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 Topic: Should I Switch To Apache? |
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abrogard
Joined: 06 Feb 2017
Posts: 6
Location: australia, Adelaide
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 Posted: Wed 08 Mar '17 0:08 Post subject: Should I Switch To Apache? |
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I am no expert.
But I am putting up a home site from our home LAN on an IIS machine (Win10) here.
And I keep running into little problems - early on someone said (in web forums) that I really should have Win Server, for instance - then now I find I cannot sort users at login to different directories without a 'dynamic IIS' installation.
And so on.
A look 'ahead' at the winserver world seems to indicate a tangle of pricey licensing and all kinds of caveats.
So should I switch to Apache?
Now I know this is an Apache forum and you'll all be inclined to say 'yes, of course' but I mean seriously, in view of what I'm trying to achieve.
Just a home LAN and a machine addressed by IP + port (I mean no domain name), family and close friends only accessing it, so no heavy traffic.
Apache runs sites all over the world. Some very, very big.
Perhaps Apache is too 'heavy duty' or requires too much computer expertise to install and manage?
If IIS really wants a server wouldn't Apache also really want a server?
And the ASP.Net thing I hear about. Is that important or what?
Googling around I got the impression that windows IIS is the easiest and in some respects 'best' inasmuch as it is intimately bound to windows and therefore works well with windows and all its features....
They seemed to be saying it was best for beginners and/or amateurs...
But now these snags I've found have got me wondering.
So given an amateur and win10 and a requirement for a small site with little traffic.. should I switch to Apache?
And if so what hardware configuration do I need for the best? Currently I have only an i3 cpu on a H170 Asus board and a 1T disk carrying the system and some apps/data. And then three more 1T disks as external storage.
And lastly - can I have my cake and eat it, too? Can I run both on this machine so's I can find out for myself which is best..? |
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mraddi
Joined: 27 Jun 2016
Posts: 152
Location: Schömberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
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| Posted: Wed 08 Mar '17 23:41 Post subject: |
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Hello to Adelaide and welcome to Apache Lounge!
| Quote: | | Can I run both on this machine so's I can find out for myself which is best..? |
Of course - but you have to run them on different ports. Maybe IIS on 80 + 443 (for http and https) and the Apache on 1080 and 1443 (also for http and https). After you have tested both you can either remove Apache (because IIS matches more of your requirements) or remove/disable IIS and reconfigure Apache to use port 80 + 443.
I like your idea of testing both IIS and Apache and decide with suits better. 
| Quote: | | And if so what hardware configuration do I need for the best? |
If your machine matches the requirements for IIS it will also match the requirements for Apache.
In the past I used Apache (80+443), IIS (1080+1443), NginX (2080+2443) and Tomcat (8080+8443) on the same machine (CoreDuo, 3GB RAM, 1TB HD, WinXP) - worked fine for development and also being able to use MSOffice in parallel.
| Quote: | | Should I switch to Apache? |
As I don't know what you are running on your webserver right now (ASP.Net, PHP, Perl, ... or only static files) I cannot say which webserver is better.
If you need ASP.Net or want to have authentication against the local Windows-Users or maybe an AD I would use IIS. With IIS it might be easier to get a webpage up and running but troubleshooting or integration with PHP, Perl, ... seems more complicated to me than it is with Apache.
Apache also runs fine on Windows (I use(d) it on WinXP, Win7 and some Windows-servers) and with mod_rewrite and mod_proxy you can do nearly everything you could imagine. I love the functionality of .htaccess. For authentication you can either do it with your applications own function or you can authenticate against a database (I have tested it with MySQL) or against a ldap-diretory or use a file with username + hashed password. And of course you can run Apache as a service on Windows so you don't need to log in to start the webserver-functionality.
NginX is smaller than Apache but in my eyes not that good integrated into Windows (if you want to run it as a service you need some extra tools - google for "windows run nginx as a service") but sometimes it is faster than Apache (especially serving static files or being used as a reverse proxy/loadbalancer).
Sometimes it also might be an idea to combine two webservers - example: run NginX as webserver to server static files and forward the requests for php-files to the mighty Apache in the backend.
So no simple "yes" or "no" - it is a "depends on".
| Quote: | | Perhaps Apache is too 'heavy duty' or requires too much computer expertise to install and manage? |
15 years ago (damn, I'm old  ) when I finished apprenticeship my final project was to compare IIS (running on Windows 2000 Server) and Apache (running on Novell Netware  ). So I compared performance, processor load and how easy it is to find information in the internet how to do different tasks (include Perl + PHP, add virtual webserver running on different hostname with different webserver's directory). Speed and so on was not a real difference but it was much easier to find documentation and hints in the internet how to accomplish the tasks with Apache.
Meanwhile there might be more tipps and tricks for IIS than in 2002, but there are tons of tipps and tricks for Apache.
With all the tipps and tricks available installing Apache on Windows is pretty easy and you don't need to be a "Dr. Apache".
My opinion: check if Apache might matches your requirements, test it and if it is working great, keep it running.
And if you run into problems: google; and of course there are many nice and friendly people here on Apache Lounge and many other forums (stackoverflow.com is also very good) that can assist if you ask exact questions. |
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Uli
Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Wed 29 Mar '17 1:35 Post subject: |
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After reading https://www.rootusers.com/linux-vs-windows-web-server-benchmarks/
I myself am about to switch back from Apache to IIS.
I've benchmarked myself both webservers on a Windows Server 2016 to make sure that article was legit and IIS10 is A LOT faster than apache, like A LOT!
Also benched it with PHP, the speed difference is insane. Also note that I had a hard time completing PHP bench cause Apache didn't like heavy loads with PHP, but IIS just didn't care. |
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abrogard
Joined: 06 Feb 2017
Posts: 6
Location: australia, Adelaide
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| Posted: Thu 30 Mar '17 0:20 Post subject: |
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Hmmm I didn't get notification of your replies - I must have failed to switch something on...
Well thanks for the information. I need it.
Currently I've got my site working on IIS and users logging on with Windows authentication and then sorted to their directories via a little php script.
All working okay.
But then I decided I really needed a 'web hosting control panel', don't I?
And I found zpanel to be the only free one that runs on windows and uses PHP.
Things are a bit better if I use ASP but I've no knowledge of it at all. What's that learning curve like I wonder?
So I just downloaded and installed zpanel.
So I now have IIS working.
And an Apache install with zpanel connected (?) waiting to be fired up.
And I don't know how to do it.
Where do I go for instructions on that?
And I will run the two: IIS with no control panel, just my own little scripts and Apache with zpanel and I'll see which seems to be best.
If Apache seems best I'll either sacrifice this machine or build a new one to dedicate to Linux and Apache.
There's just so many more options with Linux and Apache and PHP I think ? |
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James Blond
Moderator
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 7373
Location: Germany, Next to Hamburg
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| Posted: Sat 01 Apr '17 14:47 Post subject: |
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| Uli wrote: | After reading https://www.rootusers.com/linux-vs-windows-web-server-benchmarks/
I myself am about to switch back from Apache to IIS.
I've benchmarked myself both webservers on a Windows Server 2016 to make sure that article was legit and IIS10 is A LOT faster than apache, like A LOT!
Also benched it with PHP, the speed difference is insane. Also note that I had a hard time completing PHP bench cause Apache didn't like heavy loads with PHP, but IIS just didn't care. |
The article doesn't say anything about the used mpm on linux and nothing about the settings / tweaks made. I doubt those results. Also I wonder why nginx performed so poorly on that test.
Use mod_fgid for PHP can handle more load. |
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