Upgrade Apache in Linux server

Upgrade Apache in Linux server

After the installation you have to enable SSL in httpd.conf. and generate server.crt and server.key file. Below the complete procedure :

1. Download Apache

cd /usr/src

wget http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/httpd-2.4.7.tar.gz

tar xvf httpd-2.4.7.tar.gz

2. Download APR and APR-Util

cd /usr/src

wget https://centos.googlecode.com/files/apr-1.4.6.tar.gz

wget http://mirror.cogentco.com/pub/apache/apr/apr-util-1.5.3.tar.gz

tar xvf apr-1.4.6.tar.gz

tar xvf apr-util-1.5.3.tar.gz

Now put the APR and APR-Util you downloaded into your apache source files.

mv apr-1.4.6 /usr/src/httpd-2.4.7/srclib/apr

mv apr-util-1.5.3 /usr/src/httpd-2.4.7/srclib/apr-util

3.Compile

cd /usr/src/httpd-2.4.7

./configure --enable-so --enable-ssl --with-mpm=prefork --with-included-apr

make

make install

4. Enable SSL in httpd.conf

Apache configuration file httpd.conf is located under /usr/local/apache2/conf.

nano /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

Uncomment the httpd-ssl.conf Include line and the LoadModule ssl_module line in the /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf file :

# LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so

# Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

View the httpd-ssl.conf to review all the default SSL configurations. For most cases, you don’t need to modify anything in this file.

nano /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

The SSL certificate and key are required before we start the Apache. The server.crt and server.key file mentioned in the httpd-ssl.conf needs to be created before we move forward.

cd /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra

egrep 'server.crt|server.key' httpd-ssl.conf

SSLCertificateFile "/usr/local/apache2/conf/server.crt"

SSLCertificateKeyFile "/usr/local/apache2/conf/server.key"

5. Generate server.crt and server.key file

First, Generate the server.key using openssl.

cd /usr/src

openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024

The above command will ask for the password. Make sure to remember this password. You need this while starting your Apache later.

Next, generate a certificate request file (server.csr) using the above server.key file.

openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

Finally, generate a self signed ssl certificate (server.crt) using the above server.key and server.csr file.

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

Copy the server.key and server.crt file to appropriate Apache configuration directory location.

cp server.key /usr/local/apache2/conf/

cp server.crt /usr/local/apache2/conf/

6. Start Apache

/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start

If you are getting the below error message :

AH00526: Syntax error on line 51 of /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf:

Invalid command 'SSLCipherSuite', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

Make sure to uncomment the line shown below in httpd.conf :

vi /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

# LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so

Finally, this will prompt you to enter the password for your private key before starting up the apache. Verify that the Apache httpd process is running in the background.

ps -ef | grep http

You should see something like that :

root 29529 1 0 13:08 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -k start

charly 29530 29529 0 13:08 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -k start

charly 29531 29529 0 13:08 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -k start

charly 29532 29529 0 13:08 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -k start

root 29616 18260 0 13:09 pts/0 00:00:00 grep http

By default Apache SSL runs on 443 port. Open a web browser and verify that you can access your Apache using https://{your-ip-address}