Old news: "After three years of development, Apache 2.0 (or, more accurately, Version 2.035) has finally been released. Unix users will find plenty to like in Version 2.0, but the biggest impact will be on Windows servers, where Apache can now perform as a production-level Web server. Unlike previous Windows versions of the open-source server, which were built from ported Unix code, the new version is written as a native Windows application and is recommended by the Apache Software Foundation for production use." full text: eWeek.com: Apache 2.0 Beats IIS at Its Own Game
Apache modules, tools, applications can conveniently be found at apache-tools.com. There, I found the Sourceforge project Apache Management Console SnapIn for W2k/XP - nice idea! The project has released some MCC COM interface developer files yet. Of course, there still is the Covalent Comanche Open Source GUI for Apache that also can take care of your Samba.
Benchmarking: Remote Communications Inc. offers an improved version of the popular ab Apache Bench in a pre-compiled version for Windows. "This version adds complete support for IETF Content Decoding and HTTP 1.1 Chunked Transfer Decoding in order to allow the program to test any Server that is capable of providing reduced HTTP Content. When used in conjunction with any HTTP 1.1 compliant Server that is able to provide reduced content this version of ApacheBench will decode the content and provide both a RAW and a VIRTUAL byte transfer rate as well as other performance statistics", and their site show a nice example of the benefits HTTP 1.1 dynamic gzip compression can give you.
If you don't care for that but for a graphical Apache Bench frontend, check mappingsoft Apache OnHand, which is a self-proclaimed "Apache HTTP Server management and configuration tool for Windows" and offers a very helpful graphical analysis of AB results. For other benchmarks, see this and this tool. The first one is WebCheck, the other The Jakarta Project JMeter, a 100% java application (if you care for that) and pretty elaborate looking.
I really like mod_log_mysql which offers you the ability to log accesses to a MySQL database - and knowing about the power of SQL SELECT statements, this is a really good thing to have on testing server.
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