Total nightmare

Question

Level 1

9 points

Total nightmare

All I'm trying to do is get the web server to work. I can't even get localhost to return a web page. I'm usually a passionate defender of Apple, but they really screwed the pooch on this one. The documentation is totally lacking too. Everything was working fine under Snow Leopard. Now, it's broken. And I can't even fix it because the tools have all changed and the old options aren't even there.

At this point, all I want is a web page - any page - to be served up by the web server. Anything at all.

In Server, the server is on. In admin tools, firewall is off, dns is off, everything is off.

I created a web site and pointed to an existing folder with an index.html file. In Server, there are actually two entries, one for port 80 and one for port 443.

In Safari, if I try to go to localhost, nothing happens. I just get an error message that safari can't connect to localhost. Great. Really helpful.

I can ping localhost.

Again, all I want is for it work at all. Forget doing the reverse proxy I had before upgrading to Lion wiped it out. Just something. Anything.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 10:25 PM

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Answer 1

switchbacker Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 22, 2011 7:33 PM in response to switchbacker

OK, so in the end I had someone spend an hour at the command line mucking around with httpd.conf to get everything working. I guess I now realize that Apple's GUI interfaces to abstract the servers is a really bad, half-hearted attempt, and that I'm better off going old school and mucking around in text files.

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Answer 2

Jupeman

Level 1

40 points

Jul 22, 2011 7:46 PM in response to switchbacker

I'd be curious to know what you changed in the conf file. I am having no luck getting my server to serve up web pages still.

I agree with you, and as a longtime Mac user (1985), Lion Server is a screwed pooch.

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Answer 3

switchbacker Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 22, 2011 9:07 PM in response to Jupeman

Yeah, unfortunately, I'm not really sure. I don't really know what goes on in httpd.conf - luckily I had someone help me. At a high level, he copied bits from the old pre-Lion httpd.conf file (which is saved next to the new one) into the new httpd.conf file created with the upgrade. But that was the result of an hour of mucking around.

I gather Server.app just reads in from (and modifies) the various conf files that you can directly edit manually. In other words, I gather there's no risk to messing up server.app by bypassing it and editing files directly.

So, I'd forget server.app and just start learning httpd.conf, editing it by hand (you'll want to give yourself read/write permisson on the folder containing httpd.conf, temporarily. Or, if you're doing it from the command line, edit it using sudo.)

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Answer 4

capaho

Level 4

3,673 points

Jul 22, 2011 9:09 PM in response to switchbacker

I don't know what the differences are in the server management tools between Lion and SL as I haven't upgraded my servers yet, but the Lion version of Server Admin appears to be the same as the SL version. You should be able to use it to manage your web server as before. Whatever changes you make in Server Admin will be written into the httpd.conf file. You need to make sure that that the path to the web site directory is correct in the Server Admin settings for each web site you are hosting.

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Answer 5

Jupeman

Level 1

40 points

Jul 23, 2011 3:59 AM in response to capaho

There is a Server Admin tool in LS, but it is greatly neutered and has no web control. You control the web through an extremely streamlined interface in the new Server app.

I think I will have to edit the httpd.conf file.

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