Configure Lasso 8 and 9 side-by-side on one server

Lasso 8 and 9 can run simultaneously on a single machine, provided your web server is properly configured.

They key is to locate Lasso 8 and Lasso 9 sites in separate virtual hosts, and then ensure that Lasso 8 is loaded only for specific sites, rather than the entire server. For this article, the paths and filenames will refer to Mac OS X client running the preinstalled Apache 2.2, but the concepts apply to any server or platform. 

Lasso 8 changes

When performing the default installation of Lasso 8, two modifications are made to the Apache configuration:

• lasso8.conf is placed in /etc/apache2/users
• a line is appended to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf which loads lasso8.conf

Undo both of these changes by:

• moving lasso8.conf up one directory to /etc/apache2/lasso8.conf (to prevent other modules from auto-loading it)

sudo mv /etc/apache2/users/lasso8.conf /etc/apache2

• commenting out or removing the Include directive in httpd.conf appended by Lasso 8's installer (to avoid a "no such file" error when restarting Apache)

sudo perl -i -pe 's/^(Include.*lasso8.conf)$/#$1/' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

The only Apache configuration change made by the Lasso 9 installer is the addition of a mod_lasso9.conf file (formerly lasso9.apache2.conf or lasso9.manager.conf) in a subdirectory of /etc/apache2. We'll leave it unmodified and in-place to prevent future conflicts (1).

Virtual Host example configuration

First, ensure that virtual hosts are enabled in httpd.conf:

sudo perl -i -pe 's/^#(Include.*vhosts.conf)$/$1/' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Next, open your virtual hosts configuration file (/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf) and replace the sample configurations with something similar to the following, tailored to your situation. 

NameVirtualHost *:80

<Directory "/directory/containing/sites/*">
	Options All
	AllowOverride All
	Order allow,deny
	Allow from all
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName lasso8site.net
	ServerAlias www.lasso8site.net
	DocumentRoot "/directory/containing/sites/lasso8site"
	DirectoryIndex index.lasso index.html
	Include /private/etc/apache2/lasso8.conf
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName lasso9site.org
	ServerAlias www.lasso9site.org
	DocumentRoot "/directory/containing/sites/lasso9site"
	DirectoryIndex index.lasso index.html
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName localhost
	ServerAlias *.*
</VirtualHost>

Notes

1. Since the contents of this file could change with a future Lasso update, one should avoid making changes to it.
2. The last VirtualHost block is a catch-all for requests that don't match any previous blocks, and will serve content from the default document root. Otherwise, non-matching requests will be handled by the first virtual host.
3. If Apache is giving you "403 Forbidden" errors, you may need to make your sites' directories executable by the web server, which can be done with this command:
   

   sudo find /directory/containing/sites -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

4. Alternatively, you could run Lasso 8 and 9 on the same ServerName by assigning each virtual host a different port number, or even the same VirtualHost by ensuring each file type is handled by only one Lasso version (e.g. change the Lasso 9 conf file so it only handles files ending in .lasso9, leaving .lasso files for Lasso 8). Also, it's possible to have both virtual hosts draw from the same directory, allowing one to check how a single site runs in Lasso 8 and 9 simultaneously. 

Author: Eric Knibbe
Created: 11 Aug 2011
Last Modified: 25 Aug 2011