I was contacted directly this week by a new customer who was looking for assistance with a ColdFusion MX installation and configuration. More specifically, the customer was experiencing difficulties while trying to install ColdFusion MX with Apache web server on a Windows development box. The customer indicated that he had successfully installed Apache web server and it was working. He had then proceeded through the ColdFusion MX installation. He had been attempting to install the developer’s server version in stand-alone mode but configured with Apache instead of ColdFusion’s built-in web server. He explained to me that after the ColdFusion installation completed, he was unable to get into the CF administrator interface. Upon closer inspection, he realized he was unable to get to the page because Apache had failed to start properly once ColdFusion had been installed. Apparently the configuration settings that ColdFusion had attempted to make to Apache via the web server configuration tool had left Apache in an “unable to start” state.

As I spoke with this customer on the phone, I remembered that I had also experienced similar issues quite some time ago when attempting the very same installation on my development laptop. I distinctly remembered having to fall back to a slightly older version of Apache web server in order to get ColdFusion properly configured. Once my memory had been jogged, I asked him what version of ColdFusion and Apache he was attempting to install. His answer – ColdFusion 7.0.2 and Apache 2.2.4. Based on my own experience I suggested that he uninstall ColdFusion and Apache 2.2.4, download and install Apache 2.0.59 (the version I am running on my development environment), and attempt the ColdFusion server installation once more. I was fairly confident that this installation would complete successfully for him since it mirrored my own running configuration, but I suggested that he could also simply install ColdFusion with its built-in web server in order to just get ColdFusion functioning and answering requests. I fired off a summary email with my contact information and wished him luck.

Later that evening, the customer emailed me with an ecstatic, heart-felt thanks. After an entire week of struggling, he had finally managed to get his development server running properly with a combination of ColdFusion MX 7.0.2 and Apache 2.0.59, as I had suggested to him.

But after reading his email, I began thinking that there simply must be a way to get ColdFusion running with the latest version of Apache. Certainly there had to be a better answer than falling back to an old version of Apache, right? A quick Google search on coldfusion “apache 2.2.4″ indicated that this was not the first time someone had experienced this installation problem. After spending some time reading through many of the results on Google, I happened upon the following pieces of information which may prove useful to any of you out there who may be struggling with the same installation.

First, I found a TechNote Knowledge Base article directly on Adobe’s web site indicating that there is a hotfix available for ColdFusion 7.0.1 and 7.0.2 which is supposed to address the configuration issues with Apache 2.2.

When I found the Adobe hotfix, I assumed that was the end of my search – problem solved. Wrong.

I kept crawling through Google, and through a chain of blogs and mailing list archives I found a blog post by Matt Woodard. He wrote about the issue as well, and referenced using the Adobe hotfix, but with a slight twist on the procedure.

And then as I read through the trail of comments posted in response to Matt’s blog, I quickly realized that people were still having issues with this install configuration. Apparently, the hotfix was not a fix for everyone. I found a link to an exhaustive forum thread on Adobe outlining the challenges people were having while attempting to apply this hotfix.

At the end of it all, I have the following advice for anyone out there attempting to configure ColdFusion with Apache. If you go through the Adobe TechNote and Matt Woodward’s post and are still having trouble getting ColdFusion and Apache 2.2.x to play nicely together, I would suggest falling back to a slightly earlier version of Apache – specifically Apache 2.0.59.

If you’ve been dealing with your own ColdFusion/Apache installation configuration issue or have had success with a solution of your own, please feel free to share your experiences.