Prologue:
The following instructions should allow you to build your own custom webserver and website(s) for use on either a closed network, or the Internet. Note that if you are a real newbie and this is going on the Internet, it is probably easier to run a website off of a hosted webservice such as wordpress.com, then, someone who isn’t inclined would not have to worry about how to create the server system mentioned below. You can accomplish the same creation of a website using Wordpress’s servers for free at (www.wordpress.org).
The drawback from a security point of view is that the website operator doesn’t have full control of who has access to the computer content in the method above. If the content on the website was of a special nature or higher security that the content needed to be protected, then private hosting is the only option. If you’re not on the Internet then it’s also the only option. Enuff said - lets get on with it!
What is a CMS?
It’s a Content Management System. It is software that aids the website creator/administrator (that’s you) in managing and categorizing a whole bunch of information that you want to make available to the users on your network. I personally picked this CMS (called “Wordpress”) because it is in the weblog (Blog) format, which fit my needs and it is structured close to my idea of what I wanted, and it is a popular, well supported, and easy to administer website content management system.
I thought of writing this article as I explained most of this verbally to my wife who is exploring the option of having a website for herself (and the library) in her new job as a librarian on their closed school network. Jotting it all down and putting it on the Internet may help some other newbies in their attempts to make something like this work. You can imagine all the things that could be added to the website regularly so that the students and teachers in the classroom can access it and read news, etc. right from the classrooms. The thing is though is this process must be fairly easy to accomplish for a non-computer geek (my wife) and easy to maintain. I am not going to go into a high level of detail – I figure if someone is wanting to learn this, and I give them this information, they can probably figure out the small details along the way as required. Everyone’s installation is going to be slightly different along with their needs.
Required Items
There are basically two options to consider when creating a web site: making one from scratch, or leveraging one of the many different content management systems that exist and are free to use. A CMS facilitates easy management and effective content organization on the website. It’s the “new kid on the block” that replaces the old static web pages – you know the ones I’m talking about – with the content that NEVER changes? Not too interesting… Anyway, the challenge in going this route is typically more assistance is required from someone who knows how to set up this system in the beginning. The benefit is ongoing maintenance and addition/changing of content is much easier for a non-technical administrator. The bottom line is just say no to static content these days - Information Technology managers in organizations that utilize static HTML websites should be shot.
Furthermore, we are going to use a pre-built virtual webserver and add our content to that rather than building our own from scratch. The benefit of this is that if your hardware konks out you can simply move the virtual machine to another computer and viola! It is still good to go.
What needs to be done:
I used an existing Windows PC that I somehow always manage to leave running. Actually my wife uses it for web research and word processing, so it’s not tasked that much and this leaves some cycles free to run a virtual website. I have used Linux as well as the virtual machine host. I just happened to have a Windows box available/free. If a solution like this was to be implemented in the school library or another similar place, one would have to locate a PC with some spare time available to run the virtual machine. Obviously you would not want to run the website on an already heavily used machine depending on how much traffic you are planning on having on your site.
The webserver virtual machine is a pre-made Linux virtual machine running in VMware Server which is freely available. You can get the webserver appliance (also free) called “Collaboration2” (thanks to meatball15) on the VMTN website. There are other VMware applicances that you could use as well such as “UltimateLAMP” (courtesy of arabxptyltd). I just picked Collaboration2 as it is versatile and supports what we are wanting to do and more. As per the website mentioned above, within this webserver virtual machine is:
Fedora Core 4 4 Popular Linux OS http://fedora.redhat.com
Apache 2 2.2.2 #1 Web Server http://www.apache.org
MySQL 5.0 Popular Database Server http://www.mysql.com
PHP 5.0 Server side scripting http://www.php.net
WordPress 2.0.2 Popular Blog http://www.wordpress.net
Other software for more complex situations
All this software is free and open source, which addresses current issues for the school surrounding the financial expense in implementing this type of project in a school system where it is not educationally “required”. The time costs are also to be considered however after familiarization with the methods, I believe that this solution would be cost effective for most people. (Time is money…) The other thing is that the implementation and upkeep costs are small compared to the overall benefit of this solution for a library and the school at large.
You will have to reference the link above for all the default usernames and passwords that the creator of the appliance has given inside the virtual machine. These are required for setup of the machine and logging into the machine’s website, etc.
Basic Steps Required:
- Have a Windows machine ready to install VMware Server (free)
- Download VMware Server (you will need to register for a licence key but it is free)
- Install VMware server using your licence key
- Download the virtual appliance “Collaboration2” via torrent.
- Unzip and copy the files into your “My Virtual Machines” folder
- Run the virtual machine in VMware server.
- You will need to get the IP address of the virtual machine from the command line of Linux. Log in as “root”, password: “P@ssw0rd”, then run the command “ifconfig” and read the IP address given. That is your webserver’s IP address.
- If you downloaded the “UltimateLAMP” applicance, you should get all the required instructions in the browser upon booting the applicance in VMware server.
- From another computer on the network, browse to your webserver’s IP address from step 7 and you should have access to the Wordpress configuration screens.
- Please change any administrator passwords before putting your server live for others to exploit.
Future work for this article:
I will attempt to provide more detail specifically pertaining to steps 7-9 in the near future as time permits. I will attempt to expand the instructions for both appliances I have mentioned above. I would love to help anyone out if they need it. Just send me a comment and I get it right away. Also let me know if you feel I should cover something you feel I missed.
Enjoy!
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