Cherokee is a lightweight, flexible and completely customizable Web server. Its speed and ease of use makes Cherokee one of the top running alternatives to Apache.

Cherokee can be easily be installed using RPM packages or it can be compiled from source. If there is another Web server already installed on yourvirtual server, it needs to be stopped first.

Apache is usually installed by default, so to check if Apache is running, execute the following command:

ps aux | grep httpd

If it is up and running, you need to stop the Apache service:

/etc/init.d/httpd stop

To disable Apache, execute the following command:

chkconfig httpd off

Or, to completely remove Apache from your virtual server, run the following command:

yum remove httpd

Download and install Cherokee and its dependencies:

cd /opt/wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/cherokee-1.2.101-3.el6.i686.rpmwget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/GeoIP-1.4.8-1.el6.i686.rpmwget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/spawn-fcgi-1.6.3-1.el6.i686.rpmrpm -Uvh cherokee-1.2.101-3.el6.i686.rpm GeoIP-1.4.8-1.el6.i686.rpm spawn-fcgi-1.6.3-1.el6.i686.rpmchkconfig cherokee --addchkconfig cherokee onchkconfig --list | grep cherokee

The output should be as follows:

cherokee0:off 1:off 2:on3:on4:on5:on6:off

Install mysql:

yum install mysql mysql-serverchkconfig --levels 235 mysqld on/etc/init.d/mysqld star

Create a password for the MySQL ‘root’ user:

mysqladmin -u root password xxxxxxxx

where ‘xxxxxxxx’ will be your new MySQL root password.

Install rrdtool and php using the following command:

yum install rrdtool php php-bcmath php-cli php-common php-devel php-gd php-imap php-mbstring php-mcrypt php-mysql php-pdo php-pecl-apc php-pecl-memcache php-pear php-soap php-xml php-xmlrpc

Edit the ‘/etc/php.ini’ file and uncomment this line:

cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1

Execute the following commands:

vi /usr/bin/php-fastcgi

#!/bin/sh /usr/bin/spawn-fcgi -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9000 -C 6 -u cherokee -f /usr/bin/php-cgi

chmod 755 /usr/bin/php-fastcgi

Create an init script like this:

vi /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

start() { [ -x $phpfastcgi ] || exit 5 echo -n $"Starting $prog: " daemon $phpfastcgi retval=$? echo [ $retval -eq 0 ] && touch $lockfile return $retval }stop() { echo -n $"Stopping $prog: " killproc $prog retval=$? echo [ $retval -eq 0 ] && rm -f $lockfile return $retval }restart() { stop start }rh_status() { status $prog }rh_status_q() { rh_status >/dev/null 2>&1 }case "$1" in start) rh_status_q && exit 0 $1 ;; stop) rh_status_q || exit 0 $1 ;; restart) $1 ;; status) rh_status ;; *) echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart}" exit 2 esac

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/php-fastcgichkconfig --add php-fastcgichkconfig php-fastcgi onservice php-fastcgi start

Create a self signed certificate:

mkdir /etc/cherokee/ssl/openssl req -days 720 -new -x509 -nodes -out /etc/cherokee/ssl/cherokee.pem -keyout /etc/cherokee/ssl/cherokee.pem

Edit the Cherokee configuration file (/etc/cherokee/cherokee.conf):

Look for the following line:

server!bind!1!port = 80

And add the following lines:

server!bind!2!port = 443server!bind!2!tls = 1

Add the following lines before # Icons:

vserver!1!rule!105!document_root = /var/www/cherokeevserver!1!rule!105!handler = fcgivserver!1!rule!105!handler!balancer = round_robinvserver!1!rule!105!handler!balancer!source!10 = 1vserver!1!rule!105!match = extensionsvserver!1!rule!105!match!check_local_file = 0vserver!1!rule!105!match!extensions = php,php5vserver!1!rule!5!encoder!gzip = allowvserver!1!rule!5!handler = server_infovserver!1!rule!5!handler!type = just_aboutvserver!1!rule!5!match = directoryvserver!1!rule!5!match!directory = /aboutsource!1!env_inherited = 1source!1!host = 127.0.0.1:9000source!1!interpreter = /usr/bin/php-fastcgisource!1!nick = PHP-FastCGIsource!1!type = interpreter

Restart the Cherokee service for the changes to take effect:

/etc/init.d/cherokee restart

Cherokee can be configured via web interface, which can be started using the following command:

cherokee-admin -b xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

where ‘xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx’ is your virtual server IP address.

The output of this command will show the login credentials and the URL of the web interface:

Login: User:admin One-time Password: 6rvl9m0HD4Zr7bP5Web Interface: URL: http://Your_VPS-IP-address:9090

Cherokee’s admin will now be listening on port 9090 of yourvirtual server, so you can open http://Your_VPS-IP-address:9090 using a web browser:

To add a new virtual host in Cherokee, follow the instructions below:

Log in at http://Your_VPS-IP-address:9090 and click the ‘vServers’ icon from the top-menu. Then, click the ‘+’ button next to ‘Virtual Servers’:

Select ‘Languages’, then select ‘PHP’, click ‘Add’, ‘Next’, then set ‘/var/www/path_to_your_domain.com_website_files’ as Document Root, add ‘www.your_domain.com’ to the ‘New Host Name’ field and click ‘Create’.

Using the Cherokee web interface you can easily install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Zen Cart, OpenX, Sugar CE, Moodle, phpBB, MediaWiki, Redmine, Trac and other polupar applications.

Of course you don’t have to do any of this if you use one of ourLinux VPS Hostingservices, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to install Cherokee for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.

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