apache config question

Greetings all. Please forgive my newbieness as I am taking over a
project that is kind of outside my normal scope. My problem is as
follow:

I have an apache (1.3.20) instance running on my server. Currently it
supports 5 different schools through virtual hosts. However, the
schools now want to be able to control their own instance of apache.
This would include having their logs seperated rather than in one huge
log file as they currently are. I'm heard of being able to chroot
apache, but am not familiar with how I could use that to my advantage
of having the schools being able to bring down/up their own instance
if they had a problem with just their instance without affecint the
other schools. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly
appreciated.

Dagamier wrote:

> Greetings all. Please forgive my newbieness as I am taking over a
> project that is kind of outside my normal scope. My problem is as
> follow:
>
> I have an apache (1.3.20) instance running on my server. Currently it
> supports 5 different schools through virtual hosts. However, the
> schools now want to be able to control their own instance of apache.

In order to support this, one instance for each school, you have to run one
instance of Apache for each school, entirely seperate from the others.
The reason is, that Apache runs one daemon as root, that controls all other
instances of Apache that will run as childprocesses.
Only one controlling instance, so only one controlling user.
The amount of child processes of Apache is based on the server settings for
number of children. Read about this in detail at www.apache.org.

> This would include having their logs seperated rather than in one huge
> log file as they currently are. I'm heard of being able to chroot

This is no problem, just specify individual logfile locations in each
corresponding VirtualHost container.

> apache, but am not familiar with how I could use that to my advantage
> of having the schools being able to bring down/up their own instance
> if they had a problem with just their instance without affecint the
> other schools. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly
> appreciated.

As mentioned, this is not an option. However, if each school runs their own
server, the problem is eliminated. All it takes is a permanent connection
to the Internet at a relative bandwidth, depending on amount of hits.

What I don't see, is the reason why? Why does each school want full control
over their webserver? Basically there should be no need for this.
What could be considered an eventual advantage is the use of individual
..htaccess files. Maybe that's worth looking into?

But again, depends on the reasons for these wishes of individuality and
control.

HTH,

/Andreas

--
Registeret Linux user #292411

On 26 Jun 2003 09:13:51 -0700, Dagamier <zayasj@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Greetings all. Please forgive my newbieness as I am taking over a
> project that is kind of outside my normal scope. My problem is as
> follow:
>
> I have an apache (1.3.20) instance running on my server. Currently it
> supports 5 different schools through virtual hosts. However, the
> schools now want to be able to control their own instance of apache.
> This would include having their logs seperated rather than in one huge
> log file as they currently are. I'm heard of being able to chroot
> apache, but am not familiar with how I could use that to my advantage
> of having the schools being able to bring down/up their own instance
> if they had a problem with just their instance without affecint the
> other schools. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly
> appreciated.

If they are name based vhosts, you could separate out the logs, but I do
not see how you could have individual configurations or down/up control
unless run on different ports.

If IP based virtual hosts (different IP for each), it can be done by
running apache for each within a virtual jail (chroot). I help 1 virtual
host on a system like that (FreeBSD or BSD). Each virtual host has its
own httpd.conf and logs (and sendmail files) and apache is run from
inetd.conf, so there is no need to restart apache when making config
changes or log rotation. But all necessary binaries and libs need to be
within each chroot jail (hard linked or binary copies, not symlinks).

On the other hand, maybe you could do similar for NameVirtualHost, but an
additional conf file for each vhost called by the main httpd.conf writable
by the particular user of that vhost, and launch apache from inetd. But
you would have to trust the users to not make entries that would tamper
with other hosts settings in their own conf, and would not bring down the
whole server with an error. That may be too much trust.

--
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