This article describes the steps to install Drupal CMS with Nginx and Varnish proxy support on Ubuntu Linux.
Drupal performs great with caching proxy servers like Varnish. The steps below are a good place to start when looking for an easy way to speed up your Drupal websites.
When dealing with high-traffic Drupal websites or blogs, you may want to implement a caching mechanism to speed up the sites.
One of the popular proxy servers that are also caching servers is Varnish. If you want to build a fast Drupal site with lots of web traffic, setting up Varnish as a proxy caching server will go a long way.
How to install Drupal CMS with Nginx and Varnish support on Ubuntu Linux
As described above, Drupal performs great with caching proxy servers like Varnish. The steps below are a good place to start when looking for an easy way to speed up your Drupal websites.
Below is how to do that on Ubuntu Linux.
Install Nginx
To install Nginx, run the commands below.
sudo apt update sudo apt install nginx
Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop nginx.service sudo systemctl start nginx.service sudo systemctl enable nginx.service
Install Varnish
Now that Nginx is installed run the commands below to install Varnish
sudo apt-get install varnish
After installing Varnish, the commands below can be used to start, stop and enable Varnish always to start up when the server boots
sudo systemctl stop varnish.service sudo systemctl start varnish.service sudo systemctl enable varnish.service
Switch port to 8080
Nginx listens on port 80 by default. However, since we want Varnish to listen for all traffic coming to port 80, let’s configure Nginx to use another port number.
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
Then make the highlighted change below.
server {
listen 8080 default_server;
listen [::]:8080 default_server;
root /var/www/html/wordpress;
Save the file and exit.
After that, run the commands below to disable the Nginx default site.
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
Then restart Nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Now Nginx default site is disabled.
Install MariaDB
To install MariaDB run the commands below
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service always to start up when the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- 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
Install PHP 7.1-FPM and Related Modules
PHP 7.1 isn’t available on Ubuntu’s default repositories. So to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.
Run the commands below to add the below third-party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.1
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.1
sudo apt update
Run the commands below to install PHP 7.1 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.1-fpm php7.1-common php7.1-mbstring php7.1-xmlrpc php7.1-soap php7.1-gd php7.1-xml php7.1-intl php7.1-mysql php7.1-cli php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-zip php7.1-curl
After installing PHP 7.1, run the commands below to open the FPM PHP default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini
Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is an excellent setting to apply in your environment.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0 date.timezone = America/Chicago
Create Drupal Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages are installed, run the commands below to create a blank Drupal database.
Login to the MariaDB database server
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called drupal
CREATE DATABASE drupal;
Create a database user called drupaluser with a new password
CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON drupal.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download Drupal Latest Release
Next, visit the Drupal site and download the latest package. Or run the commands below to download and extract Drupal content.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file and move it into a new Drupal root directory.
cd /tmp && cd /tmp && wget https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-8.4.2.tar.gz tar -zxvf drupal*.gz sudo mv drupal-8.4.2 /var/www/html/drupal
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Drupal to function correctly.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/drupal/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/drupal/
Configure the Nginx server block
Finally, configure the Nginx server block configuration file for Drupal. This file will control how users access Drupal content.
Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called drupal
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/drupal
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.
server {
listen 8080;
listen [::]:8080;
root /var/www/html/drupal;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
}
location @rewrite {
rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1;
}
location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/styles/ { # For Drupal >= 7
try_files $uri @rewrite;
}
location ~ ^(/[a-z\-]+)?/system/files/ { # For Drupal >= 7
try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Enable the server block
After configuring the server block above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/drupal /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Restart Nginx by running the commands below to load all the settings above.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Configure Varnish to use port 80
Now that port 80 is free let’s configure Varnish to use that post instead. To assign port 80 to Varnish, run the commands below.
Varnish default configure file is located at /etc/default/varnish
Open it by running the commands below:
sudo nano /etc/default/varnish
Then look for the config block under Alternative 2 and make the highlighted changes as shown below.
## Alternative 2, Configuration with VCL
#
# Listen on port 6081, administration on localhost:6082, and forward to
# one content server selected by the vcl file, based on the request.
#
DAEMON_OPTS="-a :80 \
-T localhost:6082 \
-f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
-S /etc/varnish/secret \
-s malloc,256m"
Save the file when you’re done.
Next, run the commands below to open the default.vcl file
sudo nano /etc/varnish/default.vcl
Then add the highlighted lines shown below under sub vcl_recv and sub vcl_backend_response
# Default backend definition. Set this to point to your content server.
backend default {
.host = "127.0.0.1";
.port = "8080";
}
sub vcl_recv {
if (req.url ~ "^/status\.php$" ||
req.url ~ "^/update\.php" ||
req.url ~ "^/install\.php" ||
req.url ~ "^/apc\.php$" ||
req.url ~ "^/admin" ||
req.url ~ "^/admin/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^/user" ||
req.url ~ "^/user/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^/users/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^/info/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^/flag/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^.*/ajax/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^.*/ahah/.*$" ||
req.url ~ "^/system/files/.*$") {
return (pass);
}
if (req.url ~ "(?i)\.(pdf|asc|dat|txt|doc|xls|ppt|tgz|csv|png|gif|jpeg|jpg|ico|swf|css|js)(\?.*)?$") {
unset req.http.Cookie;
}
if (req.http.Cookie) {
set req.http.Cookie = ";" + req.http.Cookie;
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "; +", ";");
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, ";(SESS[a-z0-9]+|SSESS[a-z0-9]+|NO_CACHE)=", "; \1=");
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, ";[^ ][^;]*", "");
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "^[; ]+|[; ]+$", "");
if (req.http.Cookie == "") {
unset req.http.Cookie;
}
else {
return (pass);
}
}
sub vcl_backend_response {
if (bereq.url ~ "(?i)\.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico)(\?.*)?$") {
unset beresp.http.set-cookie;
}
}
Save the file and close.
When you’re done, restart Varnish and Nginx.
sudo systemctl start nginx.service sudo systemctl start varnish.service
Next, run the commands below to start Varnish if it won’t start.
sudo /usr/sbin/varnishd -a :80 -b localhost:8080
After that, open your browser and browse your domain name to launch the WordPress configuration wizard.
http://example.com
And you should see the WordPress setup wizard.
Follow the wizard until you’ve successfully set up WordPress.
That’s it!
