Upgrade Apache from 2.2 to 2.4

hello everyone.

let me start by stating I am relatively new to Linux and do not consider myself to be a very professional Linux administrator.

I have a red-hat 6.2 server used as a web server in a closed network (no internet access). however we do have a repository server with many applications (I do NOT manage the repository server, only the web server)

I am currently trying to upgrade the Apache on the server from 2.2 to 2.4, and I find it surprisingly difficult.

first I tried of course to use the repository server.

on the repository server I found the packages of apache-httpd, though they were named httpd24-httpd, httpd24-apr and etc.
I went on to install the packages and found out that this did not update the apache already on the server, but instead installed a new apache on the server. I found that I had two httpd services, and the chkconfig command showed me to have httpd and httpd24-httpd starting up. I later realized the new installation was installed in some weird place under /opt/..(something) directory, while the older version was under /user/sbin/

I didn't find any useful help on Google, only instructions on how to install\upgrade Apache from a tar.gz file. so since I have that file as well, I uninstalled the httpd24 and tried to upgrade from the tar.gz file.

here everything went smoothly (I extracted everything from the archive and ran the configure file successfully), until I tried running 'make' where I received the following error:

libtool: link: cannot find the library `/usr/lib/libexpat.la' or unhandled argument `/usr/lib/libexpat.la'

I have the libtool installed but the file libexpact.la does not exist (I do have other files in that directory though).

At some point I also finally figured out that the different files of Apache (and almost all the applications on the server) are spread at different directories: /usr/sbin/httpd , /usr/lib64/httpd , and -/usr/include/httpd.

I am stuck with no success in this seemly simple task with no solution in the horizon.

I would very much appreciate help in:

  1. understanding why different apps are spread across so many directories and not under one folder like in windows.
  2. help with updating Apache in it's current place instead of installing an additional Apache

Thanks in advance for the help!