### Introduction A "LAMP" stack is a group of open source software that is typically installed together in order to enable a server to host dynamic websites and web apps written in PHP. This term is an acronym which represents the **L**inux operating system, with the **A**pache web server. The site data is stored in a **M**ySQL database, and dynamic content is processed by **P**HP. In this guide, you’ll set up a LAMP stack on an Ubuntu 20.04 server. ## Prerequisites In order to complete this tutorial, you will need to have an Ubuntu 20.04 server with a non-root `sudo`-enabled user account and a basic firewall. This can be configured using our [initial server setup guide for Ubuntu 20.04](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/initial-server-setup-with-ubuntu-20-04). ## Step 1 — Installing Apache and Updating the Firewall The Apache web server is among the most popular web servers in the world. It's well documented, has an active community of users, and has been in wide use for much of the history of the web, which makes it a great choice for hosting a website. Start by updating the package manager cache. If this is the first time you're using `sudo` within this session, you'll be prompted to provide your user's password to confirm you have the right privileges to manage system packages with `apt`. ```command sudo apt update ``` Then, install Apache with: ```command sudo apt install apache2 ``` You'll also be prompted to confirm Apache's installation by pressing `Y`, then `ENTER`. Once the installation is finished, you'll need to adjust your firewall settings to allow HTTP traffic. UFW has different application profiles that you can leverage for accomplishing that. To list all currently available UFW application profiles, you can run: ```command sudo ufw app list ``` You'll see output like this: ``` [secondary_label Output] Available applications: <^>Apache<^> <^>Apache Full<^> <^>Apache Secure<^> OpenSSH ``` Here's what each of these profiles mean: - **Apache**: This profile opens only port `80` (normal, unencrypted web traffic). - **Apache Full**: This profile opens both port 80 (normal, unencrypted web traffic) and port 443 (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic). - **Apache Secure**: This profile opens only port `443` (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic). For now, it's best to allow only connections on port `80`, since this is a fresh Apache installation and you still don't have a TLS/SSL certificate configured to allow for HTTPS traffic on your server. To only allow traffic on port `80`, use the `Apache` profile: ```command sudo ufw allow in "Apache" ``` You can verify the change with: ```command sudo ufw status ``` ``` [secondary_label Output] Status: active To Action From -- ------ ---- OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere <^>Apache ALLOW Anywhere<^> OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6) <^>Apache (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)<^> ``` Traffic on port `80` is now allowed through the firewall. You can do a spot check right away to verify that everything went as planned by visiting your server's public IP address in your web browser (see the note under the next heading to find out what your public IP address is if you do not have this information already): ``` http://<^>your_server_ip<^> ``` You'll see the default Ubuntu 20.04 Apache web page, which is there for informational and testing purposes. It should look something like this: ![Ubuntu 20.04 Apache default](https://assets.digitalocean.com/articles/how-to-install-lamp-ubuntu-18/small_apache_default_1804.png) If you see this page, then your web server is now correctly installed and accessible through your firewall. ### How To Find your Server's Public IP Address If you do not know what your server's public IP address is, there are a number of ways you can find it. Usually, this is the address you use to connect to your server through SSH. There are a few different ways to do this from the command line. First, you could use the `iproute2` tools to get your IP address by typing this: ```command ip addr show eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2; }' | sed 's/\/.*$//' ``` This will give you two or three lines back. They are all correct addresses, but your computer may only be able to use one of them, so feel free to try each one. An alternative method is to use the `curl` utility to contact an outside party to tell you how *it* sees your server. This is done by asking a specific server what your IP address is: ```command curl http://icanhazip.com ``` Regardless of the method you use to get your IP address, type it into your web browser's address bar to view the default Apache page. ## Step 2 — Installing MySQL Now that you have a web server up and running, you need to install the database system to be able to store and manage data for your site. MySQL is a popular database management system used within PHP environments. Again, use `apt` to acquire and install this software: ```command sudo apt install mysql-server ``` When prompted, confirm installation by typing `Y`, and then `ENTER`. When the installation is finished, it's recommended that you run a security script that comes pre-installed with MySQL. This script will remove some insecure default settings and lock down access to your database system. Start the interactive script by running: ```command sudo mysql_secure_installation ``` This will ask if you want to configure the `VALIDATE PASSWORD PLUGIN`. <$>[note] **Note:** Enabling this feature is something of a judgment call. If enabled, passwords which don't match the specified criteria will be rejected by MySQL with an error. It is safe to leave validation disabled, but you should always use strong, unique passwords for database credentials. <$> Answer `Y` for yes, or anything else to continue without enabling. ``` VALIDATE PASSWORD PLUGIN can be used to test passwords and improve security. It checks the strength of password and allows the users to set only those passwords which are secure enough. Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD plugin? Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No: ``` If you answer “yes”, you'll be asked to select a level of password validation. Keep in mind that if you enter `2` for the strongest level, you will receive errors when attempting to set any password which does not contain numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and special characters, or which is based on common dictionary words. ``` There are three levels of password validation policy: LOW Length >= 8 MEDIUM Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, and special characters STRONG Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, special characters and dictionary file Please enter 0 = LOW, 1 = MEDIUM and 2 = STRONG: <^>1<^> ``` Regardless of whether you chose to set up the `VALIDATE PASSWORD PLUGIN`, your server will next ask you to select and confirm a password for the MySQL **root** user. This is not to be confused with the **system root**. The **database root** user is an administrative user with full privileges over the database system. Even though the default authentication method for the MySQL root user dispenses the use of a password, **even when one is set**, you should define a strong password here as an additional safety measure. We'll talk about this in a moment. If you enabled password validation, you'll be shown the password strength for the root password you just entered and your server will ask if you want to continue with that password. If you are happy with your current password, enter `Y` for "yes" at the prompt: ``` Estimated strength of the password: <^>100<^> Do you wish to continue with the password provided?(Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : <^>y<^> ``` For the rest of the questions, press `Y` and hit the `ENTER` key at each prompt. This will remove some anonymous users and the test database, disable remote root logins, and load these new rules so that MySQL immediately respects the changes you have made. When you're finished, test if you're able to log in to the MySQL console by typing: ```command sudo mysql ``` This will connect to the MySQL server as the administrative database user **root**, which is inferred by the use of `sudo` when running this command. You should see output like this: ``` [secondary_label Output] Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 22 Server version: 8.0.19-0ubuntu5 (Ubuntu) Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 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> ``` To exit the MySQL console, type: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) exit ``` Notice that you didn't need to provide a password to connect as the **root** user, even though you have defined one when running the `mysql_secure_installation` script. That is because the default authentication method for the administrative MySQL user is `unix_socket` instead of `password`. Even though this might look like a security concern at first, it makes the database server more secure because the only users allowed to log in as the **root** MySQL user are the system users with sudo privileges connecting from the console or through an application running with the same privileges. In practical terms, that means you won't be able to use the administrative database **root** user to connect from your PHP application. Setting a password for the **root** MySQL account works as a safeguard, in case the default authentication method is changed from `unix_socket` to `password`. For increased security, it's best to have dedicated user accounts with less expansive privileges set up for every database, especially if you plan on having multiple databases hosted on your server. <$>[note] **Note:** At the time of this writing, the native MySQL PHP library `mysqlnd` [doesn't support](https://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdo-mysql.php) `caching_sha2_authentication`, the default authentication method for MySQL 8. For that reason, when creating database users for PHP applications on MySQL 8, you'll need to make sure they're configured to use `mysql_native_password` instead. We'll demonstrate how to do that in [Step 6](#step-6-—-testing-database-connection-from-php-$optional$). <$> Your MySQL server is now installed and secured. Next, we'll install PHP, the final component in the LAMP stack. ## Step 3 — Installing PHP You have Apache installed to serve your content and MySQL installed to store and manage your data. PHP is the component of our setup that will process code to display dynamic content to the final user. In addition to the `php` package, you’ll need `php-mysql`, a PHP module that allows PHP to communicate with MySQL-based databases. You'll also need `libapache2-mod-php` to enable Apache to handle PHP files. Core PHP packages will automatically be installed as dependencies. To install these packages, run: ```command sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql ``` Once the installation is finished, you can run the following command to confirm your PHP version: ```command php -v ``` ``` [secondary_label Output] PHP 7.4.3 (cli) (built: Jul 5 2021 15:13:35) ( NTS ) Copyright (c) The PHP Group Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v7.4.3, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies ``` At this point, your LAMP stack is fully operational, but before you can test your setup with a PHP script, it's best to set up a proper [Apache Virtual Host](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/vhosts/) to hold your website's files and folders. We'll do that in the next step. ## Step 4 — Creating a Virtual Host for your Website When using the Apache web server, you can create _virtual hosts_ (similar to server blocks in Nginx) to encapsulate configuration details and host more than one domain from a single server. In this guide, we'll set up a domain called **your_domain**, but you should **replace this with your own domain name**. <$>[note] **Note**: In case you are using DigitalOcean as DNS hosting provider, you can check our [product docs](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/networking/dns/how-to/manage-records/#a-records) for detailed instructions on how to set up a new domain name and point it to your server. <$> Apache on Ubuntu 20.04 has one server block enabled by default that is configured to serve documents from the `/var/www/html` directory. While this works well for a single site, it can become unwieldy if you are hosting multiple sites. Instead of modifying `/var/www/html`, we'll create a directory structure within `/var/www` for the **your_domain** site, leaving `/var/www/html` in place as the default directory to be served if a client request doesn't match any other sites. Create the directory for **your_domain** as follows: ```command sudo mkdir /var/www/<^>your_domain<^> ``` Next, assign ownership of the directory with the `$USER` environment variable, which will reference your current system user: ```command sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/<^>your_domain<^> ``` Then, open a new configuration file in Apache's `sites-available` directory using your preferred command-line editor. Here, we'll use `nano`: ```command sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/<^>your_domain<^>.conf ``` This will create a new blank file. Paste in the following bare-bones configuration: ``` [label /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_domain.conf] ServerName <^>your_domain<^> ServerAlias www.<^>your_domain<^> ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/<^>your_domain<^> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined ``` Save and close the file when you're done. If you're using `nano`, you can do that by pressing `CTRL+X`, then `Y` and `ENTER`. With this `VirtualHost` configuration, we're telling Apache to serve `<^>your_domain<^>` using `/var/www/<^>your_domain<^>` as the web root directory. If you'd like to test Apache without a domain name, you can remove or comment out the options `ServerName` and `ServerAlias` by adding a `#` character in the beginning of each option's lines. You can now use `a2ensite` to enable the new virtual host: ```command sudo a2ensite <^>your_domain<^> ``` You might want to disable the default website that comes installed with Apache. This is required if you're not using a custom domain name, because in this case Apache's default configuration would overwrite your virtual host. To disable Apache's default website, type: ```command sudo a2dissite 000-default ``` To make sure your configuration file doesn't contain syntax errors, run: ```command sudo apache2ctl configtest ``` Finally, reload Apache so these changes take effect: ```command sudo systemctl reload apache2 ``` Your new website is now active, but the web root `/var/www/<^>your_domain<^>` is still empty. Create an `index.html` file in that location so that we can test that the virtual host works as expected: ```command nano /var/www/<^>your_domain<^>/index.html ``` Include the following content in this file: ``` [label /var/www/your_domain/index.html] <^>your_domain<^> website

Hello World!

This is the landing page of <^>your_domain<^>.

``` Now go to your browser and access your server's domain name or IP address once again: ``` http://<^>server_domain_or_IP<^> ``` You'll see a page like this: ![Apache virtual host test](https://assets.digitalocean.com/articles/lemp_ubuntu2004/landing_page.png) If you see this page, it means your Apache virtual host is working as expected. You can leave this file in place as a temporary landing page for your application until you set up an `index.php` file to replace it. Once you do that, remember to remove or rename the `index.html` file from your document root, as it would take precedence over an `index.php` file by default. ### A Note About `DirectoryIndex` on Apache With the default `DirectoryIndex` settings on Apache, a file named `index.html` will always take precedence over an `index.php` file. This is useful for setting up maintenance pages in PHP applications, by creating a temporary `index.html` file containing an informative message to visitors. Because this page will take precedence over the `index.php` page, it will then become the landing page for the application. Once maintenance is over, the `index.html` is renamed or removed from the document root, bringing back the regular application page. In case you want to change this behavior, you'll need to edit the `/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf` file and modify the order in which the `index.php` file is listed within the `DirectoryIndex` directive: ```command sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf ``` ``` [label /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf] DirectoryIndex <^>index.php<^> index.html index.cgi index.pl index.xhtml index.htm ``` After saving and closing the file, you'll need to reload Apache so the changes take effect: ```command sudo systemctl reload apache2 ``` In the next step, we'll create a PHP script to test that PHP is correctly installed and configured on your server. ## Step 5 — Testing PHP Processing on your Web Server Now that you have a custom location to host your website's files and folders, we'll create a PHP test script to confirm that Apache is able to handle and process requests for PHP files. Create a new file named `info.php` inside your custom web root folder: ```command nano /var/www/<^>your_domain<^>/info.php ``` This will open a blank file. Add the following text, which is valid PHP code, inside the file: ```php [label /var/www/your_domain/info.php] server_domain_or_IP<^>/info.php ``` You'll see a page similar to this: ![Ubuntu 20.04 PHP info](https://assets.digitalocean.com/articles/lamp_ubuntu2004/phpinfo.png) This page provides information about your server from the perspective of PHP. It is useful for debugging and to ensure that your settings are being applied correctly. If you can see this page in your browser, then your PHP installation is working as expected. After checking the relevant information about your PHP server through that page, it's best to remove the file you created as it contains sensitive information about your PHP environment and your Ubuntu server. You can use `rm` to do so: ```command sudo rm /var/www/<^>your_domain<^>/info.php ``` You can always recreate this page if you need to access the information again later. ## Step 6 — Testing Database Connection from PHP (Optional) If you want to test whether PHP is able to connect to MySQL and execute database queries, you can create a test table with dummy data and query for its contents from a PHP script. Before we can do that, we need to create a test database and a new MySQL user properly configured to access it. At the time of this writing, the native MySQL PHP library `mysqlnd` [doesn't support](https://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdo-mysql.php) `caching_sha2_authentication`, the default authentication method for MySQL 8. We'll need to create a new user with the `mysql_native_password` authentication method in order to be able to connect to the MySQL database from PHP. We'll create a database named **example\_database** and a user named **example\_user**, but you can replace these names with different values. First, connect to the MySQL console using the **root** account: ```command sudo mysql ``` To create a new database, run the following command from your MySQL console: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) CREATE DATABASE <^>example_database<^>; ``` Now you can create a new user and grant them full privileges on the custom database you've just created. The following command creates a new user named `<^>example_user<^>`, using `mysql_native_password` as default authentication method. We're defining this user's password as `<^>password<^>`, but you should replace this value with a secure password of your own choosing. ```custom_prefix(mysql>) CREATE USER '<^>example_user<^>'@'%' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '<^>password<^>'; ``` Now we need to give this user permission over the `example_database` database: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) GRANT ALL ON example_database.* TO 'example_user'@'%'; ``` This will give the **example\_user** user full privileges over the **example\_database** database, while preventing this user from creating or modifying other databases on your server. Now exit the MySQL shell with: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) exit ``` You can test if the new user has the proper permissions by logging in to the MySQL console again, this time using the custom user credentials: ```command mysql -u <^>example_user<^> -p ``` Notice the `-p` flag in this command, which will prompt you for the password used when creating the **example\_user** user. After logging in to the MySQL console, confirm that you have access to the **example\_database** database: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) SHOW DATABASES; ``` This will give you the following output: ``` [secondary_label Output] +--------------------+ | Database | +--------------------+ | <^>example_database<^> | | information_schema | +--------------------+ 2 rows in set (0.000 sec) ``` Next, we'll create a test table named **todo_list**. From the MySQL console, run the following statement: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) CREATE TABLE <^>example_database<^>.<^>todo_list<^> ( item_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT, content VARCHAR(255), PRIMARY KEY(item_id) ); ``` Insert a few rows of content in the test table. You might want to repeat the next command a few times, using different values: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) INSERT INTO <^>example_database<^>.<^>todo_list<^> (content) VALUES ("<^>My first important item<^>"); ``` To confirm that the data was successfully saved to your table, run: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) SELECT * FROM <^>example_database<^>.<^>todo_list<^>; ``` You'll see the following output: ``` [secondary_label Output] +---------+--------------------------+ | item_id | content | +---------+--------------------------+ | 1 | My first important item | | 2 | My second important item | | 3 | My third important item | | 4 | and this one more thing | +---------+--------------------------+ 4 rows in set (0.000 sec) ``` After confirming that you have valid data in your test table, you can exit the MySQL console: ```custom_prefix(mysql>) exit ``` Now you can create the PHP script that will connect to MySQL and query for your content. Create a new PHP file in your custom web root directory using your preferred editor. We'll use `nano` for that: ```command nano /var/www/<^>your_domain<^>/<^>todo_list.php<^> ``` The following PHP script connects to the MySQL database and queries for the content of the **todo_list** table, exhibiting the results in a list. If there's a problem with the database connection, it will throw an exception. Copy this content into your `todo_list.php` script: ```php [label /var/www/your_domain/todo_list.php] example_user<^>"; $password = "<^>password<^>"; $database = "<^>example_database<^>"; $table = "<^>todo_list<^>"; try { $db = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=$database", $user, $password); echo "

TODO

" . $row['content'] . "

"; } catch (PDOException $e) { print "Error!: " . $e->getMessage() . "
"; die(); } ``` Save and close the file when you're done editing. You can now access this page in your web browser by visiting the domain name or public IP address configured for your website, followed by `/todo_list.php`: ``` http://<^>your_domain_or_IP<^>/todo_list.php ``` You should see a page like this, showing the content you've inserted in your test table: ![Example PHP todo list](https://assets.digitalocean.com/articles/lemp_debian10/todo_list.png) That means your PHP environment is ready to connect and interact with your MySQL server. ## Conclusion In this guide, we've built a flexible foundation for serving PHP websites and applications to your visitors, using Apache as web server and MySQL as database system. As an immediate next step, you should ensure that connections to your web server are secured, by serving them via HTTPS. In order to accomplish that, you can use [Let's Encrypt](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-apache-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-20-04) to secure your site with a free TLS/SSL certificate.

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