Click here to Skip to main content
65,938 articles
CodeProject is changing. Read more.
Articles
(untagged)

Cassini and Apache 101

0.00/5 (No votes)
19 Aug 2002 1  
This article describes how to get ASP.NET up and running on Apache 2.x for Windows

Introduction

Cassini is a web server written in C#, you'll find more information about it at http://www.asp.net/

These simple steps gets Apache up and running with ASP.NET

  1. Download and install Apache 2.x for Windows (remember to stop IIS)
  2. Modify the http.conf file:
    # 
    LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
    LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so
    LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
    LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so 
    
    # 
    ProxyPass /aspnet http://127.0.0.1:8080/ 
    ProxyPassReverse /aspnet http://127.0.0.1:8080/ 
    
  3. Create a different catalog (not the /aspnet catalog in http.conf) for your ASP.NET files and start Cassini:
    1. If you are using the cassini server included in WebMatrix
      c:\path-to-cassini\webserver.exe /port:8080 /path:"c:\path-to-asp.net-sourcefiles"
    2. or, the stand-alone Cassini server
      c:\path-to-cassini\CassiniWebServer "c:\path-to-asp.net-sourcefiles" 8080
  4. Test:
    • Cassini: http://localhost:8080/test.aspx
    • Apache: http://localhost/aspnet/test.aspx
    <!-- test.aspx -->
    <%@ Page Language="vb" %>
    <html>
    <body>
        <form runat="server">
            <asp:Calendar runat="server" />
        </form>
    </body>
    </html>
    

Ultimate test

If everything is working fine, you can move on to the 'ultimate' test, running ASP.NET Forums on Apache

  1. Do a manual installation of ASP.NET Forums (skipping step 7)
    See: http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=21470
  2. Add to http.conf (assumes the modifications above are done)
    #AspNetForums
    ProxyPass /AspNetForums http://127.0.0.1:8081/AspNetForums 
    ProxyPassReverse /AspNetForums http://127.0.0.1:8081/AspNetForums 
    #aspnet_client
    ProxyPass /aspnet_client http://127.0.0.1:8082/aspnet_client 
    ProxyPassReverse /aspnet_client http://127.0.0.1:8082/aspnet_client 
    
  3. Start 2 different Cassinis listening on port 8081 and 8082.
    c:\path-to-cassini\webserver.exe /port:8081 /path:"c:\path-to-asp.net-forums" /vpath:"/AspNetForums"
    c:\path-to-cassini\webserver.exe /port:8082 /path:"E:\Program Files\ASP.NET\Client Files" /vpath:"/aspnet_client"

It is not the fastest solution, but everything works fine. I decided to "stress-test" it using Homer running 10 threads 5 sockets per thread in one minute, and got the following:

Page Hits TTFB* Avg. TTLB* Avg.
/AspNetForums/Default.aspx 286 1024.96 7458.23

*: TTFB = Time To First Byte, TTLP = Time To Last Byte

Bear in mind that this test was done on my Thinkpad T21 800Mhz/512 MB, which is filled with junk.

Now I am waiting for someone to write a mod_cassini

Reference

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here