IBM + Apache = ?
Written: Oct 03 '99 (Updated Oct 03 '99)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: none
Cons: poor installation, configuration and support
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| trumant's Full Review: Web Servers/Other |
IBM has been quick to transform itself in recent years to an internet and e-business focused corporation. As part of this new initiative, particularly in e-business, IBM was forced to start providing web server products. The latest offering, IBM HTTP Server, is essentially, a re-purposed and "enhanced" version of the Apache Group's world-reknowned server. I enclosed the word enhanced in quotation marks above, because the modifications that IBM has made to the Apache code have done little to enhance the server's ease of administration, installation and configuration.
The server comes in a variety of ports, those I have personal experience with are the Linux and Windows NT versions. My first complaint is that installation can be incredibly difficult. The instructions that IBM provides are somewhat less than clear in key sections and often times, especially on NT, the installation will fail mid-way through, with no more explanation than an error-code and a cryptic error message. Assuming that you battle through the installation after consulting news groups and technical support documents, configuring the beast is the next obstacle lying in your path.
Although IBM has provided a java applet based online configuration option, the applets often throw errors on earlier versions of Microsoft browsers and the configuration interface lacks much. Very often, the terms used in the configuration screens and the consequences of changing any particular option could be more thoroughly explained. My recommendation would be to skip the online administration all-together in favor of manually editing the configuration files with a text editor. The Apache Group's comments are adequate to get you started in most cases.
However, once again, because IBM has modified the code, sometimes options that would work in Apache are now crippled or un-reliable. For instance, doing something as simple as defining your server's name during configuration can cause the server to refuse to start. A key feature of Apache that is missing is the ability to compile or link in all the Apache modules that are developed independently of the Apache Group. IBM's server does support a few of the modules, but once again, they are difficult to get running and may not provide the same level of functionality.
Because of the many problems that I've run into using this server software, I would recommend that you not trust your website to it. Try the free,open-source Apache first and see if it doesn't have all the features you need.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
trumant
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Member: Travis Truman
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 7 members
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