[WEB4LIB] Lobbying for a dedicated web server

[Lois Bellamy]

Unless your university forbids Macintosh computers, buy a Mac with OS X 
10.3. It comes with Apache and php installed. Hook the Mac up to the 
network and turn Web Sharing on and you have a web server. Edit the 
httpd.conf file to activate php and you've got php going.  Apple has a 
nice install package for MySQL that installs easily. Now you have MySQL 
going. There are also a number of tutorials that can get you started if 
you need them. We use Retrospect to backup the servers every night. 
Retrospect is another pretty easy to use piece of software.

Well, that's my two cents. We use Macs for our web servers and like 
them.

Lois Bellamy
Electronic Services Coordinator
Health Sciences Library & Biocommunications Center
University of Tennessee Health Science Center
877 Madison Ave., Rm 234
Memphis, TN 38163
901.448.5635 (voice)
901.448.7235 (fax)
lbellamy at utmem.edu (email)


On Sep 3, 2004, at 12:18 PM, Andrew Darby wrote:

> Hello, all.  I'm at a smallish academic library, and currently we have 
> a
> little folder on the university's web server, without access to
> goodies/basic human necessities like PHP and MySQL.  As such, we are
> about to lobby for our own web server, presumably to be hosted by 
> campus
> in their climate controlled room.
>
> My question, then, is:  What sort of resistance should I expect?  What
> sorts of concerns are likely to be voiced (and what are reasonable
> countering arguments)?
>
> Perhaps I am wrong, but if the IT folks
>
> 1. do the initial setup of a LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) environment,
> with the security to their liking
>
> and 2. integrate this box into their backup routine (i believe they do 
> a
> middle of the night chron job)
>
> there should be little or no overhead on their part.  By gum, it would
> be one less thing for them to worry about! My recollection from a
> previous incarnation, is that Apache servers are pretty stable, and
> don't require much (if any) maintenance . . .
>
> And as a bonus, in the unlikely event we do something stupid and crash
> the server, the campus at large is insulated.  (We currently have full
> access to the library folder on the existing server.)
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andrew Darby
>
>
>
>
>