How to install ProcessWire with Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04

Install Nginx HTTP server on Ubuntu

Nginx web server installation on Ubuntu 24.04 provides the core HTTP service required to run your ProcessWire site. You can install Nginx using the standard Ubuntu package manager by opening your terminal and running the package update and installation commands. This sets up the default web server directories needed to host your ProcessWire files.

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

http://localhost

When you see "Welcome to nginx!" the Nginx HTTP server has been 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

MariaDB database server installation on Ubuntu 24.04 gives ProcessWire a reliable place to store pages, user accounts, and site settings. You install MariaDB through the Ubuntu terminal using the apt package manager. Once installed, you run the built-in security script to remove unsafe default settings and set a root password.

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 ProcessWire database

Creating a dedicated ProcessWire database in MariaDB ensures your website has a secure, isolated space for all content. You create the database and a new database user by logging into the MariaDB command-line interface and running standard SQL commands. Granting the user full privileges on this specific database allows the ProcessWire installer to complete setup.

As part of the setup, we will create a database named 'processwiredb' and a corresponding user account called' processwiredbuser. '

Finally, we'll grant the processwiredbuser full access to the processwiredb database.

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

Install PHP-FPM on Ubuntu

PHP-FPM (PHP FastCGI Process Manager) handles PHP code execution for ProcessWire on your Nginx web server. You install PHP-FPM along with required PHP extensions on Ubuntu 24.04 using a single terminal command. These extensions ensure ProcessWire can process images, connect to your database, and handle XML data properly.

Run the commands below to install PHP-FPM.

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

Additional help on installing PHP

How to install PHP on Ubuntu Linux

Download ProcessWire files

Downloading ProcessWire files directly to your Ubuntu server places the CMS code where Nginx can serve it to visitors. You download the official zip archive from GitHub into your server temporary directory, extract the contents, and move them to your web root folder. Setting the correct file ownership ensures Nginx can read and write the files without permission errors.

After unzipping the file, move the content into the ProcessWire folder in the Nginx root directory.

The final step is to change the permissions. This will allow the Nginx web server to safely interact with the files, ensuring a secure environment for your ProcessWire installation.

cd /tmp/
wget https://github.com/processwire/processwire/archive/master.zip
sudo unzip master.zip
sudo mv processwire-master /var/www/processwire

After extracting ProcessWire content, you download a site profile. Site profiles can be found at the link below.

ProcessWire site profiles

Before ProcessWire version 3.0.191, site profiles were included with the ProcessWire core software. Developers moved these site profiles out of the core to make the core download smaller. You can now download the site profiles separately.

Download a site profile you want to use from the link above. Then, extract and copy the site profile files into the ProcessWire directory in your web root. Replace the name part of site-name with the name of the profile, i.e. site-regular or site-languages, etc.

Run the command below to download the default beginner's site profile. Unzip the file and copy it to the ProcessWire root folder.

wget https://github.com/processwire/site-beginner/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
unzip main.zip
sudo cp -rf site-beginner-main /var/www/processwire/site-benginner
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/processwire/

Once all the steps are done, configure the Nginx webserver to serve the ProcessWire content.

Run the commands below to create a Nginx server block for ProcessWire.

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

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

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/processwire;
    index  index.php;
    server_name  processwire.example.com www.processwire.example.com;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?it=$uri&$args;        
    }

  
    location ~ .php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }

}

Save the file.

You enable the ProcessWire virtual host by running the commands `sudo a2ensite processwire.conf` and then restart the Nginx server with `sudo systemctl restart nginx`. This action makes your ProcessWire website accessible through Nginx.

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

Setup Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS for ProcessWire

Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate setup secures your ProcessWire site with HTTPS encryption for all visitor traffic. You generate and install the free certificate on your Ubuntu 24.04 server using the Certbot utility with the Nginx plugin. This tool automatically requests the certificate, updates your Nginx configuration, and sets up automatic renewals.

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

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.

http://processwire.example.com

A ProcessWire installation wizard page should appear. Click on Get Started to start the installation.

Next, select the installation profile and continue.

On the next screen, check to see if all requirements are met and continue.

Next, enter the database name, account, and password and continue.

Next, type in the admin account, email address, and password on the next screen.

Your ProcessWire site should be set up and ready to use.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

• Installation of ProcessWire on Ubuntu with Nginx support provides high performance, stability, and low resource consumption.
• Nginx's built-in caching, load balancing, and reverse proxying support significantly enhance ProcessWire's overall performance and reliability.
• The ease of configuration and security features make Nginx an ideal choice for hosting ProcessWire websites.
• Following the outlined steps, you can successfully set up a secured ProcessWire site on Ubuntu with Nginx support.