Server Upgrade
This tuesday I had fun attempting to upgrade my server to the latest versions of Apache, Perl (and mod_perl) and PHP.
Easy you might say, well no actually because I’m running this whole sorry mess on a Windows XP Pro box.
First of course I backed up my settings files, then set about upgrading Apache to version 2.2.4, having been stuck on 2.0.whatever for the past year or so. Now I know enough about apache that this particular upgrade step is big enough that the configuration files ought to be replaced completely, various modules and directives have changed significantly. What I didn’t know was that my existing mod_perl etc. would not run on the new apache, and would need to be upgraded.
And here’s where the fun started, I thought I’d simply upgrade to ActivePerl 5.8.8 and use ppm to get the new mod_perl. Well, ppm has changed from a dos window into a windows graphical thing, and how on earth do you tell it to search in a different repository, as mod_perl is not supported by ActiveState. A quick search turned up the Apache Lounge where a new mod_perl was available. Downloading and unpacking this file I discover a readme, suggesting installing the “Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package” is a prerequisite. So off I trot, downloading that file from the apache lounge server. Unpacking that .exe (it appears to be a renamed .cab file) it contains a file vcredist.exe timestamped 30th August 2000. Now come on, do you really expect me to install that?
So here I am posting from my brand spanking new Apache 2.0.59, after uninstalling Apache 2.2.4 and fixing my mod_perl back to a 2.0 compatible version.
The moral of this story? It’s never as easy upgrading as you think. Maybe in future I’ll take a look at XAMPP, the all-in-one package containg Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl.