How to Setup Siberian CMS with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

Recently we showed you how to install Siberian CMS with Apache2 support. For those who want to run it with the Nginx HTTP server, the steps below should help them get there.

Siberian CMS is a smooth, open-source, and user-friendly content management system (CMS) for agencies. You can use it to build apps and manage your content on your servers.

If you are looking for a simple CMS system that is easy to install, simple to maintain, and flexible, then you should be looking at Siberian.

With Siberian, you get a platform with a feature-rich editor and a user-friendly admin portal to manage your users and create as many roles as needed from a customizable and powerful administrative dashboard.

For more about Siberian, please check their Homepage

To get started with installing Siberian, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server

Siberian requires a web server, and the Nginx HTTP server is the most popular open-source web server available today. To install the Nginx server, run the commands below:

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 with the server boots.

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

Now that Nginx is installed open your browser and browse to the URL below to test whether the web server is working.

http://localhost

If you see the page above, then Nginx is successfully installed.

Install MariaDB Database Server

Siberian also requires a database server to store its content. MariaDB is a great place to start if you’re looking for a genuinely open-source database server. To install MariaDB run the commands below:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

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

Run these on Ubuntu 18.10 and 18.04 LTS

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

Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation.

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

Once MariaDB is installed, run the commands below to test whether the database server was successfully installed.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Type the root password when prompted.

The server was successfully installed if you see a similar screen as shown above.

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules

Siberian is a PHP-based CMS, and PHP is required. However, PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To run PHP 7.2-FPM on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:

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

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.

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

After installing PHP 7.2-FPM, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default configuration file.

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

The lines below are a good setting for most PHP-based CMS. Update the configuration file with these and save.

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

You should restart the Nginx web server whenever you make changes to the PHP configuration file. To do so, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Once PHP is installed, create a test file called phpinfo.php in the Nginx default root directory. ( /var/www/html/)

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

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Next, open your browser and browse to the server’s hostname or IP address, followed by phpinfo.php

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see the PHP default test page.

Create Siberian CMS Database

Once you’ve installed all the packages required for Siberian to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank Siberian database.

To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called Siberian

CREATE DATABASE siberian;

Create a database user called siberianuser with a new password

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

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON siberian.* TO 'siberianuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download Siberian Latest Release

To get the latest Siberian release, you may use the GitHub repository… Install Composer, Curl, and other dependencies to get started…

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

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download Siberian packages from GitHub…

cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone https://github.com/Xtraball/SiberianCMS.git

Next, run the commands below to set the correct permissions for the Siberian root directory and give Nginx control.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/SiberianCMS/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/SiberianCMS/

Configure Nginx

Finally, configure the Nginx site configuration file for Siberian. This file will control how users access Siberian content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called siberian

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/siberian

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 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/html/SiberianCMS/siberian;
    index  index.php;
    
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

    location / {
        try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
      }

    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 ~ ^/app/configs {
        deny all;
        }
}

Save the file and exit.

Enable the Siberian

After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.

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

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the Siberian setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://example.com

Then follow the on-screen instruction to complete the setup. Finally, select the arrow pointing right to continue.

On the database connection page, type in the database user and password you created above and continue.

Next, create an admin account and continue.

Create your first app and complete the installation.

After that, installation should be complete and the site ready to use.

Congratulation! You have successfully installed Siberian CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04.

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