Installing NGINX, PHP, MariaDB or MySQL on Ubuntu (LEMP stack)

The LEMP (Linux, NGINX-pronounced “Engine-X”, MySQL/MariaDB & PHP) is a group software package commonly used for web page or web application, NGINX is a web server, MySQL is a Database for storing data in the backend. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an Open Source server-side scripting language used for Web development.

Following below steps tutorial for basic installation and setup guides

Step 1: Update Ubuntu Package

To get the latest version of Ubuntu package use theapt by typing the command below:

sudo apt update&&upgrade

Step 2: Install NGINX Web Server

Now we are going to install NGINX stable version by default repository Ubuntu, to do this type the command below:

sudo apt install nginx

Once NGINX already installed, to check and verify Nginx service status type the command below

sudo service nginx status

If it is running and working properly you will see the output NGINX active (running) like below

● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-05-09 20:42:29 UTC; 2min 39s ago
     Docs: man:nginx(8)
  Process: 27688 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 27681 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 27693 (nginx)
    Tasks: 2 (limit: 1153)
   CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
           ├─27693 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
           └─27695 nginx: worker process

To exit Nginx service status just press q on the keyboard

Step 3: Configuration the Firewall with UFW

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is an Iptable interface to easily configure a firewall on your system. If it does not yet enable, it’s recommended to enable and setup the rule for Nginx

For the first, we have to add rule for SSH, let’s se the command line below

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH

Add the rule receive HTTP to Nginx

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP'

Then you will see on terminal

Rule added
Rule added (v6)'

Now enable ufw for Firewall.

sudo ufw enable

If prompted just pres Y to accept and continue and to check UFW status type the command below

sudo ufw status

You will see the output UFW active (running) like below

Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
Nginx HTTP                 ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
Nginx HTTP (v6)            ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

Step 4: Testing NGINX on the Browser

NGINX web server now is ready on Ubuntu, now you may go to your web browser and visit your domain or IP. If you have not configured domain name yet and don’t know your IP, use the following command find out

sudo ifconfig | grep -Eo 'inet (addr:)?([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -Eo '([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -v '127.0.0.1'

If everything is OK you will be presented on your browser with the default Nginx landing page as below

You may edit above default landing page. The file was located in the document root directory /var/www/html. If you want to edit you could use nano editor and use the following command

sudo nano /var/www/html/index.nginx-debian.html

To save and close nano, press Ctrl/Cmd + X and then press Y and ENTER to save changes and Reload Nginx service by using the following command

sudo service nginx reload

Go back to your browser and refresh….. see the changed…..!!!!

Step 5: Install MariaDB or MySQL

There two options using MariaDB or MySQL Database, please choose one that you prefer with. To install MariaDB or MySQL on Ubuntu server let’s following steps:

Installing MariaDB

MariaDB is a fork of MySQL, the database structure and indexes of MariaDB are the same as MySQL. This allows you to switch from MySQL to MariaDB without having to alter your applications since the data and data structures will not need to change.

To install MariaDB packages from the MariaDB repository use the following command

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

Press Y and ENTER when prompted on installing process
MariaDB service will start automatically, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service.

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

To check and verify MariaDB is working, use the command below

sudo systemctl status mariadb

The output MariaDB active (running) like below

● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.3.8 database server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service.d
        └─migrated-from-my.cnf-settings.conf
Active: active (running) since Sun 2018-07-29 19:36:30 UTC; 56s ago
    Docs: man:mysqld(8)
        https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
Main PID: 16417 (mysqld)
Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..."
    Tasks: 31 (limit: 507)
CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
        └─16417 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Press q on the keyboard to exit service status

To check MariaDB server version use the command below

mysql -V

If you already installed MariaDB server above, you should ignore below Installation MySQL and jump to step 6

Installing MySQL

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Just like all other relational databases, MySQL uses tables, constraints, triggers, roles, stored procedures and views as the core components

To install MySQL packages from the MySQL repository use the following command

sudo apt update && sudo apt install mysql-server

Press Y and ENTER when prompted on installing process

MySQL service will start automatically, the commands below can be used to stop, and start MySQL service.

sudo service mysql stop
sudo service mysql start

To check and verify MySQL is working, use the command below

sudo service mysql status

The output MySQL active (running) like below

● mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since since Wed 2018-05-09 21:10:24 UTC; 16s ago
 Main PID: 30545 (mysqld)
    Tasks: 27 (limit: 1153)
   CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
           └─30545 /usr/sbin/mysqld --daemonize --pid-file=/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

Press q on the keyboard to exit service status

To check MySQL server version use the command below

mysql -V

Step 6: Configuration MySQL Security

To improve MySQL security it’s recommended to enable mysql_secure_installation. These packed to create a root password and disallow remotely root access. To install packages use the following ways

sudo mysql_secure_installation

On installation process will prompt and to be asked the validate password plugin, it can be used for password strength checking

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: Enter password
Re-enter new password: Repeat password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

If you didn’t create a root password, you have to generate a strong password

For testing MySQL server and run the following command.

sudo mysqladmin -p -u root version

Enter the MySQL root password you created before and see the following output

mysqladmin  Ver 8.42 Distrib 5.7.22, for Linux on x86_64
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Server version          5.7.22-0ubuntu18.04.1
Protocol version        10
Connection              Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket             /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime:                 4 min 28 sec

Threads: 1  Questions: 15  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 113  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 106  Queries per second avg: 0.055

Configured MySQL server on Ubuntu now is successful

Step 7: Install PHP-FPM

Let’s install PHP with Latest version package on Ubuntu. Below there are two commands will update the package and get the package to install. Once installation there are questions just pressing Yand ENTERto continue.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install php-fpm

Let’s install PHP 7.3 Modules package run the command below

sudo apt-get install php7.3-fpm php7.3-cli php7.3-mysql php7.3-gd php7.3-imagick php7.3-recode php7.3-tidy php7.3-xmlrpc

After installing now check PHP version.

php --version

The output PHP version (running) like below

PHP 7.3.0-2+ubuntu18.10.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Dec 17 2018 09:23:19) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.0-dev, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.3.0-2+ubuntu18.10.1+deb.sury.org+1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

List the contents for the directory /var/run/php/

ls /var/run/php/

You should see a few entries here.

php7.2-fpm.pid php7.2-fpm.sock

Above we can see the socket is called php7.2-fpm.sock. Remember this as you may need fastcgi_pass setting on the next Nginx configuration

Step 8: Configuration PHP on NGINX

The LEMP components installed and now you may need to make configuration and some changes on Nginx server block as virtual host. Default file is located on /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
Edit default file using nano editor

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

The output default file like below

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html/;
    index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
    server_name YOUR_DOMAIN_OR_IP_HERE;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        #
        # With php-fpm (or other unix sockets):
          fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
        # With php-cgi (or other tcp sockets):
        # fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    }
}

Find or you can use Cmd/Ctrl W to search index.html the sample above see on contrast red line and Add index.php after index

index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

Change the value for fastcgi_pass socket inside location ~ \.php$ braket see on contrast red without comment #.

If you installed PHP version 7.2, the socket should be: /var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock or if you not sure PHP socket on your server use the following command

ls /var/run/php/

Once you’ve made the necessary changes, save and close (Press CTRL + X, then press y and ENTER to confirm save)

Now check and verify there are no syntax errors, type the following command.

sudo nginx -t

If nothing error the output will present as the following

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Changes made in the configuration file will not be applied until the command to reload configuration is sent to Nginx or it is restarted. To reload use the following command.

sudo service nginx reload

Step 9: Testing PHP on the Browser

To verify PHP-FPM is working on the server block, let’s a create a new PHP file called test.php. The default file is served in the directory /var/www/html/

Create a file using nano editor use the following command line

sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php

Copy and paste the following code

<?php
phpinfo();

Press Ctrl/Cmd + X, then press Y and ENTER to save and close

You can now view this page in your web browser by visiting your server’s domain name or public IP address followed by /test.php: http://your_domain_or_IP/info.php …. Enjoy…!!!