Cassini and Apache 101 - CodeProject®

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

Download and install Apache 2.x for Windows (remember to stop IIS)

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/

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

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

Do a manual installation of ASP.NET Forums (skipping step 7)
See: http://www.asp.net/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?tabindex=1&PostID=21470

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

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" <br>
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

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About the Author

Per S

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Norway

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18:45 18 Nov '08

0:34 17 Dec '06

Anonymous

4:01 12 May '05

Re: ASP.NET and APACHE

lcmduck

2:42 4 Nov '05

There is another way...

Ade_V

13:51 19 Jan '05

17:36 29 Oct '04

2:33 16 Feb '05

Andre S.

15:28 5 May '04

Re: Doesn't work for me

Eron Zebadua

11:47 27 May '04

Re: Doesn't work for me

George Dyke

16:13 7 Jun '04

Re: Doesn't work for me

jbllama

7:43 31 Oct '04

I had trouble installing Cassini. I ran the build.bat from the Start-Run menu, but it didn't successfully run gacutil. Another reply had mentioned that gacutil doesn't always work, and suggested copying the cassini.dll to the c:\WINDOWS\assembly directory (this is the directory name if you are using Windows XP).
I couldn't copy/paste the file, but I was able to tag and drag it to the directory.

That took care of the gacutil problem.

The next problem I ran into was that IIS needed to not be running. It can be turned off from the Apache-Services menu. (Or, Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Internet Information Services, IIS).

I needed to fill in the blanks on the Cassini panel with:
Application: c:\inetpub\wwwroot
port: 8080 (port 80 didn't work for me, conflict)
Virtual Root: /

This worked for me, I could click on the link for the localhost and see the files I'd copied to the inetpub/wwwroot directory. I could click on an aspx file, and the aspx page did work correctly.

I needed to have IIS stopped, and Cassini started, to create a new project in Visual Studio.NET.

Unfortunately, in my attempts to get stuff working, I messed with the virtual directories and their file permissions ... now I can't get Cassini to run the aspx files anymore.

Anyone know how to set the permissions correctly?