VMware vFabric Web Server - 5.1 Installation Manual
vFabric Web Server Installation and
Configuration
VMware vFabric Web Server 5.1
VMware vFabric Suite 5.1
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Table of Contents
1. About vFabric Web Server Installation and Configuration .............................................................................. 1
Intended Audience ......................................................................................................................... 1
2. Overview of vFabric Web Server ............................................................................................................ 3
Complete Packages and Modules in vFabric Web Server 5.1 ...................................................................... 3
Differences Between vFabric Web Server and vFabric ERS ....................................................................... 4
3. Installing vFabric Web Server ................................................................................................................ 5
Installation Note for vFabric Suite Customers ........................................................................................ 5
Available Distribution Packages ......................................................................................................... 5
RHEL: Install vFabric Web Server from the VMware RPM Repository .......................................................... 5
Unix: Install vFabric Web Server from a Self-Extracting ZIP ...................................................................... 7
Windows: Install vFabric Web Server from a ZIP File .............................................................................. 8
Activate a local vFabric Web Server License ......................................................................................... 9
Description of the vFabric Web Server Installation ................................................................................ 10
Upgrading vFabric Web Server ........................................................................................................ 11
4. Creating and Using vFabric Web Server Instances ...................................................................................... 15
Description of vFabric Web Server Instances ....................................................................................... 15
Create vFabric Web Server Instances ................................................................................................. 15
newserver Prompts and Command Reference ....................................................................................... 16
Unix: Start and Stop vFabric Web Server Instances ................................................................................ 19
Windows: Start and Stop vFabric Web Server Instances .......................................................................... 20
Serve a Sample HTML File from Your vFabric Web Server Instance ........................................................... 21
5. Configuring vFabric Web Server Instances ............................................................................................... 23
Using Sample Configuration Files to Enable Features and Modify Configuration ............................................. 23
Configure Load Balancing Between Two or More tc Runtime Instances ........................................................ 23
Configure BMX for Monitoring vFabric Web Server Instances .................................................................. 27
6. Security Information .......................................................................................................................... 29
External Interfaces, Ports, and Services .............................................................................................. 29
Resources That Must Be Protected .................................................................................................... 29
Log File Locations ....................................................................................................................... 29
User Accounts Created at Installation ................................................................................................ 30
Obtaining and Installing Security Updates ........................................................................................... 30
7. Additional Documentation ................................................................................................................... 31
VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 iii
iv vFabric Web Server
About vFabric Web Server Installation
and Configuration
1. About vFabric Web Server Installation and Configuration
Revised July 17, 2012.
VMware vFabric Web Server Installation and Configuration describes product concepts and product-specific configuration
tasks for VMware® vFabric™ Web Server. Fully compatible with Apache Web Server, vFabric Web Server is a dynamic loadbalancing service that is available as a standalone product and as a part of VMware® vFabric Suite™ Standard and vFabric
Suite Advanced editions. Read this documentation for an overview of vFabric Web Server features, installation instructions, and
information on how to configure functionality that is specific to vFabric Web Server.
Intended Audience
vFabric Web Server Installation and Configuration is intended for experienced Windows and Unix developers and system
administrators who want to install a Web Server to serve static Web content, act as a proxy, or load balance between application
servers such as VMware® vFabric™ tc Server.
1
VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 1
2 vFabric Web Server
About vFabric Web Server Installation
2
and Configuration
Overview of vFabric Web Server 3
2. Overview of vFabric Web Server
vFabric Web Server is the Web server and load-balancing component of VMware vFabric Suite. vFabric Web Server 5.1 is based
on Apache HTTP Server version 2.2.
In addition to the standard features of Apache HTTP Server, vFabric Web Server provides the following mission-critical benefits:
• Ability to easily install multiple instances of vFabric Web Server running on a single computer.
• Scalable management of multiple Web sites and servers; you can run and manage hundreds of instances of vFabric Web
Server.
• Support for heterogeneous environments (32- and 64-bit architectures): Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), AIX, Solaris, and
Microsoft Windows. vFabric Web Server can be updated and patched across all servers at once. See Supported Configurations
and System Requirements for details.
Complete Packages and Modules in vFabric Web Server 5.1
This section lists the complete contents of vFabric Web Server 5.1.
This document describes features and functionality for vFabric Web Sever 5.1. For general information about new
features in Apache HTTP Server 2.2, see the Apache Web site.
• Core Apache HTTP 2.2.22 Binaries
• Apache mod_ftp 0.9.6
• Apache mod_fcgid 2.3.6 (a FastCGI invoker)
• OpenSSL 1.0.1a
• OpenLDAP 2.3.43
• mod_jk 1.2.31
• mod_bmx (Hyperic plug-in for monitoring support)
• libexpat 2.1.0
• libpcre 8.30
• libapr 1.4.5
• libaprutil 1.3.12
• libiconv 1.11
• zlib 1.2.3
• unzip 6.0
You typically install vFabric Web Server from the vfabric-web-server-version package, which contains all the
preceding compiled modules. For your convenience, VMware also makes a vfabric-web-server-devel-version
package available which you can use to build HTTPD modules. Typically, you install the -devel package only on development
computers, and not on production computers.
mod_fcgid Implementation of Connector to FastCGI
The mod_fcgid distributed with vFabric Web Server 5.1 is an implementation of the connector to FastCGI applications. This
module allows the user to provision FastCGI providers such as PHP or Ruby on Rails from third parties, running out-of-process
from the server itself.
VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 3
4 vFabric Web Server
Many applications can be built to support FastCGI; consult your language or application documentation for details. The
application providing FastCGI services is launched by mod_fcgid on the initial request, and reused for subsequent requests to that
application or language environment.
For details on configuring an application, including the number of persistent processes created, see Apache Module mod_fcgid.
Differences Between vFabric Web Server and vFabric ERS
The vFabric Cloud Application Platform includes two HTTP server and load-balancing products: vFabric Web Server and
vFabric Enterprise Ready Server (ERS). vFabric ERS is nearing its end-of-life and VMware highly recommends that ERS
customers migrate to vFabric Web Server. The following table describes the major differences between the two products and
provides high-level actions that existing ERS customers can take as they prepare for the migration.
Table 2.1. Differences Between vFabric Web Server and vFabric ERS
vFabric Web Server vFabric ERS Customer Action
Available as part of vFabric Suite (Standard
and Advanced) or as a standalone product.
Strictly an Apache HTTPD Server-based
product. vFabric tc Server, a separate
product, is strictly an Apache Tomcat-based
product.
Runs on current, vendor-supported 32and 64-bit releases of RHEL, Microsoft
Windows, Solaris, and AIX. See Supported
Configurations and System Requirements for
the exact versions.
Includes the current enterprise-ready release
of Apache HTTPD Server 2.2.
During installation or upgrade, the Apache
HTTPD binaries are written to a path
in the format vfabric-web-server/
httpd-2.2.xx.x-32. This preserves any
existing Apache HTTPD binaries without
overwriting them.
Includes the most commonly-used modules.
See Complete Packages and Modules in
vFabric Web Server 5.1.
Closely tracks Apache Software Foundation
(ASF) naming and directory layout
conventions. In particular:
• install-dir/httpd-2.2/modules/
directory contains the loadable modules
• Binaries and configuration file names use
httpd prefix
• install-dir/newserver.pl|vbs
creates new instances
• instance-dir/bin/httpdctl controls
each deployed instance
• instance-dir/conf/extras/ offers
feature-based small config templates
Not included in vFabric Suite. Originally
designed for only physical computers.
Includes both Apache HTTPD and Apache
Tomcat packages.
Runs on now-unsupported, or "twilighted",
versions of RHEL, Windows, Solaris, AIX, and
HPUX. See ERS Supported Platforms for the
exact versions.
Includes the current release of Apache
HTTPD Server 2.2, as well as the nowdeprecated 2.0 and 1.3 versions.
During installation or upgrade, the Apache
HTTPD binaries are always written to the
same directory (ers-install-path/
apache2.2-64), which means on upgrade
any existing binaries are overwritten.
Included additional modules, such as
mod_perl, mod_php, and mod_snmp.
Has a number of now-stale, legacy file and
path conventions. In particular:
• install-dir/apache2.2/modules/
standard directory contains the loadable
modules
• Binaries and configuration file names use
httpsd prefix
• install-dir/ers-server.pl creates
new instances
• install-dir/servers/instance-
dir/bin/apache_startup.sh|bat
controls each deployed instance
• install-dir/servers/instance-
dir/conf/httpsd.conf is one large,
monolithic configuration template.
Select licensing based on vFabric integration
or dedicated hardware.
Migrate ERS Apache HTTPD instances to
vFabric Web Server. Separately migrate ERS
Tomcat instances to vFabric tc Server.
Upgrade to a vendor-supported operating
system version for all vFabric Web Server
instances, and apply all patch releases (such
as service packs) issued by that vendor
no later than 12 months from their vendor
release.
Migrate all Apache HTTPD 2.0 and 1.3
instances to vFabric Web Server 2.2
instances. The migration requires updates to
the *.conf file.
Point all server instances to the common
symlink vfabric-web-server/
httpd-2.2, modify it to revert/roll back/
change 32-64 bit modes.
Migrate PHP and Perl applications to the
supported, and more optimal, mod_fcgid
environment.
Create a new vFabric Web Server instance,
then migrate customizations from your
existing vFabric ERS instance. Alternatively,
modify a copy of the deployed vFabric
ERS instance tree to use vFabric Web
Server path and file name conventions.
Use smaller functional .conf snippets to
make the configuration more organized and
maintainable.
4 Overview of vFabric Web Server
Installing vFabric Web Server 5
3. Installing vFabric Web Server
vFabric Web Server has several options for installation and setup. Installation options vary according to whether you install
Web Server standalone or as part of vFabric Suite installation and whether your operating system is Unix, Windows, or another
supported platform.
Subtopics
Installation Note for vFabric Suite Customers
Available Distribution Packages
RHEL: Install vFabric Web Server from the VMware Package Repository
Unix: Install vFabric Web Server from a Self-Extracting ZIP
Windows: Install vFabric Web Server from a Self-Extracting ZIP File
Activate a local vFabric Web Server License
Description of the vFabric Web Server Installation
Upgrading vFabric Web Server
Installation Note for vFabric Suite Customers
If you will be installing vFabric Web Server as part of a vFabric Suite Standard package, complete the procedures for installing
vFabric License Server and activating vFabric Suite licenses in Getting Started with vFabric Suite. You may also want to read the
other vFabric licensing sections in that guide, to understand how licensing works with vFabric Suite.
Available Distribution Packages
vFabric Web Server is split into the following two distribution packages to simplify the installation and deployment to your
datacenter:
• vfabric-web-server: Base package entirely sufficient for all production environment.
• vfabric-web-server-devel: Supplemental package that developers can use to compile and link http modules with the
same headers and libraries as httpd itself using the httpd-2.2/bin/apxs tool. This package requires that you also install
the base package.
RHEL: Install vFabric Web Server from the VMware RPM Repository
When installing vFabric Web Server on a Red Hat Linux Enterprise (RHEL) computer , it is recommended that you use yum
from the VMware RPM repository.
Prerequisites
• Install the vFabric repository RPMs, which makes it easy for you to browse the vFabric RPMs (in particular the Web Server
RPMs) available in the VMware repositories.
There are two vFabric repositories, both located on repo.vmware.com:
• vfabric-5.1-repo-5.1: Contains the vFabric component RPMs that are certified for vFabric 5.1.
• vfabric-all-repo: Contains additional vFabric component RPMs that have released after vFabric Suite 5.1 released,
such as maintenance releases of components. These RPMs may not necessarily be certified to work with those of vFabric
VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 5
6 vFabric Web Server
5.1. Additionally, the RPMs in vfabric-all-repo might be used by customers who have not bought a vFabric 5.1
Suite Standard or Advanced license.
In addition, each of the preceding repositories has separate URLs for RHEL 5 and RHEL 6.
If you are using only RPMs certified for vFabric 5.1 Suite Advanced or Standard, then you install only vfabric-5.1-
repo-5.1. If, however, you are upgrading a vFabric component to a version that has not yet been officially certified for
vFabric 5.1, then install both repositories.
1. On the RHEL computer, start a terminal either as the root user or as an unprivileged user using sudo.
2. Install the vfabric-5.1-repo-5.1, and optionally vfabric-all-repo, RPMs using the rpm command. The
URLs of the RPMs differ depending on the version of RHEL you are using.
For RHEL 5:
prompt# rpm -Uvh http://repo.vmware.com/pub/rhel5/vfabric/5.1/vfabric-5.1-repo-5.1-1.noarch.rpm
prompt# rpm -Uvh http://repo.vmware.com/pub/rhel5/vfabric-all/vfabric-all-repo-1-1.noarch.rpm
For RHEL 6:
prompt# rpm -Uvh http://repo.vmware.com/pub/rhel6/vfabric/5.1/vfabric-5.1-repo-5.1-1.noarch.rpm
prompt# rpm -Uvh http://repo.vmware.com/pub/rhel6/vfabric-all/vfabric-all-repo-1-1.noarch.rpm
If necessary, use sudo to run the preceding commands if you are not logged in as the root user.
You do this step only once. You install the vFabric repository RPMs on each RHEL computer on which you want to
install one or more vFabric components, such as vFabric Web Server.
3. Use the yum search vfabric command to view the list of vFabric components that you can install from the
VMware repository. For example (with sample output):
prompt# yum search vfabric
...
======================================== Matched: vfabric =========================================
vfabric-eula.noarch : VMware vFabric 5.1 End User License Agreement
vfabric-tc-server-standard.noarch : VMware vFabric tc Server Standard
vfabric-web-server.x86_64 : VMware vFabric Web Server
...
The vFabric Web Server RPM is called vfabric-web-server.
Procedure
1. From the RHEL computer on which you will install vFabric Web Server, log in as the root user.
2. Execute the following yum command:
prompt# yum install vfabric-web-server
The yum command begins the install process, resolves dependencies, and displays the packages it plans to install.
If this is the first time that you install vFabric Web Server on the computer, the yum command also installs the vfabric-
eula RPM and prompts you to accept the VMware license agreement.
The yum command automatically chooses the appropriate RPM package based on your architecture (32- or 64-bit).
To install the developer's package:
prompt# yum install vfabric-web-server-devel
6 Installing vFabric Web Server
Installing vFabric Web Server 7
3. Enter y at the prompt to begin the actual installation.
When the installation process finishes, you will see a Complete! message at the end. Check the output of the command to
ensure that the installation was successful.
The yum command:
• Installs vFabric Web Server into the /opt/vmware/vfabric-web-server directory.
• Sets the owner of all directories and files under /opt/vmware/vfabric-web-server to root.
What to do next
• If you installed Web Server standalone, activate a local Web Server license as described in Activate a local vFabric Web
Server License.
If you installed Web Server as part of vFabric Suite, then you should have already activated a network license using the
vSphere client, as described Installation Note for vFabric Suite Customers.
• Read Description of the vFabric Web Server Installation for a brief tour of what was installed.
• Create and start using a vFabric Web Server as described in Creating and Using vFabric Web Server Instances.
Unix: Install vFabric Web Server from a Self-Extracting ZIP
You can install vFabric Web Server on Unix computers with a self-extracting ZIP file that you download from the VMware Web
site. Self-extracting zip files expand themselves, or you can use unzip if your platform supports it. Using unzip explicitly
enables you to specify options in addition to what is executed by default when the ZIP self-extracts.
Prerequisites
• Verify that your system meets the supported configurations and installation requirements. See Supported Configurations and
System Requirements.
• If you want to use unzip so you can specify additional options, but your platform does not support unzip, obtain an unzip
command.
• If your operating system is configured to support only 64-bit operation, an external unzip utility is required. Do not use the
jar utility to unpack these zip files, because the file system permissions will not be unpacked correctly.
• Be sure you have installed Perl on your computer, and that it is at least version 5.8. Additionally, you cannot run the Perl script
(described in the procedure) in multibyte character encoding such as UTF8; this means you must unset the LANG or LC_***
variables to remove any UTF8 or other encodings.
Procedure
1. Log in as the root user on to the Unix computer on which you want to install vFabric Web Server.
2. Create the directory in which you will install vFabric Web Server. For example:
prompt# mkdir /opt/vmware
3. Download the appropriate vFabric Web Server self-extracting ZIP from the VMware Download Web site and place it in the
directory you created.
Be sure to choose the correct Unix operating system and chip architecture. For example, the file to install vFabric Web
Server on a 64-bit Linux platform is vfabric-web-server-version-x86_64-linux-glibc2.zip.sfx.
4. From your terminal window, change to the directory in which you downloaded the ZIP file:
VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 7
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