We showed you how to install TYPO3 with Composer and Apache2 HTTP support a few days ago. This post shows you how to use the Nginx web server instead.
Students and new users looking for help installing the latest version of TYPO3 ( v9.4.0 ) from GitHub using Composer with Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP 7.2 support, the steps below should be a great place to start.
When you use Composer to install TYPO3 packages, you can easily upgrade from the command line with Composer, which is much simpler.
TYPO3 also has a built-in tool that allows web admins to upgrade easily. but it must be configured first, which may be intimidating for new users and students. So, installing and updating using simple commands may be a great option if you’re new.
To get started with installing TYPO3, follow the steps below:
Install Nginx HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Nginx HTTP Server is probably the second most popular web server, so install it since TYPO3 needs it.
To install Nginx HTTP on the Ubuntu 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
To test the Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address, and you should see the Nginx default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx is working as expected.
http://localhost

Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers for Magento. 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 18.04 and 18.10 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
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
Restart MariaDB server
Type the commands below to log on to the MariaDB server to test if MariaDB is installed.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then type the password you created above to sign on. If successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message.

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules.
PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. To install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.
Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM
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 and related modules.
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
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default config file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
Then save the changes on the following lines below in the file. The value below is an excellent setting to apply in your environment.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On short_open_tag = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0 max_execution_time = 360 max_input_vars = 1500 date.timezone = America/Chicago
After making the change above, save the file and closet.
After installing PHP and related modules, you must restart Nginx to reload PHP configurations.
To restart Nginx, run the commands below
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Create TYPO3 Database
Once you’ve installed all the packages required for TYPO3 to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank TYPO3database.
To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called typo3
CREATE DATABASE typo3;
Create a database user called typo3user with a new password
CREATE USER 'typo3user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON typo3.* TO 'typo3user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download TYPO3 Latest Release
To get TYPO3’s latest release, you may want to 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 TYPO3 packages from Github. Always replace the release number with the latest release.
cd /var/www/html
sudo composer create-project typo3/cms-base-distribution typo3 ^9
sudo touch /var/www/html/typo3/public/FIRST_INSTALL
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for TYPO3 to function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/typo3/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/typo3/
Configure Nginx
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for TYPO3. This file will control how users access TYPO3 content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called typo3
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/typo3
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;
root /var/www/html/typo3/public;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ @sfc;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
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 =/ {
recursive_error_pages on;
error_page 405 = @sfc;
return 405;
}
location @t3frontend {
try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
}
location @sfc {
error_page 405 = @t3frontend;
# Query String needs to be empty
if ($args != '') {
return 405;
}
# We can't serve static files for logged-in BE/FE users
if ($cookie_nc_staticfilecache = 'fe_typo_user_logged_in') {
return 405;
}
if ($cookie_be_typo_user != '') {
return 405;
}
# Ensure we redirect to TYPO3 for non GET/HEAD requests
if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD)$ ) {
return 405;
}
charset utf8;
try_files /typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache/${scheme}/${host}${uri}/index.html
/typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache/${scheme}/${host}${uri}
=405;
}
location /typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache {
deny all;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Enable the TYPO3
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/typo3 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Restart Nginx by running the commands below to load all the settings above.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the TYPO3 setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
http://example.com/
Then follow the on-screen instructions and select the installation language here.

Next, type the database username and password, then continue.

On the next screen, select the database you created above and continue.

Then create an admin account and the TYPO3 site info and finish the installation. After a brief moment, you should see your new site created.

Congratulation! You have successfully installed TYPO3 on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04, and it may work on 18.10.

In the future, when you want to upgrade to a newly released version, run the commands below to upgrade.
cd /var/www/html/typo3
sudo composer install
sudo composer require typo3/cms:^9.4 --update-with-dependencies
sudo composer require typo3/minimal
That’s it!