If you administer an Apache web server, chances are you know your way around that platform configuration. If you’re new to Apache, you might be slightly wary of diving deep into the text-based configuration. Or maybe you are simply looking for a more efficient way of working with Apache? Either way, there are tools available for such a task.

One tool is ApacheGUI. This web-based front-end for the configuration of the Apache web server makes the process of managing the configuration significantly more efficient. With the ability to control the server, view server logs, create new virtual hosts, view server history, and more, ApacheGUI makes your admin job a bit more point and click and less stressful.

Let’s install ApacheGUI on the latest iteration of Ubuntu Server (Bionic Beaver). We’ll install from source, but the process isn’t terribly challenging.

SEE: Auditing and logging policy (Tech Pro Research)

What you’ll need

The only things you’ll need for this task are:

  • A working Ubuntu Server (version 18.04)
  • An account with sudo privileges

That’s it. With those things in hand, let’s install.

Dependencies

The first thing to do is take care of a few dependencies. On the off-chance you don’t already have your Apache server up and running, the first thing to install is, you guessed it, Apache. Open a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server -y

Next, install the necessary PHP components with the command:

sudo apt-get install php7.2 php7.2-mysql libapache2-mod-php7.2 -y

Start and enable the web and database servers with the commands:

sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl enable mysql

Now we’ll install Java. To do this, issue the command:

sudo apt-get install default-jre -y

Download and unpack ApacheGUI

We now need to download the necessary file for ApacheGUI. Back at the terminal window, issue the following commands:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/apachegui
sudo cd /usr/local/apachegui
sudo wget https://excellmedia.dl.sourceforge.net/project/apachegui/1.12-Linux-Solaris-Mac/ApacheGUI-1.12.0.tar.gz

Unpack the downloaded file with the command:

sudo tar xvzf ApacheGUI-1.1.2.0.tar.gz

Run the installation script with the following commands:

sudo cd ApacheGUI/bin
sudo ./run.sh

Install ApacheGUI

With the ApacheGUI service running, open a web browser on your network and point it to http://SERVER_IP:9999/ApacheGUI (where SERVER_IP is the IP address of your server hosting ApacheGUI). You will see a window asking how you installed the Apache web server (Figure A). Select Package and click OK.

Figure A

In the next window (Figure B) you will only need to fill out a username, password, and select Yes from the Enable Authentication drop-down.

Figure B

The reason why you want to enable authentication is to prevent just anyone from gaining access to your ApacheGUI administration tool. Leaving that security hole open could lead to data loss (or worse).

Once you’ve authenticated, you’ll find yourself in the ApacheGUI main window (Figure C), where you can begin the process of administering to your web server.

Figure C

Easy Apache management

Congratulations, you are now capable of working with your Apache web server, via a handy web-based front-end. ApacheGUI makes for each Apache management.