" We posted a similar question to this one, just over a year ago. Any changes or additions to the advice given in that discussion?

"I've read that Apache::ASP exists and that's got something to do with mod_perl but now I'm going in circles figuring out how to make this thing work. I also can't find straight answers on things like if we make the cut over, will we have to convert the VBScript ASP to Perl ASP?

Can anyone relay their experiences with cutting from IIS to Apache? Running ASP with Apache? Most importantly, what are the best resources available for Apache administrators? (hopefully something with a discussion forum)"

Comments

Apache::ASP

[cwinters]

I assume you saw The Apache::ASP home, a link you can find on the mod_perl home.

You can also run ASP on Apache using ChiliSoft ASP, which seems to be owned by Sun now. I've had little experience with the latter, but it seems to work out of the box with existing ASP sites and also has a web admin utility, along with the warm and fuzzy feeling of paying lots of money for something :-)

Apache and IIS are both pretty flexible, but Apache at its core is much simpler and forces you to specify what you want rather than having everything available by default and allowing you to stumble into what you might need. (Not that you'd do that, but I'll be a lot of sysadmins are wishing that IIS weren't so featureful right now...)

Chris

asp2php

[JumpSuit Boy]

There is an app called asp2php that claims to convert 90% of asp/vbscript to php including the DB stuff. It can be found at

http://asp2php.naken.cc/

I have not used it but it does seem to be updated.

Check out JediTrainer's comments

[javester]

In the thread about the Gartner group recommending moving away from IIS, JediTrainer had some solid migration experience that you might find interesting.

Re:Check out JediTrainer's comments

[JediTrainer]

Heh - you beat me to it! Good job!

I was quite serious about that post. I made it sound easy (and, well - it wasn't THAT hard). The hardest part was for that 8 months the work was more difficult. We had to implement nearly everything from scratch again, which was a bit of a pain (ie: replacing the working and debugged with new untested code).

The advantage, however, was that because we were effectively rewriting the application and phasing out the old one, we had the opportunity to not make the same mistakes that had been left in the old ASP/COM version of our program. What we lost in time porting the app we gained in program efficiency and ease of maintenance later (or, for us, now). Keep in mind that I stuck my neck out on the line - the bosses would have had my head had this plan backfired. This app was in production the entire time during the conversion - 100% uptime and new components were phased in over this period of time.

Before you start on anything like this, do take the time to carefully plan your approach (technologies, API layout, modularization, maintaining flexibility etc). I spent about a month's time planning how my team was going to solve this conversion project, and this time has paid off tenfold in the end. I can honestly say that we'd already have been dead had we stuck with the old model - the workload with the amount of staff we have, along with the relative unmaintainability and inflexibility of the old code (we're seeing a lot of demand for customization to our app), would have made it impossible to keep up. Properly designed modules made customization a breeze - simply extend a couple of classes and throw in custom code for that customer.

If you have more specific questions, I'd love to help give you some insight. Obviously I'd be under some NDA so I can't reveal exactly what our app does, but I can certainly point you in the right directions for accomplishing what you want to do. Send a note to arozeluk at home period com.

In theory...

[Walles]

... you could be able to use ASP2PHP while staying in a familiar (Windows/IIS) environment as long as possible:

• Install PHP on your IIS server.
• Convert your ASP to PHP using ASP2PHP and get it running on Windows/IIS/PHP.
• Install Apache with PHP on the Windows box. Get your site running on Windows/Apache/PHP.
• Install a new box with some securish Unix lookalike or other and move the site over.

As I have never attempted anything like this it may or may not work for you. However as ASP2PHP is GPL:ed, at least downloading it and giving it a try should be quite doable. If you have any native Windows code (aka "vendor lock in"), you'll probably have to re-write it though.

Whose idea was it to put Windows servers on the 'net in the first place, anyway?

Cheers //Johan

Re:Apache + ASP/VBScript

[Jon Chatow]

The first thing that springs to mind is an ASP -> PHP converter that I've heard of, called 'asp2php'.

Perhaps a more 'correct' way of doing things would be to use the ASP-mimicing PERL functions (although I'm aware that this isn't exactly what you were asking for, it's the most 'neat' manner, if you really /have/ to use ASP-based nonsense).

A search through Google is the most obvious place to look, however, which turns up, amongst others, a thread on PHPBuilder, which suggests Apache::ASP, which, AFAICT, uses the abovementioned PERL module (given that it requires the Apache module mod_perl).

HTH.

ASP implemented in Java would help you

[johnseq]

Check out http://www.halcyonsoft.com/. They wrote ASP in Java - very portable.

From their home page:

"Are you looking to banish Code Red and Nimda forever by moving your ASP apps to a non-IIS server?

Instant ASP runs on ANY Java-enable platform from a Linux box to an S/390 and has NONE of the security vulnerabilities of IIS..."