Inveigled By Design

I just switched over to using Windows 7 with a full development setup including IIS 7 and Sql Server 2008 (including reporting services). I also use Apache to edit a local copy of my blog and websites. I decided to let apache run on the default port 80. In order to do this, I installed XAMPP Lite, which was pretty straightforward, but getting it running was not. Here’s what got it working for me:

Step 1: Download and install XAMPP:

Download and install one of the XAMPP exe files from here:
Apache Friends – XAMPP For Windows

You can use XAMPP or XAMPP Lite, whichever suits your needs, but be sure to get the EXE rather than the ZIP file. I used XAMPP Lite version 1.7.2 for this installation.

Double-click the installer and let it run. I chose to let it install on the default C: destination folder:

I’ve read that it can’t be run on the same partition as the operating system, that it has to be run as administrator and in compatibility mode, but I didn’t find any of that to be true. Windows 7 sometimes pops up a message at the end of the install saying it didn’t install properly. I just hit the “The program installed correctly” button.

Step 2: Change the port that IIS is running on:

By default, IIS and Sql Server use port 80, so first you have to move IIS to a new port. Click on the Start button and in the “Search programs and files” box, type in “iis”, and hit Enter. This will start up the Internet Information Services Manager.

Under “Connections” on the left, expand the entry for your PC name, then Sites and click on Default Web Site under Sites (this may have a different name if you have named your default site):

Now with the Default Web Site selected, click on Bindings on the right side of the window. In the bindings window, click on the first entry, hit the edit button and enter the new port you want IIS to run on. (I chose 8080).

Click “Ok”, “Close”, and then on the right side of the Internet Information Services Manager, under Manage Web Site, click on Restart. Close the Internet Information Services Manager. You can verify that IIS is now running on port 8080 by opening a browser and typing http:/localhost:8080 into the address bar:

Step 3: Moving Sql Server Reporting Services:

Now you can try running the XXAMP Control Panel and running Apache. In my case, it appeared to start, but then would stop immediately. In order to figure out what else is running on port 80, you need to run the Command Prompt as an administrator.

Click on the Start button and go to All Program -> Accessories -> Command Prompt. Right click on Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator.

Once the command prompt opens, type in “netsh http show servicestate” (without the quotes). This will show you what is running on what ports on the system. In my case, it was REPORTS and
REPORTSERVER that were on port 80:

These are both SQL Server Reporting Services, which I want to use, but I’ll also move to port 8080. To configure the Reporting Services, launch the Reporting Services Configuration Manager. This is located under Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Sql Server 2008 -> Configuration Tools:

Click on Web Service URL in the left panel and change the TCP Port to 8080.

Now choose Report Manager Url from the left panel and Click Advanced.

Change the TCP Port to 8080 and click OK.

Close out the Reporting Services Configuration Manager.

Now if you open the XAMPP Control panel and run Apache, it should stay running. If it doesn’t work at this point, reboot the system and try again.

Now you can verify that apache is working by opening a browser and typing http://localhost into the address bar: