Converting a Mini to a Server, Part 4: Launching Servers at Startup

I’ve now returned from Software Development 2006 and am ready to continue moving this server to my new Mac Mini. I had left it turned off while I was away. I turned it on, and loaded the first site into my browser; or rather I tried to load the first site. I couldn’t connect. Hmm, did I forget the IP address? Nope, I forgot to setup Apache to automatically launch at system startup. Let’s fix that.

This is a little tricky because I want to do this without having any particular user logged in so I can’t just use System Preferences/Accounts/Login Items. However, this Tomcat article shows me what I need to do. I need to create the file /System/Library/StartupItems/Apache2 and in it I put these commands:

#!/bin/sh

##
# Apache HTTP Server
##

. /etc/rc.common

StartService ()
{
        echo "Starting Apache web server"
        /usr/httpd/bin/apachectl start
}

StopService ()
{
    echo "Stopping Apache web server"
    /usr/httpd/bin/apachectl stop 
}

RestartService ()
{
        echo "Restarting Apache web server"
        /usr/httpd/bin/apachectl restart
}

RunService "$1"

OK. That’s done. Let’s restart the Mini and see if it works. Nope. It doesn’t. Is there an error message in the console? No, that would be too easy. OK, Suppose I try to start the server manually. What happens then? That does seem to work.

Ah, looks Like I forgot a file. I also need to create /System/Library/StartupItems/Apache2/StartupParameters.plist and in it I put this text:

{
  Description     = "Apache web server";
  Provides        = ("Web Server");
  Uses            = ("Disks", "NFS");
}

Bingo! It’s working. Next step. Installing WordPress.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 19th, 2006 at 8:20 AM and is filed under Mac. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Atom feed. You can make a comment, Digg this story, or trackback from your own site.