Install Magento on Ubuntu 16.04

Updated Tuesday, November 5, 2019 by Phil Zona Written by Linode

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In this guide you’ll learn how to install Magento on Ubuntu 16.04. Magento Community Edition (CE) is a free, open-source e-commerce platform. It’s one of the most popular solutions for self-hosted online stores due to its simple yet powerful admin panel and large developer community.

Considering the resources some Magento plugins demand, we strongly recommend that you have at least a Linode 4GB. You’ll need to allocate up to 2GB of memory for PHP and Magento to use; running Magento on a smaller Linode may result in server crashes or unreliability under medium to heavy traffic. For more memory-intensive Magento setups, we recommend using a high memory Linode.

Note
This guide explains how to install the latest Magento release at the time of publication. For the Community Edition, this will be version 2.1.x. If you plan to use data, themes, and extensions from an older Magento site, be sure to check for compatibility issues between the two versions since not everything may function as it did in older releases.

Before You Begin

Familiarize yourself with our Getting Started guide and complete the steps for setting your Linode’s hostname and timezone.
Complete the sections of our Securing Your Server guide to create a standard user account, harden SSH access and remove unnecessary network services.
Magento runs on a LAMP stack, and this guide assumes you have already installed and configured Apache, MySQL and PHP. If you haven’t, refer to our LAMP on Ubuntu 16.04 guide. Be aware that there are known compatibility issues with PHP 7.0.5, so check your version with php -v before proceeding.

Update your system:

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

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.

Prepare Your Server for Magento

In addition to the standard LAMP stack software in our guide, Magento requires a few extra dependencies. To install them:

sudo apt-get install php7.0-common php7.0-gd php7.0-mcrypt php7.0-curl php7.0-intl php7.0-xsl php7.0-mbstring php7.0-zip php7.0-iconv mysql-client

Configure Apache

Since Magento will be served by Apache, some additional configuration is needed to ensure the application is served properly. In this section, we’ll configure Apache for Magento to ensure that styles and other settings display properly in your storefront.

Confirm you’re using Apache version 2.4:
```
apache2 -v
```
If this shows version 2.2 or another version, upgrade Apache before proceeding.
Enable the Apache rewrite module:
```
sudo a2enmod rewrite
```

Modify the virtual host file for your Magento site to resemble the example below. If you have not previously created a virtual host file, do so now and refer to the Configure Virtual Hosts section of the LAMP on Ubuntu 16.04 guide for additional guidance.

/etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

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<Directory /var/www/html/example.com/public_html>
    Require all granted
</Directory>
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com/public_html

    ErrorLog /var/www/html/example.com/logs/error.log
    CustomLog /var/www/html/example.com/logs/access.log combined

    <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/public_html>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

The Directory block inside the Virtual Host block should point to the directory where you plan to install Magento. For simplicity, we will be installing it in our web root, but if you want to put it elsewhere (e.g., a subdirectory of your web root), modify this setting.

It’s important to note the value of AllowOverride as this affects which settings in each directory’s .htaccess file will apply and which will be ignored. If you’re not sure if the All option is optimal for your site, refer to the Apache documentation for more information on this setting.

If you haven’t already, enable your site:
```
sudo a2ensite example.com
```
Replace example.com with the name of your site’s virtual host.
Restart Apache to apply these changes:
```
sudo systemctl restart apache2
```

Create a MySQL Database and User

If you previously installed a LAMP stack using our guide, you should already have set up MySQL root login credentials. If not, you’ll need to go back and do so before proceeding.

Log into the MySQL shell as the root user, entering your password when prompted:
```
mysql -u root -p
```
Create a Magento database and user, and set the permissions. In this example, we’ll call our database and user magento, Replace P@ssword1 with a secure password. You may optionally replace the other values as well:
```
CREATE DATABASE magento;
CREATE USER 'magento' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON magento.* TO 'magento';
```
This section assumes that your database is hosted on the same server as your Magento application. If this is not the case, perform these steps and then refer to Magento’s guide on using a remote database server.
Exit the MySQL shell:
```
quit
```

Configure PHP

Magento is a PHP application, so you’ll need to make some adjustments to your system’s PHP settings.

Modify the following settings in your php.ini files for the CLI and Apache PHP configurations. These files can be found at /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini and /etc/php/7.0/cli/php.ini:

It is necessary to modify both files. This sets the time zone for PHP’s date() function and imposes a 2GB limit to the amount of memory PHP can use. This value is recommended for a 4GB Linode, but could be increased for a larger server.

Note
The value for date.timezone will vary based on your system’s time zone. Refer to the PHP time zone documentation and ensure this value matches the time zone you set when you configured your Linode.
Optional: You may want to take this opportunity to create a phpinfo.php page to ensure that PHP is active and working properly with Apache:
/var/www/html/example.com/public_html/phpinfo.php
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<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Once you’ve visited this page in your browser and confirmed that PHP is working, delete the test page.

Install Magento

Download Magento Community Edition

In this section, we’ll explain how to get the Magento Community Edition (CE) software on your Linode. There are several ways to do this, but here we’ll cover the simplest method.

On your local computer, download a copy of Magento from their official website. Several versions are available, but we recommend downloading the latest release. As of this writing, the latest version is 2.1.2:

Next to your selected version, there will be a dropdown menu that says “Select your format.” Choose the option ending with the .tar.gz extension and click Download. Be sure to note where you saved the downloaded file.

In this step, you’ll also be able to download the software with optional sample data. Whether you choose this or the basic version is up to you.

Note
When choosing a version, refer to Magento’s prerequisites to ensure a particular version’s compatibility with the components of your LAMP stack. As of the publication of this guide, Magento version 2.1.2 is compatible with all prerequisite package versions from the Ubuntu repositories.
From your local computer, copy the file to your Linode. Replace /path/on/local/ with the path of your downloaded file, user with your standard user account on your Linode, and yourhost with your Linode’s hostname or IP address:
```
scp /path/on/local/Magento-CE-2.*.tar.gz user@yourhost:~/
```
Alternatively, you can use an FTP client, like Filezilla, if you’re running Windows or are otherwise unable to use a command-line tool like scp.
Log into your Linode via SSH as your standard user account. Navigate to the document root you specified in your virtual host file:
```
cd /var/www/html/example.com/public_html
```
Extracting the archive directly into your webroot, as you’ll do in the next step, will make it accessible as the main page on your domain. For instance, if your domain is example.com, the Magento storefront will display when you visit example.com in your browser.

If you want to run a Magento store as a subsection of your site, move and extract the archive in a directory within your webroot. For instance, if you intend to make your site accessible by visiting example.com/store, create the subdirectory /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/store and navigate to that directory before proceeding to the next step.
Move the Magento archive into your document root and extract its contents:
```
sudo mv ~/Magento-CE-2.*.tar.gz .
sudo tar -xvf Magento-CE-2.*.tar.gz
```

Configure Users and Permissions

Create a Magento user, which will run the software. For simplicity, call this user magento:
```
sudo useradd magento
```
Next, add the Magento user to the web server’s user group. For Apache, the default user is www-data:
```
sudo usermod -g www-data magento
```
The commands in this step should be run from your Magento installation directory (where you extracted the archive). If you are not still in that directory, navigate there before proceeding.

Run these commands in order:
```
sudo find var vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type f -exec chmod g+w {} \;
sudo find var vendor pub/static pub/media app/etc -type d -exec chmod g+ws {} \;
sudo chown -R magento:www-data .
sudo chmod u+x bin/magento
```
This allows your magento user (and members of the www-data group) to write to the various files they need to run and serve Magento on your site.

Note
The first two commands may take some time to run because they are matching various files and directories in your installation folder. It may appear that the system is inactive, but be sure to allow a couple minutes before cancelling the operations. You can always start a new SSH connection, or run these commands in a screen session, and use tools like htop & iotop to monitor progress.
Restart Apache:
```
sudo systemctl restart apache2
```

Install Magento CE

Switch to the magento user and navigate to the bin directory in your Magento installation folder:
```
sudo su magento
cd bin
```
Run the Magento installation script with the following options:
```
./magento setup:install --admin-firstname="John" --admin-lastname="Doe" --admin-email="your@email.com" --admin-user="john" --admin-password="password1" --db-name="magento" --db-host="localhost" --db-user="magento" --db-password="password"
```
Replace the values in the options as follows:
- admin-firstname / admin-lastname - This will set the full name of your admin user. Replace these with your name if you’ll be the administrator.
- admin-email - This is your email for resetting passwords and receiving admin notifications.
- admin-user / admin-password - These are your login credentials for the Magento admin control panel. Be sure to set a secure password here and store it in a safe place. Note that the Magento script requires you to use both letter and number characters in your password, and will return an error if you do not.
- db-name - This is the name of the database you set up in MySQL. In our example, we called it magento, but if you chose a different value, substitute it here.
- db-host - If you’re running Magento on the same server as its database, use localhost here. If not, this value will be the hostname of the server on which your database lives.
- db-user - This is the MySQL database user you set up previously. In our example, we called it magento but if you chose a different name, use that here instead.
- db-password - This will be the password you configured for the magento MySQL user.
Note
These are just a few of the available options to configure your Magento installation. For more information, refer to the Magento Installation Guide and feel free to use additional options when running the script.
The installation script may take several minutes to run. Once it’s finished, you’ll see a success message:
```
[SUCCESS]: Magento installation complete.
[SUCCESS]: Magento Admin URI: /admin_a61e40
```

Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed Magento on your Linode! You can log into your admin panel by entering your domain, followed by the “Magento Admin URI” displayed above, in a web browser. The admin-user and admin-password options you specified when running the installation script will be your credentials.

Exit from the magento user:
```
exit
```

Configure Magento

The dashboard is functional at this point, but you’ve still got work to do before the site is ready to use. In this section, we’ll explain how to set up cron jobs and secure the Magento software to be suitable for a live e-commerce site.

Set Cron Jobs

Magento relies on cron to perform tasks like continuously reindexing your site and generating emails and newsletters. If you logged into your admin panel, you may have noticed an error message saying that cron jobs needed to be set. Fortunately, the cron jobs Magento uses for a base installation are very easy to configure.

Open the crontab for your magento user. Perform this step as a user with sudo privileges:
```
sudo crontab -u magento -e
```
If this is your first time using cron, you’ll be prompted to select a text editor. If you don’t have a preference, select 2 to use nano.
Add the following lines to the end of the file, substituting your Magento installation directory in each:
```
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/bin/magento cron:run | grep -v "Ran jobs by schedule" >> /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/var/log/magento.cron.log
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/update/cron.php >> /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/var/log/update.cron.log
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/bin/magento setup:cron:run >> /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/var/log/setup.cron.log
```
The first line handles reindexing. The second and third lines are needed by the Component Manager and System Upgrade, respectively. The /usr/bin/php part of each line specifies your PHP binary. If you installed PHP using our LAMP stack guide, you can leave this value as we have shown it, but if you installed PHP by some other method, you can check its location with which php and substitute that value.

When you’re done, save and exit the file.
To verify that the rules have been set properly, log out of your Magento admin and log back in. If everything has been configured correctly, you should no longer see the notification.

For more information about setting up cron jobs for development servers and custom Magento modules, refer to the Magento Cron Documentation.

Configure X-Frame Options

We strongly recommend to disable the ability to display your Magento storefront in a frame to prevent clickjacking attacks. To do this, modify the following line in your env.php file:

/var/www/html/example.com/public_html/app/etc/env.php

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'x-frame-options' => 'DENY',

This prevents attackers from embedding your site in a frame (for example, on a malicious site that mimics your store) in an attempt to intercept payment and other sensitive customer information.

Set Directory Permissions

At a minimum, you should restrict write access to the app/etc directory before opening the site to customers. Run these commands from within your Magento installation directory:

sudo find app/etc -type f -exec chmod g-w {} \;
sudo find app/etc -type d -exec chmod g-ws {} \;

Depending on whether you install custom themes or extensions, you may need to do additional configuration. This will vary depending on what you have installed. Once you’re ready to deploy your site into production mode, refer to Magento’s ownership and permissions guide for a more comprehensive set of recommendations.

Note
If you need to make additional configuration changes in the future, you’ll need to manually add write permissions again before you can do so. For more information, see our guide on Linux users and groups.

Secure your Site with SSL

Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates are a vital part of e-commerce. They enable encrypted transmission of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, that can be verified and trusted by clients. In fact, some payment vendors such as PayPal, require SSL certificates to be used for customer transactions.

For instructions on how to use SSL certificates in your store, see our guides on obtaining a commercially signed SSL certificate and using SSL certificates with Apache.

Note
Many payment vendors that require SSL do not support self-signed certificates. Depending on how you handle payments, it is likely you will need to purchase a commercially signed certificate.

When you configure Apache to use the SSL certificate, if you installed Magento in a subdirectory of your site, and only want that section to be encrypted, make sure to modify your <VirtualHost *:443> block to match.

Once you’ve installed your SSL certificate and configured Apache to serve your site securely, you’ll need to configure Magento to use secure URLs.

Log into your Magento admin panel using the URL you obtained after running the installation script.
Click on Stores in the sidebar on the left of your screen, and select Configuration under the Settings submenu.
On the next screen, you’ll see a list of configuration settings including “General,” “Catalog,” and “Customers”. Click on General, and select Web from its submenu.
Select Base URLs (Secure), which will open to display several text fields. Modify the first field, Secure Base URL, to use the HTTPS protocol, as opposed to HTTP:
```
https://example.com
```
This assumes that you used /var/www/html/example.com/public_html as your Magento installation directory, as we did in our examples. If you installed Magento in a subdirectory of your web root, you will need to modify that here. For example, if you installed Magento in a folder called /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/magento, you’ll need to enter:
```
https://example.com/magento
```
Save your configuration.
To verify that SSL has been configured correctly, visit your domain with the HTTPS protocol in a web browser and navigate to a few links. You should see a green lock icon in your browser’s URL bar on each page, confirming that each page you (and your future customers) visit is secure.

Next Steps

If you’ve followed this guide from the beginning, you should now have a secure, functional installation of Magento. You’re now ready to configure your store and start selling products.

You may wish to install extensions to add functionality, or themes to change your site’s user experience. If you do, be sure that the extensions and themes you purchase or install are compatible with Magento 2.

You may also want to configure caching with Varnish or other software to increase the speed of your site. For more information on this and other configuration options, see Magento’s configuration guide.

Finally, be sure to keep your Magento software and its components up to date. Not only is this important to the security of your site, but it will also allow you to use the latest features and functions Magento has to offer. For more information, refer to the Magento upgrade documentation.

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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Install Magento on Ubuntu 16.04

Before You Begin

Prepare Your Server for Magento

Configure Apache

Create a MySQL Database and User

Configure PHP

Install Magento

Download Magento Community Edition

Configure Users and Permissions

Install Magento CE

Configure Magento

Set Cron Jobs

Configure X-Frame Options

Set Directory Permissions

Secure your Site with SSL

Next Steps

More Information

Join our Community

In This Guide:

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