Between 30-August-2013 and 01-September-2013, Complete, Concrete, Concise had its web hosting suspended with a demand that the WordPress installation be deleted.

Not wanting to delete my installation and then reinstall (and hopefully restore all data correctly), I investigated.

Symptoms

Most likely, your web hosting provider will inform you that your account has been suspended because your WordPress (or other PHP based application) is generating a lot of core dumps and playing havoc with their server. In my case, I was asked to delete my WordPress installation.

Alternately, you may notice there are a lot of core.xxxx (xxxx being a four digit number) files in your WordPress directory.

The Cause

When your error_log file gets to be 2,147,483,647 bytes long, PHP will start crashing and generating core dumps. This is because PHP cannot handle files larger than 2GB.

error_log is where PHP stores messages about any errors it encounters.

The most common cause of errors is a corrupt MySQL database file.

The Fix

1. Delete the file error_log.
2. rename index.php to something else (xxx_index.php is good)
3. inform your hosting provider that:
   1. you suspect the problem was PHP’s inability to handle and error_log larger than 2GB and you have deleted it
   2. you have deactivated your WordPress account by renaming index.php
   3. you would like access to your account restored so you can run MySQL applications to check and repair your database if necessary
4. Fix the database (if it is corrupted). Instructions for checking and repairing a database can be found here.
5. restore the name of the file in step (2) back to index.php
6. go to your website and browse a few pages.
7. verify that core.xxxx files are not being generated. If they are being generated, than you probably have some other problem.
8. verify that the file error_log is not being generated. If it is being generated, it is a good idea to look at it and see what errors are occurring. Depending on how quickly error_log is growing, it might be a good idea to suspend your site again by renaming index.php

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These instructions are for installing AMPPS 1.2 on Windows XP with Service Pack 3. It should work for other configurations as well.

AMPPS is an extremely easy to install and use Apache Server which comes bundled with MySQL (a database), PHP (server side scripting language), Perl (another server side scripting language), Python (yet another scripting language) and auto-installation scripts for 225 different web applications.

Why would I want to install it?

To allow development and testing on your local machine instead of on a remote (and probably live) server. I use it to test out changes to my website before uploading and committing changes to the real site.

Compared to XAMPP, AMPPS is easier and friendlier to use because of its auto-installation scripts. This allows you to easily try out various web applications without having to (1) find them yourself, and (2) handle the low level install details (not that it is hard). If an application you want to try out does not have an auto-install script, you can still install it manually (as you would under XAMPP).

Since I am more interested in testing out applications than developing them, I like the convenience of having so many to choose from.

Why wouldn’t I want to install it?

AMPPS does not enable port 443. Secure URLs, which begin with https, connect to your browser using port 443. Regular URLs, which begin with http, connect to your browser using port 80.

There does not seem to be a simple way to enable it.

For most people, this is not likely to be an issue.

As well, AMPPS does not grant you MySQL root access. Again, for most people this doesn’t matter because AMPPS scripts handle database creation for you (if the application needs one). If you need to create a new database, you simply have to assign it a user to be able to use it.

Installation

Download the self extracting package, run it and, in most cases, accept the default settings.

Downloading

1) Go to the AMPPS download page and click on the download icon:

2) Select to either Save the file or to Run it directly over the Internet. Saving allows you to uninstall and reinstall if necessary:

Installation

3) Click Run to begin installation. NOTE: this step may differ depending on (1) whether you chose to Save or Run the file in Step 2, (2) which browser you are using. I used Internet Explorer, FireFox downloads into its own location, (3) you already have the file and are just reinstalling.

4) Windows may issue a Security Warning. It is safe to click on Run:

5) Click Next on the welcome screen.

6) Read the License Agreements and, if you agree, select “I accept the agreement” checkbox and click on Next to continue. Note: if you do not accept the agreements, then you will not be able to install AMPPS

:

7) Click Next to continue.

8) Choose where you want to install AMPPS. By default, it will be installed in C:\Program Files\Ampps. For most installs, the default selection is fine. I chose to install it in D:\ampps. You can either type the install location yourself, or browse for it:

9) Click Next to create a menu folder called Ampps. If you like, you can change the name of the folder (by typing in a different folder name) or browse and select a folder to install AMPPS into. I accepted the default:

10) Click Next to allow creation of (1) Desktop Icon, (2) Quick Launch Icon, and (3) Start Menu Icon. If you do not want any or all of these icons created, then deselect them by clicking on the appropriate checkbox:

11) Review your installation options and click Next to continue installation. If you want to change any installation options, click Back to go to a previous screen. Since there were three different configuration option screens, you might have to click Back up to three times:

12) During installation, a progress screen will be displayed. Just wait:

13) After installation, click Finish to launch AMPPS:

14) Windows may issue a Security Alert about running the Apache HTTP Server. Click Unblock to allow the Apache HTTP Server to run. NOTE: the Apache Server needs to run to in order for AMPPS to work:

15) Windows may issue a Security Alert about running the MySQL Database. Click to allow the MySQL Database to run. NOTE: the MySQL Database needs to run in order for AMPPS to work:

The AMPPS Control Panel

The AMPPS control panel is a little bit unintuitive – you know that the Apache server and MySQL Database are running because the Start icons are greyed out. It would be less confusing (I think) if they provided some sort of Running icon.

The Restart buttons are a nice touch and work well when restarting the services.

Running AMPPS

To run AMPPS, simply enter localhost/ampps into your browser’s URL field.

AMPPS presents you with a rich set of options for script installations: PHP, javascript, and Perl (ok, there is only one application under Perl – Movable Type)

You can choose various applications to install from the left hand side (boxed in RED).

There is a menu bar in the top right (boxed in GREEN).

In the center are presented various options and information (boxed in BLUE).

Near the top left, you can select which script packages you are interested in (boxed in YELLOW).

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These instructions are for installing XAMPP 1.7.3 on Windows XP, Service Pack 3. It should work for other configurations as well.

XAMPP 1.7.4 (released in January 2011). I had no problem with the install and most things work just fine, however, there are many little things that require “expert” tinkering to get it working right. Because of this, I cannot recommend it to someone just looking for a straightforward install with minimal tinkering. See also this discussion thread at Apache Friends which covers in more detail the various issues.

XAMPP 1.7.7 (released in Septemeber 2011) is the latest version. I had no problem with the install and most things work just fine, however, there are many little things that require “expert” tinkering to get it working right (it is much stricter on PHP errors than 1.7.3 is – a flag change to fix that). Because of this, I cannot recommend it to someone just looking for a straightforward install with minimal tinkering. It has a new phpmyadmin interface (unfortunately, it defaults to German – easily changed, though). It still exludes the port checker present in version 1.7.3 (which is a really useful debug tool).

Click on images for full sized versions.

XAMPP is an extremely easy to install and use Apache Server which comes bundled with MySQL (a database), PHP (server side scripting language), Perl (another server side scripting language), FileZilla FTP Server and Mercury Mail Transport System.

Why would I want to install it?

To allow development and testing on your local machine instead of on a remote (and probably live) server. I use it to test out changes to my website before uploading and committing changes to the real site.

Installation

Download the self extracting package, run it and, in most cases, accept the default settings.

Downloading

1) Go to the SourceForge website and select xampp-win32-1.7.3.exe to download XAMP (this is the self extracting version with the built-in installer):

2) You will be redirected to a download page. If the download does not start in a few seconds, click on the direct download link:

3) Select to either Save the file or to Run it directly over the Internet. Saving allows you to uninstall and reinstall if necessary:

Extracting

4)  Enter the location to extract XAMPP into. By default, it selects the C:\ drive. I entered my D:\ drive because I have more space there. [NOTE: XAMPP will automatically create a folder called \XAMPP in the directory you specify, having C:\ as your install folder will result in XAMPP being installed in C:\XAMPP\]. Click on the Install button:

Configuring

The XAMPP installation will ask a few configuration questions. It should be safe to accept the defaults.

5) Enter y and press the Enter / Return key for the prompt: Should I add shortcuts to the startmenu/desktop? (y/n): y

6) Enter y and press the Enter / Return key for the prompt:

Should I locate the XAMPP paths correctly?

Should I proceed? (y/x=exit setup): y

7) Enter n and press the Enter / Return key for the prompt:

Should I make a portable XAMPP without drive letters?

NOTE: – You should use drive letters, if you want use services.
      – With USB sticks you must not use drive letters.

Your choice? (y/n): n

8) Press the Enter / Return key for the prompt:

XAMPP is ready to use.

Press to continue:

9) Press the Enter / Return key for the prompt:

I have set the timezone in ‘php.ini’ and ‘my.ini’ to “America/New_York”.

You should correct these values if my guess was wrong.

Press to continue:

10) Enter 1 and press the Enter / Return key for the prompt: Please choose (1-7/x): 1. This will start the XAMPP control panel:

Setting Up

11) Click the two check boxes labelled Svc located next to the Apache and MySQL labels. This will install both services for you:

12) Press OK when prompted to install the Apache Service and MySQL service:

13) Observe that the services are now running. If the services are not running, then you need to manually start them. See step (14).

14) If the Apache and MySql services did not start when you installed them, then click on the Start button beside each service. NOTE: The Apache service can take several seconds to start and the application may look as though it is hung – just wait. If the Apache service does not start, see Troubleshooting below.

Testing The Installation

XAMPP is now setup and ready to use on your computer.

To test, launch your browser and enter:

http://localhost

into your navigation bar. You should see the following display:

Troubleshooting

Sometimes the Apache Server will not run. This is most often caused by some other application using port 80 (the http port).

1) Click on Port-Check to see if any other applications or services are using port 80.

2) A console window will appear and XAMPP PortCheck will run. Sample results are shown in the image below. In this case, uTorrent is using port 80 and preventing Apache Server from running. The solution is to either shutdown uTorrent or change its configuration to use a different port.

The more common cause is that Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is running. Instructions for disabling the IIS can be found here.

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