S6   Setting Up And Administering A Web Server
Bryan Buus, XOR Network Engineering

Who should attend: Administrators who are interested in creating a World Wide Web service for their company, or becoming their company's "Webmaster." The course is intended for people who have some knowledge of UNIX system administration.

The World Wide Web is the most widely used Internet service. Companies are quickly discovering that they need to be on the Web to provide information to customers and to keep up with the competition. This course describes how to set up and maintain a World Wide Web server on a UNIX platform. The servers covered in the course include the popular and freely available Apache and NCSA Web servers (these servers own approximately 60% of the server market).

Topics covered include:

	The architecture of the Web
	The HTTP protocol
	Compiling the server
	Server configuration    Creating "Virtual Hosts"    Resource configuration    Access configuration    Per user access
	Analyzing and rotating logs    Making sense of Agent and Referrer Logs
	Web-related security issues
	Electronic commerce issues
	Security and the Web    Operating System, CGI, and software considerations    Setting up and configuring SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
	Server performance issues
	Using multiple servers
	Detecting server problems

Setting up the Web server is only half of the battle. Understanding exactly how the protocol works, what performance issues are critical, what security implications are, and other nuances are just some of the important issues that all webmasters need to thoroughly understand. After completing this course, webmasters should have an in-depth understanding of their server environment and the critical issues surrounding ongoing maintenance.