How To Install Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP)

Published 17 november, 2013 | By Tuncay Sahin

This document describes the entire process of installing and configuring a LAMP server. LAMP stack is a group of open source software used to get websites with databases running.

Install Linux

First get a server with already running Linux. This document is based on CentOS. The linux installation part is taken care of. Here is how to install the rest.

Install Apache

Apache is a free open source software which runs web servers.

To install apache	yum install httpd
To start Apache	service httpd start systemctl start httpd
Set Apache to automatically start on boot	chkconfig httpd on systemctl enable httpd

Install MySQL

MySQL is a database management system.

To install MySQL	yum install mysql-server
To start MySQL	service mysqld start systemctl start mysqld
To start MySQL automatically on system startup	chkconfig mysqld on systemctl enable mysqld
To set a password for the MySQL root user.	mysqladmin -u root password ‘new-password’
Or run wizard to set a MySQL root password. This will guide you through a wizard. Say Yes to all the options.	/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

Install PHP

PHP is an open source web scripting language that is widely used to build dynamic webpages.

To install PHP

yum install php php-mysql

PHP Modules

PHP also has a variety of useful libraries and modules that you can add onto your server.

Show the available libraries	yum search php-
For more information about a module	yum info name of the module
To install a module	yum install name of the module

You can install multiple libraries at once by separating the name of each module with a space.

PHP-info page on your Apache Server

Although LAMP is installed on your virtual server, we can still take a look and see the components online by creating a quick php info page.

To set this up, first create a new file	vi /var/www/html/info.php
Press Insert-key and type the following code	<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Save and exit by pressing the Escape-key	!q
Restart apache to take changes effect	service httpd restart
Finish up by visiting your php-info page	http://your_server_ip/info.php

To Install the LAMP stack at once

Run the following command	yum groupinstall “Web Server” “PHP Support” “MySQL Database server” “MySQL Database client”
Add PHP-MySQL support	yum install php-mysql

Configure iptables (firewall)

Make sure the firewall does not block access to port 80

Edit the iptables config file	vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Allow http traffic	Below the :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0] line, add -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -p tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT
Restart firewall	service iptables restart

Install phpmyadmin (optional)

phpMyAdmin is a powerful tool for manipulating MySQL databases.

Change directory to your documentroot	cd /var/www/html
Download phpMyAdmin	wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin/4.0.1/phpMyAdmin-4.0.1-english.zip?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.phpmyadmin.net%2Fhome_page%2Fdownloads.php&ts=1369351562&use_mirror=heanet
Unzip phpMyAdmin	unzip phpMyAdmin-3.5.6-english.zip
Rename directory	mv phpMyAdmin-3.5.6-english phpmyadmin
Remove the zip-file	rm -f phpMyAdmin-3.5.6-english.zip
Now you can browse to:	http:///phpmyadmin
Add blowfish_secret for security	cd phpmyadmincp config.sample.inc.php config.inc.php vim config.inc.php Add a secret key to $cfg[‘blowfish_secret’] so it looks like below: $cfg[‘blowfish_secret’] = ‘your-secret-key’;

Add virtual hosts to Apache

Virtual hosts allow multiple web sites to be served from a single Apache installation.

The virtual hosts can be added to the end of the Apache configuration file (/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf).

Here is an example configuration with two web hosts:

# Ensure that Apache listens on port 80 and name-based virtual hosting is enabled.
Listen 80
NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /www/example1
ServerName www.domain1.com
# Other directives here
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /www/example2
ServerName www.domain2.org
# Other directives here
</VirtualHost>

Setting permissions for PHP sites

Secure your site by setting the correct permissions on your DocumentRoot:

Set Apache user as the owner for your DocumentRoot	chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/yoursite
Modify permissions	chmod -R 400 /var/www/html/yoursite chmod -R a+X /var/www/html/yoursite

In some cases your PHP site requires write access in some folders. For example WordPress sites requires write access into the /wp-content folder to could install plugings, themes or updates.

Provide write permissions to WordPress

chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/yoursite/wp-content

Configure PHP (optional)

By default PHP is preconfigured, but you may customize some setttings.

Edit the PHP configuration file	vi /etc/php.ini
Increase the maximum upload file size	upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size restriction	post_max_size = 128M
Increase the memory limit	memory_limit = 256M
Increase the maximum execution and input time	max_execution_time = 300
maximum time to wait for POST and GET data	max_input_time = 300
Restart httpd to activate the changes	service httpd restart

Posted in ICT Knowledgebase, Linux (RHEL / CentOS)

Tuncay Sahin

ICT Engineer | Docent ICT & Trainer