WAMP on Windows Server 2003

Posted on 07. Aug, 2009 by joshhrob in Server, Web Servers

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This document outlines the step to installing and setting up WAMP on a Windows 2003 Server.

The term WAMP stands for Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, and is a counterpart to the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL, PHP) platform.

This installation assumes a generic Windows Server 2003 installation. Make sure that you uninstall or disable IIS if running as this will cause a conflict when the apache server attempts to bind to port 80.

In this build we will be using the wampserver2.0i.exe installation package availabe at: http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php

You could download and install each component separately, but this package was very well assembled, and will save a lot of time.

WAMP Installation

Download installer and double click to execute. Click I accept and press Next.

Enter the path where you would like to install wamp. The installer will install everything, the web server, database and php underneath this directory. In this build we will use Z:\wamp

Check the boxes if you want to create shortcuts. Press Next

Press Install

Browse to the exe of your browser. This should default to explorer.exe. Press Open

Wampserver does not come with a mail server. If you plan on sending emails from your php apps you will need to enter an smtp server. This may be a mail server on your network or an smtp server provided by your ISP.

Press Finish

Installation of WAMP is now complete. To test your server open your browser and goto http://localhost/

Getting Started

There is a WAMP services menu in the bottom left of your screen on the task bar. This is useful when you need to start or stop the web server and database.

There is also a shortcut to phpMyAdmin, which you can use to manage your database.

By default the web root directory can be found in the www folder under to WAMP installation folder

Just to make sure, place a test.html file in this folder and access it via the web site

This, and many more features are configured in the apache configuration file, httpd.conf. This file is found under the wamp installation directory in the folder bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\conf and can be edited in notepad. ALWAYS make a backup copy of this file before making any changes. If you accidentally enter a typo or incorrect settings, it can be very hard to get your server working again. To revert back, simply delete the bad file and rename the backup back tp httpd.conf.

Another important file to be familiar with is the php.ini file. This is where php settings are configured. This file is found under the wamp installation directory under the folder bin\php\php5.3.0, and can also be edited using notepad. ALWAYS make a backup copy of this file before making any changes.

See video: WAMP Install on YouTube

If you have problems or questions with this build please leave a comment below.

Tags: WAMP

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