HP Open Source Middleware Stacks Blueprints: LAMP Architecture on HP ProLiant BladeSystem Servers on SLES

6. Verify that Python works by opening a browser and navigating to the following website:

http://<YOUR_HOSTNAME>/test.py

The web page displays the following text:

MySQL version:5.0.26

If there are errors, check the following log files:

/var/log/httpd/error_log

/var/log/httpd/access_log

Secure the Web Server Stack

This section covers web server security.

• Data Transportation—Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a widely used technology to protect

data transfer. It provides secure communications by encrypting the data on public or private

networks.

• Application Authentication— Apache Web server provides a built-in authorization module

to enable access protection. Alternatively, Symas CDS provides a directory service solution

based on OpenLDAP, Berkeley DB, Cyrus SASL, and OpenSSL for more fine-grained

authentication purposes. CDS is an integrated authentication and authorization-based

security mechanism for enterprise applications managed and deployed in Apache Web

servers. The directory server can store credential information and application privileges

about the users who are granted or forbidden access to specific resources. In addition to

controlling access based on user identities, OpenLDAP can control access based on other

attributes such as network address, transport, encryption strength, dynamic relationships,

and so on (for example, sets). Some applications or web pages in specific applications in

Apache Web server require access only by authenticated users. Symas CDS provides this

authentication mechanism by storing user credentials in the directory server.

Enabling HTTPS Support in the Apache Web Server

The mod_ssl module provides an SSL implementation that allows web applications running

within the Apache Web server to communicate securely with their respective clients.

Communication can still occur over standard HTTP.

To enable HTTP over SSL (HTTPS), perform the following steps:

1. Run the shell script /usr/bin/gensslcert to create dummy ssl keys for mod_ssl.

This tool copies the /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/ca.crt file to /srv/www/htdocs/CA.crt

and creates the following key files:

• /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/ca.crt

• /etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key

• /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server.crt

• /etc/apache2/ssl.csr/server.csr

2. Edit the /etc/sysconfig/apache2 file by adding ssl to the APACHE_MODULES definition

and SSL to the APACHE_SERVER_FLAGS definition. After completing the edits, the lines

should look like the following:

APACHE_MODULES="... ssl ..."

APACHE_SERVER_FLAGS="SSL"

3. Create an SSL virtual host configuration file by copying template file to perform the test:

# cp /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/vhost-ssl.template

/etc/apache2/vhosts.d/vhost-ssl.conf