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Hiawatha version: 6.16
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.04 Server

Hi,

I heard Hiawatha when I read the new copy of Linux Magazine (Issue 107 Oct 2009) this morning. I am very exciting to learn that Hiawatha is designed with security in mind.

Before replacing all Apache and Cherokee web servers to Hiawatha, I would like to know that if Hiawatha supports PHP and MySQL? I am running XOOPS (a kind of PHP CMS) that works closely with MySQL and PHP.

If yes, how to configure Hiawatha to work with PHP and MySQL? Please advise me as I am a newbie to Hiawatha.

Finally, I am still exciting that Hiawatha is secured by born.

Samiux
Hong Kong

Yes, Hiawatha works great with PHP and MySQL. If the CMS needs url rewrite, then Hiawatha can do that easily too. Reading the manual pages and howto pages fully can give you a good idea on the configuration basics. After reading this, if you still have questions, please do post it.

I am running very high traffic website with Hiawatha and we are seeing a lot of improvement in performance and security.

The short version of the answer to your question is: Yes, Hiawatha supports PHP/MySQL webapplications. In fact, this website is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database.

The long version of the answer is: No, Hiawatha doesn't support PHP directly. Hiawatha supports CGI and FastCGI. Both are protocols to communicate with webapplications. PHP also supports CGI and FastCGI. Because of that, Hiawatha and PHP are able to communicate with each other. Hiawatha doesn't support MySQL and it doesn't have to. PHP supports MySQL and that is all you need to use a MySQL database for your webapplication. A webbrowser talks to Hiawatha (via HTTP), Hiawatha talks to PHP (via CGI) and PHP talks to MySQL (TCP connection or local socket).

Yes read through the HOWTO pages and all will become clear. If you still have any question, just let us know.

After some reading, I finally setup my site with Hiawatha. It is quiet easy to setup.

By the way, does the prevention and protection are by default on?

Nothing is on by default. To see the default values of all settings, look in the manual page.