web server: macports vs. mac osx server

[Ryan Schmidt]

Hi Michael; welcome.

On Apr 29, 2007, at 03:44, Michael Thon wrote:

> Hi All - I'm setting up my research computing environment at a new  
> university and I'm thinking of buying all apple hardware and  
> running Mac OS X rather than linux, as I have done in the past.  I  
> have been tinkering with macports for a while on my macbook and it  
> seems to be a great way to manage the open source software I need  
> for life science research.
>
> I need to set up a web server with Apache, PHP, Perl, and MySQL and  
> I wonder if I should plunk down the extra money for OSX Server or  
> install and maintain these applications using macports. I have been  
> looking through the macports web site for documentation on  
> installing these packages but I  can't find any.  Is any needed?   
> It looks like I will need to have the right set of variants to get  
> all these packages installed and talking to one another correctly.   
> I also assume that I need to install the macports version of Apache  
> and that I can't use the one installed with OS X?  Is there a  
> tutorial somewhere for setting up a web server with macports?

I don't use perl much, so I won't mention it below. Mac OS X of  
course already comes with perl so you don't even need MacPorts to get  
it.

If you want Apache, I recommend you use Apache 2 from MacPorts:

sudo port sync
sudo port install apache2
sudo port install mysql5 +server
sudo port install php5 +apache2 +mysql5

I believe for mod_perl support in Apache 2 you would do

sudo port install mod_perl2

If you would like to use Apple's Apache 1 server instead, you can:

sudo port install mysql5 +server
sudo port install php5 +apache +mysql5

I believe this works with the Apache 1 provided with Mac OS X. No  
idea whether it works with the Apache 1 provided with Mac OS X Server.

Note that I will rename the "apache" variant soon to something that  
more clearly indicates its purpose, such as "apache_apple". At that  
time you will need to reinstall php5 with that new variant name. At  
that time, the variant "apache" will be changed to use the MacPorts  
version of Apache 1.

The mod_perl port exists for the MacPorts version of Apache 1.

I can also highly recommend lighttpd, a lightweight web server that  
can outperform Apache and which has some pretty cool built-in load  
balancing for server-side scripts like php, and which, quite frankly,  
I would find much easier to set up if I didn't already know so much  
about Apache configuration files. If you're not yet well-versed with  
Apache's configuration, you might find lighttpd considerably easier:

sudo port install lighttpd +ssl
sudo port install mysql5 +server
sudo port install php5 +fastcgi +mysql5

After that, configure the software. Consult the usual documentation.  
(Consult the Apache web site for information on configuring Apache,  
consult the MySQL developer zone for info on configuring MySQL, etc.)

The advantage of Mac OS X Server is the various Apple services that  
are provided (NetBoot, AppleShare, blog server, iChat server) and the  
GUI interfaces they've made for various open-source packages (Open  
Directory, Apache, Mail, DNS). If you don't need those services, then  
Mac OS X Server is less attractive. Consider also that not all Mac OS  
X Server components have GUIs. For example, their version of Apache 2  
has none. (Their version of Apache 1 does, however.) Personally, if I  
were running a mail server, I would want Mac OS X Server because it  
does include a very nice GUI for administering that which has been  
refined over many years, and I know nothing about mail server  
administration otherwise. Same with the DNS server. But for services  
like mysql and apache which I already know how to administer, any GUI  
is just going to slow me down and restrict what I can do.

That's not entirely true. I do use GUIs to manipulate data in MySQL.  
I usually use the web-based phpMyAdmin, but there are native Mac  
applications as well which are probably great too. Even MySQL AB  
makes one that's free.

So you need to evaluate your needs and your server administration  
skillset. But it sounds like you may be able to get by just fine with  
Mac OS X client and MacPorts. Now, if you're already buying an  
Xserve, no reason not to run Mac OS X Server since it comes with it.  
But I would think hard about whether to pay $999 for Mac OS X Server  
for another machine, money which might do much more good if spent on  
upgraded hardware.