How to install Magento with Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04

Install Nginx HTTP server on Ubuntu Linux

Installing Nginx on Ubuntu is the first step to running your Magento site. You can install the Nginx web server by opening the Ubuntu terminal and running the update and install commands.

To do that, open the Ubuntu terminal and run the commands below to install the Nginx web server.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Once Nginx is installed, the commands below can start, stop, and enable the Nginx web server to start automatically when your server boots up.

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

You test that the Nginx web server is running by opening your web browser and browsing to the server’s localhost or IP address.

http://localhost

When you see the Welcome to nginx! page means the Nginx HTTP server has been successfully installed.

Additional help on installing Nginx on Ubuntu is in the link below.

How to install Nginx on Ubuntu

Install MariaDB database server on Ubuntu Linux

Magento needs a database to store product and customer information, so installing MariaDB on Ubuntu is essential. You can install the MariaDB database server by opening the Ubuntu terminal and running the update and install commands.

To install and use the MariaDB database server, use the instructions below.

Open the Ubuntu terminal and run the commands below to install the MariaDB database server.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mariadb-server

Once the MariaDB database server is installed, use the commands below to stop, start, and enable the MariaDB server to start automatically when the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

Run the following commands to validate and test if the MariaDB database server is installed successfully.

sudo mariadb

Once you run the commands above, it will log you onto the MariaDB console and display a message similar to the one below.

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 32
Server version: 10.11.2-MariaDB-1 Ubuntu 23.04

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

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

MariaDB [(none)]> 

The message tells you that the server is installed successfully.

Additional help on installing MariaDB.

• How to install MariaDB on Ubuntu Linux
• MariaDB without password prompt

Create a Magento database

After setting up MariaDB, you must create a specific database named ‘magentodb’ to hold all your Magento content and data. This database is the main storage for your Magento application, making its creation a significant step in the setup process.

The Magento database acts as the central storage for all Magento application content and data, making the database a critical component of the setup process.

As part of the setup, we will create a database named ‘magentodb ‘and a corresponding user account named ‘magentodbuser ‘.

The magentodbuser account receives full permissions for the magentodb database to ensure Magento can properly manage your store's data.

All the database steps above can be done using the commands below:

But first, log on to the MariaDB database server:

sudo mariadb

Then run the commands below to complete the steps:

CREATE DATABASE magentodb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
CREATE USER magentodbuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'type_your_password_here';
GRANT ALL ON magentodb.* TO magentodbuser@localhost WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

Install PHP on Ubuntu Linux

Magento requires specific PHP versions and extensions to function correctly, so installing them on Ubuntu is essential. You can install the necessary PHP components by running the provided command in your terminal.

Run the commands below to install PHP.

sudo apt install php-fpm php-intl php-mysql php-curl php-cli php-zip php-gd php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-json php-sqlite3 php-zip php-soap php-bcmath php-xml

Additional help on installing PHP

How to install PHP on Ubuntu Linux

Download Magento files

After completing the initial setup, you need to download the Magento files using Composer, which helps manage software dependencies. First, install Composer by running commands to get curl and git, then use the provided installer command.

Run the command below to install these packages and start installing Magento.

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

To create authentication keys:

Log in to the Commerce Marketplace. If you don’t have an account, click Register. Click your account name in the top right of the page and select My Profile.

Click Access Keys in the Marketplace tab.

Click Create a New Access Key. Enter a specific name for the keys and click OK.

You can click to copy the new public and private keys associated with your account. Save this information or keep the page open when working on your project.

Use the Public key as your username and the Private key as your password.

With your Access key handy, please change it to the Nginx root directory. Then, run the command below to clone the Magento project and create a new site. Name the site “magento” or whatever you want to call it.

cd /var/www/
sudo composer create-project --repository=https://repo.magento.com/ magento/project-community-edition magento

Copy and paste the authentication key. (Your public key is your username; your private key is your password).

Enter the Username (your Access public key) and Password (your Access private key) from your marketplace account.

Output:
Authentication required (repo.magento.com):
Username: 234f2343435d190983j0ew8u3220
Password: 
Do you want to store credentials for repo.magento.com in /opt/magento/.config/composer/auth.json ? [Yn] Y

After downloading Magento packages, run the commands below to install Magento with the following options:

cd /var/www/magento
sudo bin/magento setup:install --base-url-secure=https://magento.example.com/ --db-host=localhost --db-name=magentodb --db-user=magentodbuser --db-password=db_user_password_here --admin-firstname=Admin --admin-lastname=User --admin-email=admin@example.com --admin-user=admin --admin-password=admin123 --language=en_US --currency=USD --timezone=America/Chicago

• The Magento software is installed in the root directory on localhost. Admin is admin; Your storefront URL is https://magento.examaple.com
• The database server is on the same localhost as the webserver.
• The database name is magentodb, and the magentodbuser and password are db_user_password_here.
• Uses server rewrites
• The Magento administrator has the following properties:
  • First and last name are: Admin User
  • Username is: admin
•  and the password is admin123
• E-mail address is: admin@example.com
• Default language is: (U.S. English)
• Default currency is: U.S. dollars
• Default time zone is: U.S. Central (America/Chicago)

During the installation, text will move quickly up the screen. When it is done, you will see a message similar to the one below.

[Progress: 1448 / 1448]
[SUCCESS]: Magento installation complete.
[SUCCESS]: Magento Admin URI: /admin_f97ul2i
Nothing to import.

If you encounter trouble installing Elasticsearch, read the article below to learn how to install It on Ubuntu.

How to install Elasticsearch on Ubuntu Linux

Ensure the Elasticsearch service is started.

Correct permissions, a crontab, and Magento indexing are essential for Magento's smooth operation. Run the commands below to set these permissions and generate the necessary crontab, ensuring Magento can process data efficiently.

Finally, clear the cache of your Magento installation.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/magento/
sudo -u www-data bin/magento cron:install
sudo -u www-data bin/magento cron:run --group index
sudo -u www-data bin/magento cache:clean

Configure Nginx for Magento

Configuring Nginx on Ubuntu is the next crucial step after downloading Magento files to ensure your site displays correctly. You will create a Nginx virtual host file for Magento and then copy the necessary configuration content into it.

Run the commands below to create a Nginx virtual host file for Magento.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento.conf

Then, copy and paste the content block below into the Nginx server block.

upstream fastcgi_backend {
server unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    index  index.php;
    server_name  magento.example.com www.magento.example.com;

    set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/magento;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com-error.log;

    include /var/www/magento/nginx.conf.sample;

}

Save the file.

Nginx server blocks are configurations that tell Nginx how to handle requests for different websites. Run the following commands to enable the Nginx server block for your Magento installation and then restart the Nginx server so it recognizes the new configuration.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Setup Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS for Magento

Setting up a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with Nginx makes your Magento site secure with HTTPS, which helps build customer trust. This involves using the Certbot Nginx plugin after installation to automatically configure the certificate.

Please read the post below for additional resources on installing and creating Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for Nginx.

How to set up Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

After installing, the Certbot Nginx plugin automatically configures the Nginx server block file /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento.conf with HTTPS.

Once you have restarted the Nginx web server, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address defined in the Nginx server block.

https://magento.example.com

Magento default welcome page will appear.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

Conclusion:

• 💿 Installing Magento with Nginx support on Ubuntu 24.04 can significantly improve performance, resource utilization, and user experience.
• Integrating Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP creates a robust foundation for efficiently hosting a Magento application.
• The steps for setting up databases, creating a Magento database, 💿 installing PHP, ⬇️ downloading Magento files, and configuring Nginx are comprehensive and well-documented.
• The addition of Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS provides an essential layer of security for the Magento installation.
• For any errors or additional information, the comments section is open for further discussion and support.