Installing Coldfusion 9 and Apache 2.2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

[jtchivers]

I'm having issues getting ColdFusion 9 working with Apache 2.2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard.

The server is brand new and it's a fresh install of Apache and ColdFusion 9.

Having installed Apache, I tested the web server and it was working fine, so I proceeded to install ColdFusion 9. I attempted to restart the Apache server through the Apache Service monitor, only to get the error dialog box 'The requested operation has failed'.

On closer examination of the Windows error log, I saw the following error:

The Apache service named  reported the following error: >>>
httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 488 of C:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load C:/ColdFusion9/runtime/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun22.so into server: The Apache service named is not a valid Win32 application.

I updated the ColdFusion installation to 9.0.1 in case there was an issue with version 9.0 and Apache. Still no joy.

After a bit of research, I thought perhaps there was an issue with the mod_jrun22.so file (since when I commented out the reference to that file from the Apache config file, the Apache HTTP server started without any problem). I tried replacing the mod_jrun22.so with the 32 bit version (extracted from the wsconfig.jar file), but that made no difference either.

I have tried a number of things. I have run wsconfig and uninstalled all web server connectors and then re-created them.

I have to use Apache and IIS is not an option (I use rewrite rules extensively in an existing live installation and have many sites set up in a vhosts file), so please - no suggestions to use IIS instead.

The system requirements on http://www.adobe.com/sea/products/coldfusion/systemreqs/ state that Coldfusion 9 will work with Apache 2.2.17 and later on Windows 64 bit, so why am I having issues with a brand-new installation on a 'virgin' server?

Any help would be much appreciated. I have spent hours trawling the Web for solutions.

[jtchivers]

I missed an important detail in my opening post. My Coldfusion 9 version is 64 bit - not 32.

OK. Simple solution to this. I'll put it here for other peoples' reference.

To cut a long story short, after phoning Adobe support this morning I was told that you can't run a 64 bit version of ColdFusion with a 32 bit web server. In essence, the web server software and the ColdFusion server software must be the same - either 32 or 64 bit.

Apache is only officially released as a 32 bit version, but there is a 64 bit unofficial version available from http://www.blackdot.be/?inc=apache/binaries, so I downloaded that and installed it, based on the instructions at http://www.elxis.org/guides/developers-guides/64bit-apache-php-mysql-windows.html.

Once I'd installed the 64bit version of Apache, the installation of Coldfusion 9 64 bit went smoothly and all appears to be working just fine now (well, I can get to the ColdFusion Administrator page and I have successfully updated the server software to ColdFusion 9.0.1).

The fact that you can't mix different 'bit' versions of software in this way may be obvious, but it wasn't obvious to me. Having been an early adopter of a 64 bit version of Vista on my own PC, I never experienced these kind of problems before. Software installed itself into the corresponding locations on my PC without any problem and just worked. This is the first time I've run into this problem.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any information regarding this very important requirement on the system requirements pages, so I suggested to the support engineer that he may want to make the recommendation that the page is amended to clarify the situation: e.g.

IMPORTANT: 64 bit versions of ColdFusion require 64 bit versions of web server software to function. You can not mix 32 bit and 64 bit versions of web servers and ColdFusion server.

Hope this helps someone else out.

[ilssac]

jtchivers wrote:

Apache is only officially released as a 32 bit version,

Apache on Windows, maybe.  But Apache on Unix is officially supported in 64bit.

[Guest]

I'm having this exact problem on a fresh R2 install. What is extremely weird is that I have multiple 2008x64 boxes running 32-bit Apache and 64-bit CF9, with absolutley no issues. I wonder what changed in R2??

[12Robots]

I will just point out real quick that this is not true at all.  CF9 64-bit works just fine with Apache 32-bit. I just got done setting it up.  I did need to grab the correc mod_jrun22.so out of the wsconfig.jar and drop it in place. Then after reestarting CF and Apache all worked perfectly.

Jason

[BKBK]

@Jtchivers, please kindly mark the question as answered. As you yourself say, it is bound to help others in future.

[jtchivers]

@Jason. Thanks for your information on this. Glad you managed to install it on a 32 bit version. At the time I placed the first post, that was not the view of Abobe when I spoke with them. They were certain that it couldn't be done. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have had enough system knowledge to know to do what you did. Nor, seemingly, did Adobe.

In the end, as I stated above, I went with the 64 bit unofficial version of Apache available from http://www.blackdot.be/?inc=apache/binaries and installed it, based on the instructions at http://www.elxis.org/guides/developers-guides/64bit-apache-php-mysql-w indows.html. Might as well make use of a 64 bit operating system if we can, I suppose. It has been working just fine since then.

@BKBK. It has been marked as answered.

[BKBK]

jtchivers wrote:

@BKBK. It has been marked as answered.

Thanks!