How to Install Apache on a Windows Server

Posted on by C. Smith | Updated:
Category: Tutorials | Tags: , , , ,
Reading Time: 4 minutes

When looking to host web sites or services from a Windows server, there are several options to consider. It is worth reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of each server type to determine which one is most likely to meet your particular needs before you spend the time installing and configuring a web service.

Some of the most common web servers available for Windows services are Tomcat, Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services), and of course the Apache server. Many server owners will choose to use a control panel which manages most of the common tasks usually needed to administer a web server such as e-mail and firewall configuration.

At LiquidWeb, that option means you’re using one of our Fully Managed Windows Servers with Plesk. Alternately, some administrators who need more flexibility choose one of our Core or Self-Managed Windows Servers. This article is intended for the latter type of server with no Plesk (or other) server management control panel.

Pre-Flight Check

This guide was written for a 64-bit Windows server since a modern server is more likely to utilize that platform. There are also a few potential issues with Apache on a Win32 systems (non 64-bit) which you should be aware of and can be reviewed here.


Downloading Apache:

While there are several mirrors to choose from for downloading the pre-compiled Apache binaries for windows, we’ll be using ApacheHaus for our purposes.

Download Here:

Apache 2.4.38 with SSL

(This is the 64-bit version with OpenSSL version 1.1.1a included). If you would like to utilize an alternate version they are listed here:

Available Versions Page

 

Install Apache on Windows

We will assume that you have installed all the latest available updates for your version of Windows. If not, it is very important to do so now to avoid unexpected issues. These instructions are specifically adapted from the directions provided by ApacheHaus where we obtained the binary package. You may find the entire document in the extracted Apache folder under the file “readme_first.html”.

 

Visual C++ Installation

Before installing Apache, we first need to install the below package. Once it has been installed, it is often a good idea to restart the system to ensure any remaining changes requiring a restart are completed.

  1. Download the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package and install it. It is located here.
     
    Note:
    Download the x64 version for 64 bit systems.
  2. Restart (optional but recommended).

Apache Installation

  1. Extract the compressed Apache download. While you can extract it to any directory it is a best practice to extract it to the root directory of the drive it is located on (our example folder is located in C:\Apache24). This is the location we will be using for these instructions. Please note that once installed you can see Apache’s base path by opening the configuration file and checking the “ServerRoot” directive).apache_extract
  2. Open an “Administrator” command prompt. (Click the Windows “Start” icon, then type “cmd”. Right-click the “Command Prompt” item which appears, and select “Run As Administrator.”)
  3. Change to the installation directory (For our purposes C:\Apache24\bin).
  4. Run the program httpd.exe.
  5. You will likely notice a dialogue box from the Windows Firewall noting that some features are being blocked. If this appears, place a checkmark in “Private Networks…” as well as “Public Networks…”, and then click “Allow access.”
  6. As noted in the ApacheHaus instructions:

“You can now test your installation by opening up your Web Browser and typing in the address: http://localhost

If everything is working properly, you should see the Apache Haus’ test page.“

apache_test_page

To shut down the new Apache server instance, you can go back to the Command Prompt and press “Control-C”.

  1. Now that you have confirmed the Apache server is working and shut it down, you are ready to install Apache as a system service.
  2. In your Command Prompt window, enter (or paste) the following command:

httpd.exe -k install -n "Apache HTTP Server"

Output:

Installing the 'Apache HTTP Server' service
The 'Apache HTTP Server' service is successfully installed.
Testing httpd.conf....
Errors reported here must be corrected before the service can be started.
(this line should be blank)

apache_service

  1. From your Command Prompt window enter in the following command and press ‘Enter.’services.msc

Look for the service “Apache HTTP Server.” Looking towards the left of that line you should see “Automatic.” If you do not, double-click the line and change the Startup Type to “Automatic.”

  1. Restart your server and open a web browser once you are logged back in. Go to this page in the browser’s URL bar: http://localhost/

Configure Windows’ Firewall

To allow connections from the Internet to your new web server, you will need to configure a Windows Firewall rule to do so. Follow these steps:

  1.  Click the “Windows Start” button, and enter “firewall.” Click the “Windows Firewall With Advanced Security” item.
  2. Click “New Rule” on the right-hand sidebar.firewall1
  3. Select “Port,” and click Next. Select the radio button next to “Specific remote ports:” Enter the following into the input box: 80, 443, 8080

    firewall2

  4. Click Next, then select the radio button next to “Allow the connection.”
  5. Click Next, ensure all the boxes on the next page are checked, then click Next again.
  6. For the “name” section enter something descriptive enough that you will be able to recognize the rule’s purpose later such as: “Allow Incoming Apache Traffic.”
  7. Click “finish.”

    firewall3

  8. Try connecting to your server’s IP address from a device other than the one you are using to connect to the server right now. Open a browser and enter the IP address of your server. For example http://192.168.1.21/. You should see the test webpage.
  9. For now, go back to the windows firewall and right-click the new rule you created under the “Inbound Rules” section. Click “Disable Rule.” This will block any incoming connections until you have removed or renamed the default test page as it exposes too much information about the server to the Internet. Once you are ready to start serving your new web pages, re-enable that firewall rules, and they should be reachable from the Internet again.

That’s it! You now have the Apache Web Server installed on your Windows server. From here you’ll likely want to install some Apache modules. Almost certainly you will need to install the PHP module for Apache, as well as MySQL. Doing so is beyond the scope of this tutorial; however, you should be able to find a variety of instructions by searching “How to Install PHP (or other) Apache module on Windows server,” or similar at your favorite search engine.

 

5 Android/iPhone Apps for IT Admins

Posted on by Will Simon | Updated:
Category: Tutorials | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Reading Time: 3 minutes

As administrators for our servers, we may find ourselves needing to do certain things while on the go. We may also not have a laptop or PC within reach. But one thing most of us have at all times is a cell phone. Whether we have an Android or an iPhone, most of us do possess a smartphone. One thing great about these smartphones is their constant connection to the Internet. Having that constant connection makes it simple to use various apps that assist with admin tasks through our smartphones. Here is a list of five applications available both on iPhone and Android. If you are interested in checking them out, click on your phone’s type next to the application name. You can also search for these applications by name in your smartphone’s app store. Continue reading “5 Android/iPhone Apps for IT Admins” →

How to Secure a Site in IIS

Posted on by Jacob Sundberg
Category: Tutorials | Tags: , , , , ,
Reading Time: 6 minutes

When investigating site infections or defacing on a Windows Servers, the most common root cause is poor file security or poor configuration choices when it comes to how IIS should access file content.  The easiest way to prevent this is to start with a secure site.

Setting up a website in IIS is exceedingly easy, but several of the default settings are not optimum when it comes to security or ease of management.  Further, some practices that used to be considered necessary or standards are no longer or were never necessary, to begin with. As such, we recommend that you follow these steps to set up a website to ensure that it is set up correctly and securely. And while some of these setting or permission changes may seem nitpicky, they go a long way on systems that host multiple domains or multiple tenants as they prevent any cross-site file access.

 

Add the Site to IIS

To add a website in IIS (Internet Information Services),  open up the IIS manager, right-click on Sites, and select Add Website.When adding a site to IIS, we typically recommend using the domain name as the “Site name” for easy identification.  Next, under “Physical path”, you will need to supply the path to where your website content is located or use the “…” to navigate to and select the folder.  Configuration options under “Connect as…” and “Test Settings…” do not need to be modified.

When it comes to configuring site bindings, popular belief suggests that you should select a specific IP from the “IP address” drop dropdown; however, that is based on out of date practices typically in relation to how SSLs used to require dedicated IPs.  This is no longer necessary and can actually cause issues when getting into any eplicated or highly available configuration, so it is best to leave IP addresses set to All Unassigned and type the domain name you plan to host in the “Host name” field. Do note that you can only supply one value here; additional host names can be added after creating the site by right-clicking on the site and going to Bindings.  Further, depending on your needs, you may opt to select “https” instead of “http”. To host a site with an SSL, please visit our article on the subject after setting up the site to add an SSL and configure it.

 

Set the Anonymous User

Technically that is all you need to do to set up a site in IIS; however, the site may or may not work, and the security settings on the site are not optimum. The next step in securing your site is to configure the IIS user that will access your files. To do this, you will need to change the associated Anonymous user and make a few security changes on the website’s content folder.

In IIS, select your new site on the left, in the main window double click on Authentication, select Anonymous Authentication, and then click “Edit…” on the right action bar.

 

What is IUSR in IIS?

By default, a new site in IIS utilizes the IUSR account for accessing files.  This account is a built-in shared account typically used by IIS to access file content. This means that it will use the application pool’s identity (user) to access file content.

It may be okay to leave this configured if you only plan on hosting one domain; however, when it comes to hosting multiple domains, this is not secure as it would then be possible for any site using the same account to access files from another site.  As such, and as a standard practice, we recommend switching away from using the IUSR account for sites, and instead selecting “Application pool identity” and clicking OK. Alternately, you could manually create a user on the system for each site; however, then you need to manage credentials for an additional user, need to configure permissions for two users (the anonymous user and the application pool user) and possible complications with password complexity and rotation requirements your server or organization may have.

There is nothing further you need to configure in IIS in terms of security; however, for reference, let’s take a look at the application pool settings really quick.  To check the settings on the application pool, in IIS, select Application Pools on the left menu, select the application pool for the site you created (typically the same name as the name of the site), and then click “Advanced Settings…” on the right action bar.

In here, the related setting is the identity, which by default is “ApplicationPoolIdentity”.  This means to access file content, IIS and the associated application pool will use a hidden, dynamic user based off the name of the application pool to access files.  This user has no associated password, can only be used by IIS, and only has access to files specifically granted to it. As such, it removes the requirement of managing system users and credentials.

 

Set Folder Permissions in IIS

Now, as mentioned, the “ApplicationPoolIdentity” user has very few permissions, so the next and last step is to ensure that the website files have proper security settings set on them. Browse through your file system and find the folder where you plan on hosting your site’s files. Right-click on the folder and go to properties. In the properties interface, select the Security tab.

By default, there are a number of security permissions set up on the folder that are unnecessary and potentially insecure (there may be more than shown here).  To best secure a site, we recommend removing all but the “SYSTEM” and “Administrators” groups and adding the “ApplicationPoolIdentity” user (and possibly any other user you may require, such as an FTP user); however, to do this, you will need to disable inheritance.  To do this, click on “Advanced”, then click on “Disable inheritance”.

 

Here you will get a popup asking if you want to copy the current settings or start with no settings.  Either option can work; however, it is easier to copy the current settings and then remove the unnecessary permissions.  So select “ConvertConcert inherited permissions into explicit permission on this object” and then click OK.

At this point, to remove the unnecessary permissions, click Edit and remove everything other than the “SYSTEM” and “Administrators” groups.  Next, you need to add the “ApplicationPoolIdentity” user to this folder. To do this, click “Add…”. Now, depending on your server configuration, you may get a pop-up asking for you to authenticate to an active directory domain.  Simply click the cancel button a few times until you get the Select Users of Groups screen shown below.

On this screen, you will want to make sure that the “Location” selected is your computer.  If it is not, click “Locations…” and select your computer (should be at the top; you may also need to click cancel on some authentication windows here as well).

The “ApplicationPoolIdentity” user is a hidden user, so it is not possible to search for this user.  As such, you will have to type the username to add it. The username you will need to type is “IIS AppPool\<applicationpoolname>“.  Please see the following example and fill yours out accordingly:

Once you type the user name, click OK.  Now that you’ve added the user, which is by default only granted read permissions, you will want to verify your security settings look similar to the following image, and then click OK.

And with that, you’re done and have a secure site ready to be viewed by the masses without needing to fear that hackers will deface it.

 

Securing within Powershell

As a bonus, if you’re looking to get your fingers wet with some Powershell, the steps covered in this article can also be accomplished on a Windows Server 2012 or newer server through Powershell.  Simply fill out the first two variables with your domain name and the path to your content, and then run the rest of the PowerShell commands to set up the site in IIS and configure folder permissions.

[String]$Domain = ‘<domain_Name>’

[String]$Root = ‘<path_to_your_content>’

Import-Module WebAdministration

#Create App pool & Website
New-WebAppPool -Name $Domain
New-Website -Name $Domain -HostHeader $Domain -PhysicalPath $Root -ApplicationPool $Domain
Set-WebConfigurationProperty -Filter system.webServer/security/authentication/anonymousAuthentication -Location $Domain -PSPath MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST -Name userName -Value ''

#Optionally add www. Binding
New-WebBinding -Name $Domain -HostHeader www.$Domain -ErrorAction

#Remove inheritance (copy)
$ACL = Get-ACL $Root
$ACL.SetAccessRuleProtection($True,$True) | Out-Null
$ACL.Access | ?{ !(($_.IdentityReference -eq 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM') -or ($_.IdentityReference -eq 'BUILTIN\Administrators')) } | %{ $ACL.RemoveAccessRule( $_ ) } | Out-Null
$ACL | Set-ACL

#Add IIS user permissions
$ACL = Get-ACL $Root
$acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($False, $True)
$Rule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("IIS AppPool\$Domain", "ReadAndExecute", "ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow")
$acl.AddAccessRule($Rule)
$acl | Set-Acl

Additional Notes: In some cases, sites may need additional write or modify permissions on specific files or folders for file uploads, cache files, or other content.  It is important that you do not apply modified permissions to the entire site. Instead, modify specific directories or files as needed. To apply these settings, go to the file or folder that needs modification, right-click on it, and select Properties.  Switch to the Security tab and click Edit. In there, select the user that has the name of the website (liquidweb.com in my example above), select modify under the Allow column, and then click OK. This will give the ApplicationPoolIdentity and IIS the ability to write to or modify the file(s) or folder(s).

Still need additional protection for your Liquid Web server?  Our Server Protection packages provides a suite of security tools especially for Windows servers.  You’ll get routine vulnerability scans, hardened server configurations, anti-Virus and even malware cleanup, should your site get hacked. Don’t wait another vunerable minute, check out how we can protect you.

 

How to Check Server Load on a Windows Server

Posted on by Ross Chesley | Updated:
Category: Common Fixes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Reading Time: 6 minutes

What Does Server Load Mean?

Checking a server’s load allows us to evaluate server resources and confirm they are sufficient for any running application. It enables us to troubleshoot slow performance and reliably pinpoint any server resource that may need attention.

While there are many tools and options available, today let’s focus on Windows Task Manager as a way to help us quickly see what is going on, and interact with applications, processes, and services to identify the load. This article will also include an introduction to Resource Monitor as it can be opened from Task Manager to provide more detail.

Continue reading “How to Check Server Load on a Windows Server” →

Troubleshooting: Locked Out of RDP

Posted on by Will Simon | Updated:
Category: Common Fixes, Featured Articles | Tags: , , , , , ,
Reading Time: 3 minutes

How Do I Get Back Into RDP?

You may be working from a local machine that has an IP that is not scoped on that RDP port, making it impossible for you to gain remote access to add the IP address to the RDP rule’s scope. Do not fret; there is a simple and quick way to add your IP to the RDP scoping (or any others entities such as MySQL or MSSQL) right through your Plesk interface in your local browser. You can watch this video, or scroll down for step-by-step directions.

For security purposes, it is always recommended that you scope off your Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection on your server. Putting a scope on the RDP rule in the Windows Firewall will allow only the indicated  IP addresses to gain access to the server through Remote Desktop Protocol. The issue is that many of us do not have static IP addresses, but rather Dynamic IP addresses. This means that while at one time our IP address may be 120.32.111.01, it may change to something like 95.42.121.01 later. So if you were to add 120.32.111.01 to the RDP firewall for a customer or a system administrator, then you may need to add another rule for a different IP address.

 

Adding Your IP in Plesk

Step 1: Log in to Plesk

First, we need to make sure we know how to get to that Plesk login page. By default, the Plesk login page is https://<YourServerIP>:8443. For example https://124.0.0.1:8443

We should arrive on a page with this in the center. Go ahead and type in Admin for the username and your password for Plesk. Usually, that password is set up by our team and is the default Server Administrator Password. Sometimes the username is Administrator, depending on a few variables. But one of the two user names should be fine.

Plesk login

Step 2: Tools & Settings

The first thing we need to do after we log into Plesk through the previous page is to navigate to the Firewall Rules. Go ahead and click on Tools & Settings. It will be located in the right sidebar near the bottom as shown below.

plesk tools and settings

Step 3: Firewall

Once we pull up Tools & Settings go ahead and click on our destination, Firewall. You will find that option under the Security section. It will be the second option, just under Security Policy.

firewall tools and settings

Step 4: Firewall Rules

After we are in the Firewall management, go ahead and click on Firewall Rules. This is where we will add the rule to allow a certain IP address to gain RDP access.

firewall management

Step 5: Add a Firewall Rule

Under Tools, after going into the Firewall Rules, we will see the option labeled Add Firewall Rule. Go ahead and click on that, bringing us to our next step.

firewall add rule

Step 6: Add Detail the the New Rule

This is the page that we see after clicking on Add Firewall Rule. It can seem to be complicated and intimidating for some beginner level System Administrators, but it is quite simple.

add a new firewall rule

firewall profiles

If you or your client are not sure what that IP address that needs RDP access is, Liquid Web has a great site to visit that will only display your IP address here.

Note:

Here is an example of what you will find at https://ip.liquidweb.com.

While this particular example IP will not be the one that the customer or the System Administrator will see, (when visited on the local machine) the page will display the IP address that needs to be added to the rule for this RDP session to connect. That will be the only information that will be displayed on this page. Simply copy that IP address and use it in the instructions below.
ip address

remote ip address

Once you enter the IP address into the text box under Remote addresses, you do need to click the ADD button before clicking on OK.

remote ip address example

As mentioned above, after clicking the ADD button while the IP address is entered into the Add an IP address or a network text box, it will be placed into the left text box. After that step, you will then be able to click OK to apply this rule to the firewall for the server.

Step 7: Connect to RDP

The individual at that IP address can now access the server via RDP. If you would like more information on how to use Remote Desktop Connection, you can find a help article explaining exactly how to do that here.

rdp connection login screen

Congratulations! You now know how to add an IP address to an RDP rule that will allow a user to connect if the RDP is scoped off to the public. This can be done many times. Although Plesk does not allow you to edit the rule, you will have to create a new one each time. But this shouldn’t cause any issues. Also, keep in mind that this method can be used for any port, including MySQL and MSSQL.

If you ever have any trouble with your Liquid Web server, feel free to contact us through our chats system, by submitting a ticket, or by calling 800-580-4985. We’d love to help!

How to Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 16.04

Posted on by Cameron Paxton | Updated:
Category: Getting Started | Tags: , , , ,
Reading Time: 3 minutes

What is a VirtualBox?

This is handy when you need to run software that is only available on one Operating System, for example, if you wanted to run Windows software on your Ubuntu computer or vice versa. The only limitations are RAM and disk space for running each virtual machine. Continue reading “How to Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 16.04” →

Install SSL Certificates in a Windows Server

Posted on by Mike Sherman | Updated:
Category: Common Fixes | Tags: , ,
Reading Time: 4 minutes

About SSL

SSL Certificates secure the web today using Transport Layer Security (TLS). This is a network protocol which encrypts the data between the web server and the visitor. Most websites today are using SSL, and you can see this every time a website starts with https:// instead of http://. This indicates the website is securely encrypting data between you and the server so that no attackers can easily sniff the network packets and capture your logins.

SSL protects the web today and is utilized by almost every corporation and business and acts first step in user security. SSL is a way to protect logins and forms that you enter from being intercepted unknowingly by a 3rd party on your network.  If your website does not incorporate SSL, we suggest implementing it as soon as possible, and you can use our guide to do it!

 

Generating the Certificate Request (CSR)

Before ordering your SSL, you will need to create a certificate request for the certificate authority to issue an SSL.

Step 1: To begin, the first thing you need to do is open IIS. If you do not have a shortcut for it, you can search your computer for inetmgr.exe and open it that way. From here you will click on your server name:

open iis

Step 2: Then double-click “Server Certificates“.

create server certificateStep 3: Once you have done that, you are ready to create your certificate request.

On the right-hand side, select ‘Create Certificate Request‘

Create Certificate Request

At this point, you will be asked for information about the certificate and the company requesting the certificate.

information about the SSL certificate

Once you have filled this out, click Next.

It will bring you to the following screen:

cryptographic server provider properties

Step 4: We suggest using the settings above, making sure the Bit Length is set to 2048 or higher. We like to go with 4096 and click Next.  On the subsequent screen, you need to specify a filename where your Certificate Request or CSR can be exported. For simplicity, we would like to export the CSR to C:\example.com.csr.txt

 

Ordering the SSL

At this point, you are ready to order your SSL certificate!

Step 1: Go ahead and go to your chosen SSL provider, whether it be GlobalSign, Liquid Web, or any numerous other certificate authorities.

Step 2: When you are signing up for the SSL, it will ask you for the CSR data we saved at C:\example.com.csr.txt – Copy and paste the contents into the certificate authorities website and it will generate all the same fields we entered in the previous steps.

Step 3: Finish your order, and they will provide you with a .crt certificate file. Download this file and copy it to your web server. For simplicity, copy it to C:\example.com.cer

Great! Now you have created a certificate request and completed it with the certificate authority and have your new SSL certificate ready to be installed.

 

Installing the Certificate in IIS

Step 1: Open up IIS/inetmgr.exe and navigate to the server as we did in the beginning.

Step 2: Navigate to Server Certificates. Now, instead of selecting ‘Create Certificate Request’ you will select ‘Complete Certificate Request‘

Step 3: It will prompt you for the location of the new certificate, which we saved at C:\example.com.cer and to make things easier on ourselves later, we will name the friendly name example.com-01 so that we know this is the first SSL for this domain in case we want to renew it later.  Once you hit OK, you should see your certificate in the list of server certificates in IIS.

Great! Now you have generated the certificate request, completed it, and installed your certificate on your web server. Now you need to bind the certificate to your website.

 

Binding the SSL Certificate to a Website

Step 1: In IIS, browse to Sites > example.com (where you want the SSL certificate installed).

Step 2: Right-click on your site and select ‘Edit Bindings‘ or if you click on the site, you will see Bindings on the right-hand side.

This will open a window that looks like the following:

site binding for the ssl

Step 3: If you already have the https binding setup for your site, you will simply double-click on the https bindings and select the desired SSL certificate from the drop-down. If you haven’t created an https entry in your bindings already, click Add. On the right-hand side and you will see the following window:

add SSL site bindings

Step 4: First, set the Type to https so your website knows the request is for a secured URL.

You will want to set the IP Address as needed based on your host. In my case, All Unassigned.
Port should be automatically set to 443, if not, do so. (This is the port defined for secured communications.)

Step 5: Set the Host Name to example.com (your domain). In most cases, you will want to check Require Server Name Indication. In our case, we do not need it because this is the only certificate on this IP address. Select your SSL certificate from the drop-down!

Select OK and do it all again, this time instead of setting the hostname to example.com, you will want to set it to www.example.com. This is because we only set it up for requests from https://example.com, but https://www.example won’t register as secured until we add the second binding entry.

Note:
If you are setting up a wildcard SSL, you will want to add a third entry for *.example.com so that it can secure any subdomain of your website.

Testing Your New SSL

First, you will want to access your domain at https://example.com and https://www.example.com to see if there are any errors. An easy way to tell if the certificate is functioning properly is to input your domain into SSL Shopper. Try it with and without the “www” to confirm both work. If everything is working, you should see several green checks and no errors. The certificate expiration date will be at least one year from the day you ordered the SSL originally.

That’s it! You have successfully installed a brand new SSL for your website that works both with www and without it. Congratulations! Now you can follow these steps to secure all of your websites and applications.

Liquid Web makes it easy to purchase new SSLs. Simply log in to manage.liquidweb.com, clicking Add, and select SSL Certificate.  Here you can simply input the CSR you generated in Step 1, and it will order an SSL and give you back the certificate file needed to complete the installation.

If you have a Core-Managed Windows server at Liquid Web, we can help you through this process and diagnose any issues you may have run into. We also assist with SSL on Self-Managed if they buy the SSL from Liquid Web.

 

How To Set Up FTP for Windows

Posted on by Will Simon | Updated:
Category: Tutorials | Tags: , , , , , ,
Reading Time: 5 minutes

What is FTP?

You or your developer may want to have access via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to the folders for the project or domain that is being worked on. FTP is a quick and easy way for someone to connect to their project, without having to have full access to RDP into the server. An FTP user will only have access to the folders that are designated to them, limiting them in their own environment so as not to accidentally change other user’s files and file structure on their project/domain. In this tutorial, we will cover how to utilize FTP on a Core/Self-Managed Dedicated or VPS Server, as well as a Plesk Server.  Let’s jump right in!

 

Enabling FTP Services

The first thing that you need to check before creating an FTP user is to enable FTP on your server. To do that on a Core/Self-Managed server, we need to RDP to the server and open Server Manager.

rdp connection info

Once the server manager is open, in the top right corner, there are a few options: Manage, Tools, View, and Help. We want to click on Manage, which will show a drop-down menu. At the top of the menu, click on the option Add Roles and Features.

IIS server manager dashboard

Once you have the Add Roles and Features Wizard up, click Next until you are at the Server Selection.

add role feature wizard

Make sure your server is highlighted, by default, it should be. If so, you can click Next which brings you to Server Roles.

select destination server

Server Roles are where you will find the features your server can have enabled separately, depending on your needs. We aren’t looking for anything but FTP at this time, so we won’t cover all of the features and services we find here. FTP services are going to be found under the role Web Server. Click on the carrot next to Web Server. There are 3 different options with checkboxes; Web Server, FTP Server, and Management Tools. Dropping down the FTP Feature will show the available FTP features.

If all of these are already checked, you can skip ahead to the Adding and Assigning FTP Users section of this help article. However, if these are not checked, go ahead and check FTP Server and FTP Service. If your users plan on using ASP.NET services or IIS Manager, you will want to make sure you check FTP Extensibility.

Once you have the FTP features selected, click on Next a couple of times until you get to the Confirmation page. At the top, you will see an option to “restart the destination server automatically if needed“. For installing FTP Services, a restart is not needed. We can leave this box unchecked and click on Install. This install process shouldn’t take too long.

Adding and Assigning FTP Users section

Adding an FTP User Account

Before we add an FTP site, we need to set up a user with some credentials. We do this by accessing Computer Management.

set up a user credentials

On Windows 2012 and up, we can do this by right-clicking the Start Menu button, and selecting Computer Management. Here, under System Tools, if we click the drop down carrot, we will see the Local Users and Groups section. Double-click on Users and a list of all the Local Users will formulate. On the far right of the Computer Management, once we have navigated to Users, we see a More Actions and will need to click on that to add a New User.

add a New User

Clicking on New User will pop up a simple interface that asks for the user name, the user’s full name, a description for that user that serves as a description for you, the administrator, to recognize the purpose of this user. Fill out this information accordingly and type in a password for this user. Under Confirm Password, we see that by default “User must change password at next logon” is selected. Because this is strictly for FTP, we will uncheck that and check “User cannot change password” and “Password never expires”. Considering the FTP user will only have access to the destination you allow, it is not necessary to change the password.

description for FTP user

 

Adding an FTP Site

Now that FTP Services are installed and a user is created, we need to head on over to the IIS Manager. This can be found in the Start Menu, or by clicking on Tools in Server Manager as we did before, but clicking on Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

Adding an FTP Site

Here is the IIS Manager, we need to create the FTP site that you will want this specific user to have access to. We do this by clicking on the drop-down carrot next to the server name, and then right-clicking on the folder that says “Sites“.

create FTP site access for user

A menu will pop up, with the option to Add FTP Site. Enter the name you wish to give this FTP site. Select a Physical path, where you want the user for this FTP site to have access. Do this by either typing in the direct path, or selecting the 3 dots next to the entry bar and physically selecting the folder you wish to assign this FTP site.

Select a Physical path to ftp site

Clicking next will bring you to Bindings and SSL settings. If you have any specific IP address that is assigned to a domain that is being used for this FTP Service, you need to make sure that the IP address is selected by dropping down the bar.

Bindings and SSL settings

If all sites are taking advantage of Windows SNI (Server Name Identification) than you can leave this set to All Unassigned, if you wish to use a different port than the default FTP port, go ahead and type that in under Port. But if this is just a basic FTP instance for everyday purposes, go ahead and leave that port at the default 21. Next, you want to make sure that “Start FTP Site automatically” is selected. Unless of course, you want to manually allow the user to connect to their FTP site only when you designate by starting the page in IIS. Select No SSL and click Next for this FTP Site. In this tutorial, we will not be covering setting up an SSL for this specific FTP Site. If you do already have an SSL that you have added to the server for this purpose, you need to make sure that Allow or Require under SSL is checked, and select your SSL on the drop down bar labeled SSL Certificate.

authentication authorization info

Now we have been brought to the Authentication and Authorization section. Here at the top are two options for Authentication. Make sure that both boxes are checked. Finally, we have the Authorization section where we would select the groups or users we want to allow to be able to log into this FTP Site.

 

Setting Up the Windows Firewall

Now that we have the FTP site all set up and ready to go, we do need to set up the firewall rules. Open up your firewall by clicking on Start, scrolling to Windows Administrative Tools, and clicking on Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security link

firewall.advanced.security

We need to set some rules on the Inbound Rules section, so click on that first. It’s in the top right corner. After clicking on Inbound Rules in the top right corner under Actions, you will see a section called Inbound Rules. Under that category should be New Rule.

set Inbound Firewall Rules

You may have to click on the arrow next to Inbound Rules to see this. Click on the New Rule…

setup new firewall rule

And you will be selecting the Rule Type. For FTP we will be using Port, so click on that and Next. Now you will see Protocol and Ports. For Protocol, use the setting TCP. For Specific local ports type 21, 5001-5051 and click on Next.selecting Firewall Rule Type

Now we have the Action section. By default, “Allow the connection” is selected. Keep this the way it is and press Next. Now you will be prompted for when this rule will apply.

Firewall Allow the connection

We want it always to apply so keep each network connection type box checked. There are three: Domain, Private, and Public. Click Next, and you will be naming the firewall rule. We suggest just naming it FTP Connection or something of the sort.

naming the firewall rule

You should be all set. Go ahead and log into another computer, use your favorite FTP client (such as Filezilla), enter the IP address as a host, and your newly created username and password, port number, and click connect. You are now connected FTP to your designated pathway on your server.

 

FTP on a Plesk Server

This process is a lot faster and much simpler. Here are a couple links in regards to setting it up on a Plesk Windows Server.

https://help.liquidweb.com/s/article/Creating-FTP-Users

https://help.liquidweb.com/s/article/Uploading-Files-Using-FTP-in-Plesk

You did it! You have successfully set up an FTP site so that you or the developers can now edit, copy, and remove files from their designated folders smoothly.

How Do I Set System Variable Path for Python on Windows?

Posted on by David Richards | Updated:
Category: Tutorials | Tags: , , ,
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Python is a powerful programming language that is scalable and uses code that is readable and clear for all types of projects. Python is also available across a number of operating systems, making it a popular choice for developers. If you are using Python on your Windows operating system, you may need to adjust your System Environment Variables to simplify utilizing Python on your server.

The latest installers for Python for Windows can set the System Environment Variable Path automatically if you choose that option during the installation. To verify if this setting is correct, open an administrative command prompt (right-click on the command prompt and choose “run as administrator”) and type the word python, then press Enter. If the System Variable Path is correctly set, you should receive output similar to what is shown below.

python output screen

Note:
Python software installation is considered Beyond Scope Support. This means it is not covered under our managed support, but we will do what we reasonably can to assist. It may take longer for us to assist as the SLA for Beyond Scope Support is different than our managed services. Find out more in our article What Is Beyond Scope Support?

If you receive an error indicating that the command is unknown, but you’ve confirmed that Python is installed and can be launched from its directory, you will probably need to add the Python variables to the System Environment Variables. By following these quick steps, you’ll be able to access Python from any command prompt.

  1. From the server desktop, click the Windows icon and search for “Environment Variables”. Press Enter to launch the System Properties dialog.
    system variables launch link
  2. This will open the System Properties dialog. Click Environment Variables to make the necessary changes.
    system properties screenshot
  3. Create a new User Variable named: Path and Variable value: C:\Users\*yourusername*\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37 (change the variable value to match your actual installation path).
    new path link highlighted
  4. Next, find the System variable called Path and click Edit.

    system variables screen, edit button highlighted

  5. Create a New entry that matches the Path variable that you created. Add \Scripts to the end of the entry (the new entry should look like C:\Users\*yourusername*\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\Scripts\
    edit system variable path screenshot
  6. You can verify that you have completed this successfully by opening a new administrative command prompt from any location and typing “python” (without the quotes). You should receive a response similar to what is shown above.