Sorry if this has been asked before!
I'm trying to find out if it is possible to install XAMPP in a way that all user data and configuration is saved per (windows) user on a network home drive.
The scenario is students log into a windows domain, and we will map H: drive to the root of their home directory on the server.
For this to work, anything that may be specific to that user needs to be saved on H: drive, including their htdocs, mysql database tables and so on, so that when they log out of one PC and log into a different PC next time everything they have worked on is still there, rather than sitting on the hard drive of the PC they last used.
I've been investigating WAMP, XAMPP, and EasyPHP Dev Server. WAMP is out of the running because it can only run the Apache, MySQL servers etc as windows services.
This is problematic for two reasons - (1) the services running as SYSTEM can't access the users H: drive, even after they have logged in. (2) The services keep trying to run after the user logs out.
We need all the servers to run in the users account context so they can access H:, ONLY run when they are logged in, and be automatically terminated when they log out. We also want the servers to launch only when the user manually wants to use them, not automatically at windows login.
So far it looks like XAMPP can do this - I see there is the option to run the servers as services or as normal processes (excellent!) so how practical is it to adjust all of the configuration files for apache, mysql and so on to point at the mapped drive ? If I do this am I going to need a login script to copy the data directories (mysql tables in particular) from the copy on C drive as a kind of a template if they don't already exist on the home drive from a previous login ?
Can the XAMPP control panel be sufficiently customised so that all the config/logs buttons etc can be made to point to the appropriate files on H: instead of locally ? Ideally even log files should be logged to H: drive, nothing user specific should be getting written back to the local drive.
Hopefully someone can tell me whether I'm batting my head against a wall (as I did with WAMP, and to some degree EasyPHP) or whether it should be possible with the right configuration. At least if I know it's possible its worth investing more time to figure out how to do so.
Thanks!