Sneak Peak - How to use Windows Server 2008 Core for PHP, MySQL

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I challenged Dennis Chung (my counterpart in the security bytes video, and one of the smartest guys I know when it comes to IT) recently to see what kind of usage scenarios we could use Windows Server 2008 Core. For those of you who are unaware of what Server Core is, it is an installation type for Windows Server 2008 that provides a minimal environment for running specific tasks. Having a minimal environment means a reduce maintenance, reduced management, reduced attack surface and less disk space required.

We decided to focus on the web app environment specifically looking at applications built using PHP and MySQL, so we picked on WordPress which is considered one of the more popular PHP applications. In case you weren't aware, Windows Server 2008 and 2003 (via a download) supports a technology called FastCGI the explanation can be found here https://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1000051, but essentially it enables application frameworks like PHP to be run on IIS in a performant and reliable way.

I wont run through the process of getting it setup, as Dennis is building an article on how to do that, but the cool thing was he was able to install Windows Server 2008 Core, set up the Web Server Role, install MySQL and PHP and get the application installed, configured and up and running in less that 30 minutes.

After we got things up and running we sat back and had a think about what was possible with this.

  1. We could look at automating much of this process through the use of batch files, as its all done through command line. This has the benefit of you being able to configure the server inline with the regulations of your IT environment.
  2. If we did what was in 1., we could essentially build a network location that stored a whole heap of these batch files, which would essentially enable servers on demand in your network.
  3. As we did for our Windows Server Core, these could be provisioned and setup on demand in a virtualized environment, so as the load increases on your application, or your needs change, you could create, configure and get up and running servers in minimal time.

I am really excited about what Dennis has been able to do with this, and I hope you have a read of his blog (https://windowsmvp.spaces.live.com), I know its one of the largest post's he has done to date!!!