How to Install LEMP on Ubuntu Linux

How to install Ubuntu Linux

You install Ubuntu Linux by booting from a USB installation drive and following the on-screen setup wizard to partition your hard drive and create your user account. Before you start building a web server, complete the installation and run the command sudo apt update in your terminal to grab the latest software lists and security updates.

A Linux machine serves as the initial requirement for LEMP configuration. Users can install Ubuntu Linux by following the detailed steps provided in a separate guide.

Once Ubuntu is installed, run the commands below to update it.

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

There are lots of other settings and configurations to apply that apply to Ubuntu. However, the post is only concerned with installing 💿 LEMP.

How to install Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

You install Nginx (a fast web server that handles visitor requests) on Ubuntu by running the command sudo apt install nginx in your terminal after updating your package lists. This downloads and sets up the web server automatically, allowing you to host web pages and begin building your LEMP stack.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up when the server starts.

sudo systemctl stop nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

To see if Nginx is installed, open a web browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address.

http://localhost

If you see the above Nginx welcome page, it means Nginx is installed and functioning.

How to install MariaDB on Ubuntu Linux

You install MariaDB (a reliable database system that stores your website data) on Ubuntu by running the command sudo apt install mariadb-server in your terminal. This downloads the database software you need for your LEMP stack, replacing older MySQL packages with a fully open-source database server.

For this post, we will install MariaDB instead of MySQL.

To install MariaDB, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mariadb-server

After installing, you can run the commands below to view the MariaDB service status.

sudo systemctl status mariadb

After running the command above, it should output similar lines.

mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.3.31 database server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2021-09-15 16:40:20 CDT; 22s ago
       Docs: man:mysqld(8)
             https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
   Main PID: 3007 (mysqld)
     Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..."
      Tasks: 31 (limit: 4651)
     Memory: 65.6M
     CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
             └─3007 /usr/sbin/mysqld

Sep 15 16:40:20 ubuntu2004 /etc/mysql/debian-start[3045]: mysql
Sep 15 16:40:20 ubuntu2004 /etc/mysql/debian-start[3045]: performance_schema

MariaDB and MySQL have a script allowing you to perform security operations.

Run the commands below to invoke the script and perform some recommended tasks to secure the database.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

MariaDB and MySQL servers have the root user set to use the auth_socket authentication method by default.

The auth_socket plugin authenticates users that connect from the local host through the Unix socket file. You can't authenticate as a root by providing a password.

Simply run the command below to log on to MariaDB and MySQL servers as root. You don't need a password since it's using the auth_socket method.

To log on to MariaDB, run the commands below.

sudo mysql

The server console should come up.

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 8
Server version: 8.0.26-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or 'h' for help. Type 'c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> 

How to install PHP on Ubuntu Linux

You install PHP on Ubuntu by installing PHP-FPM (a processor that helps Nginx run dynamic code) along with the common server extensions using your terminal. Because Nginx does not handle PHP files on its own, adding PHP-FPM connects the web server to the programming language so your dynamic websites work properly.

Nginx doesn't have built-in support for processing PHP files and is not tightly integrated as Apache. To add PHP support for Nginx, you must install and use PHP-FPM (FastCGI process manager) to handle the PHP files.

If you're using the Nginx web server, the commands below are used to install PHP.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php-fpm

Because PHP isn't tightly integrated with Nginx, if you make changes to PHP, you must restart or reload PHP and Nginx separately for the changes to apply.

sudo systemctl restart php-fpm
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Also, you must add these lines to the Nginx server block to allow Nginx to read PHP files. Remember to use the version of PHP installed and reference it in the highlighted line below.

server {

    location ~ .php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock;
    }
}

To install the latest PHP versions unavailable in the Ubuntu repository, run the commands below to install a third-party PPA repository that includes multiple versions of PHP.

At the time of this writing, the latest version of PHP is 8.0.

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

After adding the repository above, you can then install another PHP version.

sudo apt install php8.0 php8.0-common php8.0-cli php8.0-gd php8.0-curl php8.0-mysql

That should do it!

For more on LEMP, read individual posts on the LEMP components

• How to install Ubuntu Linux
• How to install Nginx
• How to install MariaDB or MySQL
• How to install PHP

Conclusion:

This guide explains installing the LEMP stack on Ubuntu Linux. Users can report errors or add information using the comment form below the guide.