Last year, as part of Google’s initiative to make the web faster, we introduced Page Speed, a tool that gives developers suggestions to speed up web pages. It’s usually pretty straightforward for developers and webmasters to implement these suggestions by updating their web server configuration, HTML, JavaScript, CSS and images. But we thought we could make it even easier -- ideally these optimizations should happen with minimal developer and webmaster effort.
The Apache Web server (Apache) comes with a powerful logging framework. In the default configuration, Apache logs all errors to an error log and all access requests to an access log. The default level of logging is sufficient for analyzing traffic patterns and for getting basic information about errors, but it may be inadequate for troubleshooting purposes. Familiarity with all the logging features can help you troubleshoot the Web server or applications hosted on Apache.
Tuesday, August 28 2007 @ 08:26 AM CST Contributed by: Linegod
After several months of development, the SS2L OpenDev publishes a first version of the free project Kochizz. This graphic tool aims at facilitating the configuration of the Apache Web servers.
Managing one site on a Web server can be tough enough, and the job is even harder if you have to host multiple client sites on a badly configured setup. If you're running Apache, you can make things easier by setting up virtual hosts, which let you control multiple domains on one IP address, allowing you to specify URLs like http://clientsdomain.com/file_name.html instead of http://yoursite.com/hosted/clients_directory/file_name.html, and letting you forgo setting up domain forwarding with a /srv/www/htdocs/hosted/clients_directory file.
Right at the end of OSCon in September, I got the opportunity to harangue Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth about the support vacuum distros such as his create. He didn't have an answer. OK, I was putting him on the spot, but I don't think he'd have done much better if he'd had notice of the question. Frankly, I don't think there is an answer.
In this tutorial I will describe how to install and configure mod_deflate on an Apache2 web server. mod_deflate allows Apache2 to compress files and deliver them to clients (e.g. browsers) that can handle compressed content which most modern browsers do. With mod_deflate, you can compress HTML, text or XML files to approx. 20 - 30% of their original sizes, thus saving you server traffic and making your modem users happier.
Now that mod_ssl is included as standard in version 2, Apache has become more popular for hosting secure websites. The total for Apache includes other projects from the ASF including Tomcat, and includes Apache-SSL, but does not include derived products like Stronghold or IBM HTTP Server. c2net/Red Hat includes only Stronghold and Red Hat SWS.
Of course, you know this anyway. But just for the benefit of any long-term residents of Planet Amnesia, Apache is the software that powers most servers on the web - including, naturally, El Reg. And in December, Apache marked its tenth birthday with its first major new release in a little over three and a half years.
Apache 2.2.0 is major release of the Apache httpd server and includes a number of critical changes. Many of these changes are improvements of existing modules, but there are also a number of new modules and improvements in some aspects of the operational functionality. This article will cover some of the specific elements that have changed (with examples and alternative configurations) as well as discuss when to upgrade to the new version and when to wait for a future revision.
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) may soon have some full-time, paid staff including an executive director, according to the organisation's co-founder.
The ASF currently runs on a volunteer model, and any change to this strict philosophy will raise eyebrows right across the IT industry.
"We are at somewhat of a crossroads now in that we have grown so quickly," said Brian Behlendorf, a co-founder and director of the ASF. "The ASF is starting to outstrip the ability for people who are volunteers to be able to keep up with it, and effectively manage it."
