Install and configure Apache webserver 2.4.46 on Linux (Cent OS 8) from source

Step 1) Create the following directory structures for binaries, instances, static website content and log file locations. 

/home/osboxes/products/apache24/ -  download apache binaries at this location

/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance   - New apache Instance location 

/home/osboxes/logs/apache24/poc-instance - Log file location for apache instance

[root@webserverhost ~]# pwd

/root

[root@webserverhost ~]# mkdir -p /home/osboxes/products/apache24/

[root@webserverhost ~]# mkdir -p /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance

[root@webserverhost ~]# mkdir -p /home/osboxes/logs/apache24/poc-instance

Step 2) Install required packages for build

[root@webserverhost ~]# yum install python27 -y

[root@webserverhost ~]# yum install gcc make -y

[root@webserverhost ~]# yum install expat-devel pcre pcre-devel openssl-devel -y

[root@webserverhost ~]# yum install  autoconf libtool -y

Step 3) Create a symlink for python package command

[root@webserverhost ~]# cd /usr/bin/; ln -s python2.7 python

Step 4) Download httpd-2.4.46.tar.gz , apr-1.7.0.tar.gz & apr-util-1.6.1.tar.gz from source location to products/apache24

[root@webserverhost ~]# export PS1='[$(whoami)@$(hostname):$(pwd)]#'

[root@webserverhost ~]#  cd /home/osboxes/products/apache24/

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#wget https://downloads.apache.org//httpd/httpd-2.4.46.tar.gz

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#wget https://downloads.apache.org//apr/apr-1.7.0.tar.gz

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#wget https://downloads.apache.org//apr/apr-util-1.6.1.tar.gz

Step 5) Extract the packages

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#tar zxvf httpd-2.4.46.tar.gz

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#tar zxvf apr-util-1.6.1.tar.gz

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#tar zxvf apr-1.7.0.tar.gz

Step 6) Create a symlink for easy upgrades in future.

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]# ln -s httpd-2.4.46 httpd

Step 7) Move apr and apr-util directory inside srclib directory located under httpd directory

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#mv apr-1.7.0 httpd/srclib/apr

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#mv apr-util-1.6.1 httpd/srclib/apr-util

Step 8) Compilation of apache source 

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24]#cd httpd

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24/httpd]#./buildconf

Step 9) Configure Apache and change the desired installation location 

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24/httpd]#./configure --enable-ssl --enable-so --with-mpm=event --with-included-apr --prefix=/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance

Step 10) Execute the make command to prepare the files for the installation of Apache

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24/httpd]#make

Step 11) Execute make install command to install apache

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24/httpd]#make install

Step 12) Change the owner of the directories

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/products/apache24/httpd]#cd /home/osboxes/

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes]#chown -R osboxes:osboxes products instances logs

Step 13) Change the following configurations in httpd.conf file

Listen 10001

ServerName webserverhost:10001

User osboxes

Group osboxes

[root@webserverhost:/root]#cd /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/conf

 [root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/conf]#sed -i 's/Listen 80/Listen 10001/g' httpd.conf

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/conf]#sed -i 's/#ServerName www.example.com:80/ServerName webserverhost:10001/g' httpd.conf

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/conf]#sed -i 's/User daemon/User osboxes/g' httpd.conf

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/conf]#sed -i 's/Group daemon/Group osboxes/g' httpd.conf

Step 14) Create log sylink to point the logs to a desired location where we wanted

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/conf]#cd ..

root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance#rm -rf logs/

root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance#ln -s /home/osboxes/logs/apache24/poc-instance logs

[root@webserverhost:/home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance]#chown -R osboxes:osboxes logs

Step 15) Start Apache instance with osboxes user

[root@webserverhost poc-instance]# exit

logout

[osboxes@webserverhost bin]$ cd /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/bin/

[osboxes@webserverhost bin]$ ./apachectl start

Step 16) Verify the status of apache instance

[osboxes@webserverhost bin]$ ps -ef | grep httpd

osboxes    71720       1  0 23:45 ?        00:00:00 /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/bin/httpd -k start

osboxes    71721   71720  0 23:45 ?        00:00:00 /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/bin/httpd -k start

osboxes    71722   71720  0 23:45 ?        00:00:00 /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/bin/httpd -k start

osboxes    71723   71720  0 23:45 ?        00:00:00 /home/osboxes/instances/apache24/poc-instance/bin/httpd -k start

[osboxes@webserverhost bin]$ curl -Ik http://webserverhost:10001

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2021 04:46:45 GMT

Server: Apache/2.4.46 (Unix)

Last-Modified: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:53:14 GMT

ETag: "2d-432a5e4a73a80"

Accept-Ranges: bytes

Content-Length: 45

Content-Type: text/html

[osboxes@webserverhost bin]$ cd /home/osboxes/logs/apache24/poc-instance/

[osboxes@webserverhost poc-instance]$ ls -rlt

total 12

-rw-r--r--. 1 osboxes osboxes   6 Feb 12 23:45 httpd.pid

-rw-rw-r--. 1 osboxes osboxes 758 Feb 12 23:45 error_log

-rw-rw-r--. 1 osboxes osboxes  71 Feb 12 23:46 access_log

[osboxes@webserverhost poc-instance]$ cat access_log

192.168.1.193 - - [12/Feb/2021:23:46:45 -0500] "HEAD / HTTP/1.1" 200 -

Installation log is available at github: https://github.com/pavanbandaru/webserver/blob/main/apache-install-log