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LAMP Server on Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Updated by Alex Fornuto Written by Linode

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This guide has been deprecated and is no longer being maintained.

Setting up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) stack will allow for the creation and hosting of websites and web applications. This guide provides step by step instructions for installing a LAMP stack on an Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) Linode.

LAMP Server on Ubuntu 12.04

Note
This guide is written for a non-root user. Commands that require elevated privileges are prefixed with sudo. If you’re not familiar with the sudo command, you can check our Users and Groups guide.

Before You Begin

  1. Ensure that you have followed the Getting Started and Securing Your Server guides, and the Linode’s hostname is set.

  2. Update your system:

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Apache

Install and Configure

  1. Install Apache 2:

    sudo apt-get install apache2

  2. Edit the main Apache configuration file to adjust the resource use settings. The settings shown below are a good starting point for a Linode 2GB:

    /etc/apache2/apache2.conf 
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    KeepAlive Off

<IfModule mpm_prefork_module>
StartServers 4
MinSpareServers 20
MaxSpareServers 40
MaxClients 200
MaxRequestsPerChild 4500
</IfModule>

Configure Name-based Virtual Hosts

There are different ways to set up virtual hosts; however, the method below is recommended.

  1. Within the /etc/apache2/sites-available/ directory, create a configuration file for your website, example.com.conf, replacing example.com with your own domain information:

    /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf 
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    <VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias www.example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html/
     ErrorLog /var/www/example.com/logs/error.log
     CustomLog /var/www/example.com/logs/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
    Note
    The ErrorLog and CustomLog entries are suggested for more fine-grained logging, but are not required. If they are defined (as shown above), the logs directories must be created before you restart Apache.

  2. Create the directories referenced above:

    sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/public_html
sudo mkdir /var/www/example.com/logs

  3. Enable the website’s virtual host:

    sudo a2ensite example.com.conf
    Note

    If you need to disable your website later, run:

    sudo a2dissite example.com.conf

  4. Reload Apache:

    sudo service apache2 reload

    Assuming that you have configured the DNS for your domain to point to your Linode’s IP address, virtual hosting for your domain should now work.

MySQL

Install and Configure

  1. Install MySQL:

    sudo apt-get install mysql-server

    Choose a secure password when prompted.

  2. Run mysql_secure_installation, a program that helps secure MySQL. You will be presented with the opportunity to change the MySQL root password, remove anonymous user accounts, disable root logins outside of localhost, and remove test databases:

    mysql_secure_installation

Create a MySQL Database

  1. Log into MySQL:

    mysql -u root -p

    Enter the root password. The MySQL prompt will appear.

  2. Create a database and a user with permissions for it. In this example the database is called webdata, the user webuser and password password:

    create database webdata;
grant all on webdata.* to 'webuser' identified by 'password';

  3. Exit MySQL:

    quit

With Apache and MySQL installed you are now ready to install PHP.

PHP

  1. Install PHP, and the PHP Extension and Application Repository:

    sudo apt-get install php5 php-pear

    If you need MySQL support, also install php5-mysql

    sudo apt-get install php5-mysql

  2. Once PHP5 is installed, tune the configuration file located in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini to enable more descriptive errors, logging, and better performance. The following modifications provide a good starting point:

    /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini 
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    error_reporting = E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR
error_log = /var/log/php/error.log
max_input_time = 30
    Note
    Ensure the lines above are uncommented. Commented lines begin with a semicolon (;).

  3. Create the log directory for PHP and give the Apache user ownership:

    sudo mkdir /var/log/php
sudo chown www-data /var/log/php

  4. Restart Apache:

    sudo service apache2 restart

Congratulations! You have now set up and configured a LAMP stack.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

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This guide is published under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.