install apache and php

• ref: http://articles.slicehost.com/2008/2/6/centos-installing-apache-and-php5
• install apache w/ ssl support:
  sudo yum install httpd mod_ssl
• launch apache:
  sudo /etc/init.d/httpd start
• browse to your vm’s address (run ifconfig in the vm if you don’t know the address)
• if your browser can’t find the address, write an iptable rule to allow access to port 80:
  • ref: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-rhel-linux-open-port-using-iptables/
  • open the iptable definition file:
    vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
  • plug in the new rule:
    -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT 
  • note: the leading ‘-‘ in the rule is intentional
  • restart the iptables process:
    /etc/init.d/iptables restart
• install php:
  sudo yum install php-common php-gd php-mcrypt php-pear php-pecl-memcache php-mhash php-mysql php-xml
• reload apache:
  sudo /etc/init.d/httpd reload

set up mysql

• ref: http://articles.slicehost.com/2009/4/7/centos-installing-mysql-with-rails-and-php-options
• as per the article above, install mysql:
  sudo yum install mysql-server mysql mysql-devel
• launch the mysql daemon:
  sudo /etc/init.d/mysqld start
• set a root user/password:
  /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘new-password’
• confirm new account was set up correctly:
  mysql -uroot -ppassword
• then quit out of mysql:
  mysql> quit;

upgrade beyond stock centos support so we can get php version > 5.2.2, which is required for phpmyadmin

• ref: http://www.jasonlitka.com/yum-repository/
• import his GPG key:
  rpm –import http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka
• create a file called:
  /etc/yum.repos.d/utterramblings.rep
• paste the following into it:
  [utterramblings]
  name=Jason’s Utter Ramblings Repo
  baseurl=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/EL$releasever/$basearch/
  enabled=1
  gpgcheck=1
  gpgkey=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka
• run yum update:
  yum update

install phpmyadmin

• ref: http://www.phpmyadmin.net/documentation/#quick_install
• copy the distribution to your server from:
  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=23067&package_id=16462
• un-zip and -tar the package, rename it to something more convenient, e.g., “phpmyadmin”, and cd into it
• create a “config.inc.php” file by running:
  cp config.sample.inc.php config.inc.php
• define a random string for the “blowfish_secret” variable in config.inc.php, e.g., ‘weuriwuer9182309812iewuoriuwo’
• in the browser, navigate to yourdomain.com/phpmyadmin
• enter the mysql root username/password created above to log in

related post: running a CentOS 5.2 server using VMWare on Mac OS X 10.5