Linux

How to Install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 18.04

lampstack-feature-lamp-stack-ubuntu

The LAMP stack is a collection of open-source tools for developing web applications. An operating system, a web server, a database, and a programming language are all required for a web application to function. For a database-driven and dynamic website, each layer of software is critical. In this guide, I will walk you through how to install each of the components as it is important that we install each component of the stack separately. You can view similar guides from here: How to Configure Advanced PAM in Linux/ and How to locate directory file context and restore it with SELinux/ also differences between dnf and apt package managers/ and How to create and deliver a report on System Utilization on a Linux based OS

The acronym LAMP stands for the following programs:

Linux which is a free and open-source operating system.
Apache which is an HTTP Server 
MySQL which is a relational database management system.
PHP which is a scripting language. Please also take a look at this guide: How to setup and configure a lamp stack on CentOS.

Requirements

Ubuntu user with sudo rights in Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver
The ability to use a terminal/command line
The apt package manager, which comes pre-installed in Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions.

Step 1: Update Package Repository Cache

Update the package repository cache to guarantee that the software is installed with the most recent versions. To do so, enter the command below.

sudo apt update

Step 2: Install Apache

Run the following command in the terminal to install Apache:

sudo apt install apache2

Hit y which means yes & enter on your keyboard when prompted

apache-2
apache 2

It is alright but just to be sure we will run another command to check the status

sudo service apache2 status
status

Next, type the following command to see if the UFW firewall has an application profile for Apache:

sudo ufw app info "Apache Full"
ports
ports

To know how if our installation works, we need to run the local IP address and specify the port highlighted above. We can get the IP by running the command.

curl http://icanhazip.com
ipaddress
how to get ip
apache2
apache 2

Step 3: Install MySQL and Create a Database

sudo apt install MySQL-server

To check if our MySQL-server has been installed, run the following commands below

#systemctl start MySQL. Service
#systemctl status MySQL. Service
mysql
MySQL running

Step 4: Install PHP

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql 
php
php set up

The next step is to change how Apache serves files when directories are needed. Apache scans for a file card named index.html by default. Rather than searching for the index.html file, we want it to look for the index.php file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf
index
dir.conf

The command we ran gave us the output above, we need to swap the position of index.html and index.php so that index.php is number 2. After the swap we save and close the file.

index.php_
dir.conf

Press CTRL + X to save and close the file. Press y and ENTER to confirm.

Step 5: Restart Apache

We need to restart the Apache service for the modifications to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 6: Test PHP Processing on Web Server

Create a simple PHP script and save it in the “web root” folder. This is required for Apache to correctly locate and serve the file. /var/www/html/ is the location of this directory.

Type the following command to generate a file in that directory:

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

This opens an empty nano file

empty-nano-file
empty nano file

We need to type in the PHP code below:

<?php
phpinfo ();
?>

 Press CTRL + X to save and close the file. Press y and ENTER to confirm.

To confirm that our lamp stack is working, Open a browser and type in your IP address/info.php

NOTE: only the IP address of the VM will make this work so run ip addr show in terminal and copy the ip.

info.php_
php

Summary

If you followed along with congratulations, we have installed the LAMP stack by installing each of the components individually and this is especially important for web development.

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