11.1 Starting the Apache Server

Once httpd.conf has been saved, Apache can be started via:

# /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

or if Apache is configured for use with SSL (the password for the certificate will be asked if one configured it so):

# /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl startssl

If no problems are reported, Apache will inform you that the service has started. In any browser on the same computer, visit the url http://127.0.0.1, or https://127.0.0.1, and a message should appear that Apache has been installed successfully.

Once started one may check the Error Log which will indicate what has been compiled into Apache. For example:

# tail -f /path/to/installed/apache/logs/error_log

Apache/1.3.29 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.11 OpenSSL/0.9.7d mod_perl/1.29 PHP/4.3.5 configured
-- resuming normal operations

Another method is to also check the installed modules with Apache. This can be done by executing /path/to/installed/apache/bin/httpd -l. One will see, amongst other modules, mod_so listed, and if SSL is enabled, mod_ssl.

At this point, the base Apache server has been installed. The next few sections discuss Apache add-on modules, and how to configure and install them.