how to instal three linux based web servers in one machine?

Question

I want to install three Linux web servers on my laptop, but I want to ask if there are guides on how to do this? I heard that you will change ports, but I don't know how. Can you provide me?

The three web servers I want to install are

• apache (already installed)
• nginx (not installed yet)
• lighttpd (not installed yet)

With these three web servers, I will put each of them a Wordpress template. In which I'll try to access later, but my only problem will be the installation of these three web servers without creating any conflict in my laptop.

Answer 1

Quite simply, you use different ports for them internally, then have the websites accessed by different ports or set up either ngnix or apache (or another proxy) to act as a proxy - say with a setup similar to this, to pass on requests to the right server.

For testing, using different ports is the way to go

Alternately, use 3 VMs and use seperate ip addresses for them (the best way to do so would be bridged networking with a cable for ethernet access for the laptop). This would need somewhat more resources, but be infinitely easier to troubleshoot.

Answer 2

By changing the configuration files of each server, you have have them listening on different ports. This way they will not conflict with each other returning a Port in Use error. However, I do agree with Journeyman Geek as running multiple VMs is ideal in my opinion. You could use something like VirtualBox's Export/Import Appliance feature that will allow you to quickly get the other two VMs copied and running. Much easier in separating the three servers in troubleshooting. Only reason why I can see you wanting to have different servers for different ports is if you were making an administrative backend to an application, but then why not just use Virtual Hosts.

APACHE

Usually in your /etc/apache2/ports.conf there is a line that tells apache which port to listen on. You will want to change this to your applicable port.

Listen 80

NGINX

When you setup this server, you'll have a configuration similar to this one where you're listening on port 81.

server {
        listen       81;
        server_name  localhost;

        access_log  logs/localhost.access.log  main;

        location / {
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }
}

LIGHTTPD

server.port = 82