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Exercise 1: Static Website Deployment (Windows)

This guide walks you through deploying two static websites using Apache on Windows.

Prerequisites

  • Windows 10 or later
  • Administrative privileges
  • XAMPP installer from apachefriends.org

Installation Steps

1. Install XAMPP

  1. Download XAMPP installer
  2. Run the installer as Administrator
  3. Select components (minimum required):
    • Apache
    • MySQL
    • PHP
  4. Choose installation directory (default: C:\xampp)
  5. Complete the installation

2. Configure Apache

Enable Required Modules

  1. Open C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf
  2. Ensure these lines are uncommented: 
    LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so

Configure Virtual Hosts

  1. Open C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf
  2. Add your virtual host configurations: 
    <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName site-a.local
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/site-a"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/site-a">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName site-b.local
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/site-b"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/site-b">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

3. Configure Hosts File

  1. Open Notepad as Administrator
  2. Open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
  3. Add these lines: 
    127.0.0.1 site-a.local
127.0.0.1 site-b.local

4. Create Website Content

# Create directories
mkdir C:\xampp\htdocs\site-a
mkdir C:\xampp\htdocs\site-b

# Create index files
echo "<h1>Welcome to Site A</h1>" > C:\xampp\htdocs\site-a\index.html
echo "<h1>Welcome to Site B</h1>" > C:\xampp\htdocs\site-b\index.html

5. Start Apache

  1. Open XAMPP Control Panel
  2. Click "Start" next to Apache
  3. Verify service shows green status

Verification

  1. Open browser and visit:
  2. You should see the respective website content

Troubleshooting

Port 80 Already in Use

  1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator
  2. Run: netstat -ano | findstr :80
  3. Note the PID using port 80
  4. Run: taskkill /PID <PID> /F

Permission Errors

  1. Right-click on htdocs folder
  2. Properties → Security → Edit
  3. Add your user with Full control
  4. Apply changes

Apache Won't Start

  1. Check XAMPP error logs: C:\xampp\apache\logs\error.log
  2. Verify no other web servers are running
  3. Try changing Apache port in httpd.conf