Topic: Shibboleth-Apache HTTP server- not loading mod_shib_24.so

[uday]

Hi,

We are trying to configure Shibboleth as service provider for my ESO configuration on Windows Server (64bit) with Apache HTTP server 2.4. When I try to load shibboleth module 'mod_shib' with Apache HTTP server, the server doesn't start at all and below error message is logged with MS Event viewer:

httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 174 of C:/Apache24/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load C:/opt/shibboleth-sp/lib/shibboleth/mod_shib_24.so into server: The Apache service named is not a valid Win32 application.

On line 174 of httpd.conf file, we have:
LoadModule mod_shib C:/opt/shibboleth-sp/lib/shibboleth/mod_shib_24.so

We have installed Shibboleth SP as well as Apache HTTP server 2.4 of 64 bit version only. But even after that, error message from Apache HTTP server is considering the mod_shib_24.so file as a Win32 application file. This is strange and we are struck at this point.

Please help us with your valuable inputs on how to get this working.

[glsmith]

"The Apache service named is not a valid Win32 application". That's just leftover from the Win32 only days.

You see that and chances are you're missing a dll file, in this case 3. They are not missing, just Apache cannot find them. They are;

shibsp-lite3_0.dll
xerces-c_3_2.dll
xmltooling-lite3_0.dll

Two ways to deal with this.

1 and easiest is copy the files from Program Files\Shibboleth\SP\lib and place them in Apache's bin folder.

2 Use LoadFile in Apache's httpd.conf after the LoadModule for mod_shib_24 like

LoadFile "c:/program files/shibboleth/sp/lib/shibsp-lite3_0.dll"

for them all. The advantage to this would be when you updated shibboleth, Apache would use the updated dlls.

[uday]

Thanks so much for the help @glsmith. We'd try this out very soon and update you

BTW, how did you come to this conclusion that it's missing these dll files. Very curious to know as I am novice in this regard and had no clue at all before posting this query on ApacheLongue

[glsmith]

Downloaded a copy of shibboleth.
Used Dependency Walker to see what the module is linked to.



The green is from Apache
Blue is the Visual C++ redistributable
What's left you will find in \Program Files\Shibboleth\SP\lib

[steph]

I know this post is a bit old, but I found what worked for me with the error of 'The Apache service named is not a valid Win32 application.'.

I had to change the LoadModule address to C:/opt/shibboleth-sp/lib64/shibboleth/mod_shib_24.so

changing the lib to lib64.