Configuring Web Services in 10.9 Help

Question

Hi All,
I cannot find any comprehensive documentation on the subject (short of a retelling of the server.app Help Files) but I'm just trying to set up a web server in 10.9. I have the server app installed. I'm using a separate DNS Server (that will also be my OD Master).  Right now all this is in a couple of VMs on a Mac Pro, isolated from my live network until I get the kinks worked out.  One vm (login.domain.com) for OD and DNS (split with our ISP for outside access) another (www.domain.com) for web services. I'm using the host machine as a web client to test things out.  The web host and my client both point to the DNS server and everything can ping everything else. Once I get it working in a test environment, I'll worry about bring it it out into the world and involving my gateway, ISP, etc.
The website is working ok where it is on an ubuntu server, so I know there are no major issues there. But I'd like to move it (long story).
In server.app, I named the webserver "machine" www.domain.com.  I pointed a record on the DNS Server to it and can ping it using the fqdn.  For the main site, I moved the default files (which look to be aliases) into a hidden folder and dropped by web site files into the directory (/library/server/web/data/sites/default).  The site does load. But it loads VERY slowly (it takes about 20-30 seconds for the initial page to load, once it's up, navigating between pages is fine as far as speed). Except, some of the navigation buttons don't work and from what it looks like, the PHP isn't rendering the page properly (links are not correct) so I'm led to believe there's something old/screwy in whatever version of PHP this thing has.
Why would the site be so slow to load?
How do I see what version PHP server 10.9 uses? Is it possible to upgrade if it's an older one?
Do I need to do anything other than add a site in the server.app for the subdomain (staff.domain.com, help.domain.com, etc)? Any special settings/forwarding to make this work?  As long as the DNS points the fqdn to the box, the web server should send the right site/subdomain to the client, shouldn't it?
Again, if someone could point be to the library of documents for managing this, I'd be grateful.  Apple's site seems to have a lot about wikis and so forth, and info on setting up the simplest of sites, but I don't care about those, I want a couple of websites with php and mysql, subdomains, etc.  It was all hosted in 10.5 (or 10.6) a while back, so unless they broke something on purpose, I know it can do it.  I head hurts from getting some info about httpd.conf from one blog, .htaccess from  another, etc. There MUST be a "setting up a Web Server in 10.9" or "Mavericks Server Administration" doc or something out there.
Thanks,
Jeff

Answer 1

Yes, the functionality has departed System Preferences. Here is an updated guide to jump start your solution. It deals with the Terminal solution below.
There are two approaches to launching a web server in Mavericks.
Terminalsudo apachectl {start|stop|restart}
System Preferences solutions
Web Sharing Preference Pane (free, originally for Mt. Lion)
VirtualHostX ($)