How to Install Drupal with Nginx and Cloudflare on Ubuntu

Setting up Cloudflare

Setting up Cloudflare protects your website and makes it load faster. You’ll need to sign up or log in at their website, add your domain name, and then choose their free plan. Cloudflare will then check your domain’s settings.

If you already have an account, log in. Click the button to add a new site. https://dash.cloudflare.com/sign-up

Type in your domain name.

Cloudflare will look for your domain settings.

Select the free plan option.

Cloudflare will give you two “nameservers.” You must go to the website where you bought your domain name (like Google Domains) and replace their current nameservers with the ones Cloudflare provided.

Wait for the changes to take effect. This can take up to an hour.

Once your status says “Active,” go to the “Crypto” tab. Turn on “Full (strict) SSL” to keep your connection secure.

Scroll down to “Origin Certificates” and create a certificate.

Follow the steps to generate a private key and certificate.

sudo nano /etc/ssl/private/cloudflare_key_example.com.pem

sudo nano /etc/ssl/certs/cloudflare_example.com.pem

Download the Cloudflare Origin Pull certificate from this link: Set up authenticated Origin pulls · Cloudflare SSL docs

Run these commands to create the final security file:

sudo nano /etc/ssl/certs/origin-pull-ca.pem

You should now have three files on your server. Make sure “Always Use HTTPS” is turned on in your Cloudflare settings.

Installing Drupal and Nginx

To get your Drupal site working, you first need to install Nginx, which is a common web server software for Ubuntu. You can install it using simple commands in your terminal. After installing, you can start, stop, and enable Nginx to run automatically when your server starts.

First, install the Nginx web server:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Use these commands to manage the service:

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Test if it works by visiting your server’s address in a web browser.

Installing the Database

Drupal needs a place to store all its information, and MariaDB is a good choice for this on Ubuntu. Installing it is straightforward using the apt package manager. Once installed, you can manage the MariaDB service to ensure it’s running correctly.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

Enable the service:

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Secure the database with a password:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the prompts to set a password and remove test settings. Test the connection:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Installing PHP

Drupal is built using the PHP programming language, so you need to install PHP and its required add-ons on your server. This involves adding a special software source and then installing the specific PHP version and modules Drupal needs to function properly.

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

sudo apt update

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

Open the configuration file to make sure it works well with Drupal:

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Restart Nginx to apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Create a test file to verify PHP is working:

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

Visit your site in a browser to see the test page.

Creating the Drupal Database

Log into your database and create a space for Drupal:

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE drupal;

CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

GRANT ALL ON drupal.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Downloading Drupal

To download Drupal, you can use a helpful tool called Composer, which manages PHP files for your project. First, you’ll install Composer itself using a simple command. Then, you’ll use it to download the latest Drupal version into the correct folder on your server.

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Download the latest version and set file permissions:

cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone --branch 8.6.0 https://git.drupal.org/project/drupal.git example.com
cd /var/www/html/example.com
sudo composer install

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/example.com/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/example.com/

Configuring Nginx and Finishing Up

The last step to make your Drupal site live is to configure Nginx. This involves creating a special file that tells Nginx how to handle requests for your website, including which folder your Drupal files are in and how to manage secure connections.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/html/example.com;
    index  index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/cloudflare_example.com.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/cloudflare_key_example.com.pem;
    ssl_client_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/origin-pull-ca.pem;
    ssl_verify_client on;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

    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/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/styles/ {
               try_files $uri @rewrite;
        }

    location ~ ^(/+)?/system/files/ {
        try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
        }
}

Enable the site and restart Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Visit your domain in your browser to start the Drupal setup wizard. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish.

Don’t forget to install the Cloudflare module: https://www.drupal.org/project/cloudflare

To upgrade in the future, use this command:

sudo composer update /var/www/html/example.com/core --with-dependencies
cd /var/www/html/example.com
sudo composer require drush/example.com
cd /var/www/html/example.com/vendor/drush/drush
./drush updatedb
./drush cr

Summary

This guide has walked you through installing Drupal with Nginx and Cloudflare on Ubuntu, covering everything from securing your site with Cloudflare to setting up Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP. Your Drupal site is now ready to go live.

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