LAMP install on RHEL/CentOS
What is LAMP?
LAMP is an acronym that refers to various free and open source software that is often referred to as a stack. In general terms the acronym LAMP refers to:
Linux: The Linux Operating System
Apache: HTTP Web Server
MariaDB, MySQL or MongoDB: Database
PHP, Python or Perl: Scripting languages used for creating dynamic web page content
LAMP loosely defines which components comprise the stack, however, it is down to individual preferences/requirements as to which components you choose to make your stack.
All of the components needed should be available within your chosen Operating Systems repositories.
Linux Operating System
Linux is the Operating system. This can be any number of popular distributions. The most common within a LAMP stack are CentOS, Red Hat (RHEL), Debian and Ubuntu. In this example, I am using a RHEL 8 operating system.
For instructions on how to install the RHEL Operating System, follow the link: RHEL 8 Installation.
For instructions on how to install the CentOS Operating System, follow the link: CentOS 8 Installation.
For instructions on how to install the Ubuntu Operating System, follow the link: Ubuntu Server Installation.
For instructions on how to install the Debian Operating System, follow the link: Debian Installation.
Apache Web Server
To install the "Apache Web Server" on a RHEL 8 Server, follow the steps below:
To install an Apache web server, issue the following command on your server: "dnf install httpd -y"
# dnf install httpd -y
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:16:36 ago on Sun 30 May 2021 16:34:04 BST.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================================================================
Installing:
httpd x86_64 2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 1.4 M
Installing dependencies:
apr x86_64 1.6.3-11.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 125 k
apr-util x86_64 1.6.1-6.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 105 k
httpd-filesystem noarch 2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 38 k
httpd-tools x86_64 2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 106 k
mod_http2 x86_64 1.15.7-3.module+el8.4.0+8625+d397f3da rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 154 k
redhat-logos-httpd noarch 84.4-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 29 k
Installing weak dependencies:
apr-util-bdb x86_64 1.6.1-6.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 25 k
apr-util-openssl x86_64 1.6.1-6.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 27 k
Enabling module streams:
httpd 2.4
Transaction Summary
================================================================================================================================
Install 9 Packages
Total download size: 2.0 M
Installed size: 5.4 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/9): apr-util-openssl-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64.rpm 47 kB/s | 27 kB 00:00
(2/9): apr-util-bdb-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64.rpm 32 kB/s | 25 kB 00:00
(3/9): redhat-logos-httpd-84.4-1.el8.noarch.rpm 37 kB/s | 29 kB 00:00
(4/9): apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64.rpm 410 kB/s | 105 kB 00:00
(5/9): httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.noarch.rpm 174 kB/s | 38 kB 00:00
(6/9): apr-1.6.3-11.el8.x86_64.rpm 478 kB/s | 125 kB 00:00
(7/9): httpd-tools-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64.rpm 393 kB/s | 106 kB 00:00
(8/9): httpd-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64.rpm 2.6 MB/s | 1.4 MB 00:00
(9/9): mod_http2-1.15.7-3.module+el8.4.0+8625+d397f3da.x86_64.rpm 421 kB/s | 154 kB 00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 1.5 MB/s | 2.0 MB 00:01
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : apr-1.6.3-11.el8.x86_64 1/9
Running scriptlet: apr-1.6.3-11.el8.x86_64 1/9
Installing : apr-util-bdb-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 2/9
Installing : apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 3/9
Running scriptlet: apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 3/9
Installing : apr-util-openssl-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 4/9
Installing : httpd-tools-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 5/9
Running scriptlet: httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.noarch 6/9
Installing : httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.noarch 6/9
Installing : redhat-logos-httpd-84.4-1.el8.noarch 7/9
Installing : mod_http2-1.15.7-3.module+el8.4.0+8625+d397f3da.x86_64 8/9
Installing : httpd-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 9/9
Running scriptlet: httpd-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 9/9
Verifying : redhat-logos-httpd-84.4-1.el8.noarch 1/9
Verifying : apr-util-openssl-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 2/9
Verifying : apr-util-bdb-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 3/9
Verifying : apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 4/9
Verifying : apr-1.6.3-11.el8.x86_64 5/9
Verifying : httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.noarch 6/9
Verifying : httpd-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 7/9
Verifying : mod_http2-1.15.7-3.module+el8.4.0+8625+d397f3da.x86_64 8/9
Verifying : httpd-tools-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 9/9
Installed products updated.
Installed:
apr-1.6.3-11.el8.x86_64 apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
apr-util-bdb-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64 apr-util-openssl-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
httpd-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.noarch
httpd-tools-2.4.37-39.module+el8.4.0+9658+b87b2deb.x86_64 mod_http2-1.15.7-3.module+el8.4.0+8625+d397f3da.x86_64
redhat-logos-httpd-84.4-1.el8.noarch
Complete!
The Apache Web server is known on RHEL based systems as "httpd".
To make sure the Web Server is started automatically at system boot time, you must issue the following command:
systemctl enable httpd
# systemctl enable httpd
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/httpd.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.
# systemctl is-enabled httpd
enabled
To start the Web Server, you will need to issue the following command:
systemctl start httpd
# systemctl start httpd
# systemctl status httpd
● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2021-05-30 16:55:57 BST; 7s ago
Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
Main PID: 24581 (httpd)
Status: "Started, listening on: port 80"
Tasks: 213 (limit: 9188)
Memory: 30.9M
CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
├─24581 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─24582 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─24583 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─24584 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
└─24585 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
May 30 16:55:57 rhel08a systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
May 30 16:55:57 rhel08a httpd[24581]: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, us>
May 30 16:55:57 rhel08a systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
May 30 16:55:57 rhel08a httpd[24581]: Server configured, listening on: port 80
From the above we can see that the "httpd" service has been started. The status was displayed by issuing the following status command:
systemctl status httpd
configuration files
The main configuration files can be found under the following location: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf The main document area is located in the following path: /var/www/html
Install MariaDB
MariaDB is a fork of MySQL and is created by the founders of MySQL. To install MariaDB on a RHEL 8 server, issue the following command:
dnf install mariadb mariadb-server -y
MariaDB will be installed along with any dependencies.
# dnf install mariadb mariadb-server -y
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:41:38 ago on Sun 30 May 2021 16:34:04 BST.
Dependencies resolved.
=====================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=====================================================================================================================
Installing:
mariadb x86_64 3:10.3.28-1.module+el8.3.0+10472+7adc332a rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 6.0 M
mariadb-server x86_64 3:10.3.28-1.module+el8.3.0+10472+7adc332a rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 16 M
Installing dependencies:
mariadb-common x86_64 3:10.3.28-1.module+el8.3.0+10472+7adc332a rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 64 k
mariadb-connector-c x86_64 3.1.11-2.el8_3 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 200 k
..............
The above is only an extract of the full output.
Enabling and Starting MariaDB
Once you have successfully installed MariaDB and any dependencies, you will need to enable the service and start the service with the following commands:
Start MariaDB
systemctl start mariadb
Enable MariaDB to autostart at system start-up
systemctl enable mariadb
Verify mariaDB is running and enabled
systemctl status mariadb
# systemctl start mariadb
# systemctl enable mariadb
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/mysqld.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.
# systemctl status mariadb
● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.3 database server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2021-05-30 17:23:03 BST; 1min 6s ago
Docs: man:mysqld(8)
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
Main PID: 4388 (mysqld)
Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..."
Tasks: 30 (limit: 9188)
Memory: 84.0M
CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
└─4388 /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: See the MariaDB Knowledgebase at http://mariadb.com/kb or the
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: MySQL manual for more instructions.
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: Please report any problems at http://mariadb.org/jira
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: The latest information about MariaDB is available at http://mari>
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: You can find additional information about the MySQL part at:
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: http://dev.mysql.com
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: Consider joining MariaDB's strong and vibrant community:
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysql-prepare-db-dir[4284]: https://mariadb.org/get-involved/
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a mysqld[4388]: 2021-05-30 17:23:03 0 [Note] /usr/libexec/mysqld (mysqld 10.3.28-MariaDB) star>
May 30 17:23:03 rhel08a systemd[1]: Started MariaDB 10.3 database server.
Enabling Security
By default our MariaDB installation has no passwords set. To rectify this, we can run a special script called:
"mysql_secure_installation".
To secure your MariaDB, reply to the questions asked. Generally you only need to respond "y" to the first question asked "Set root password". All other questions you can press "Enter" to. Once you have responded to each question, you will have secured your MariaDB instance by removing anonymous user access, disabling remote root login and removing the test database and access to it.
# mysql_secure_installation
NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MariaDB
SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MariaDB to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user. If you've just installed MariaDB, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.
Enter current password for root (enter for none):
OK, successfully used password, moving on...
Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MariaDB
root user without the proper authorisation.
Set root password? [Y/n] y
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
... Success!
By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MariaDB without having to have a user account created for
them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]
... Success!
Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]
... Success!
By default, MariaDB comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]
- Dropping test database...
... Success!
- Removing privileges on test database...
... Success!
Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]
... Success!
Cleaning up...
All done! If you've completed all of the above steps, your MariaDB
installation should now be secure.
Thanks for using MariaDB!
Verify MariaDB access
To verify your access to the MariaDB, you can login with the following command:
mysql -u root -p
You will need to provide the password you created in the previous step to login.
# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 16
Server version: 10.3.28-MariaDB MariaDB Server
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)]> exit
Bye
Once you have logged in successfully, you issue the command "exit" to exit.
Install PHP
One of the most popular scripting languages used to create dynamic web pages is "PHP". To install the PHP language along with some popular modules issue the command below:
dnf install php php-mysqlnd php-common php-mbstring php-devel php-gd php-xml -y
Below is a partial extract of the output showing the packages being installed along with their dependencies.
# dnf install php php-mysqlnd php-common php-mbstring php-devel php-gd php-xml -y
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 1:14:08 ago on Sun 30 May 2021 16:34:04 BST.
Dependencies resolved.
=====================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=====================================================================================================================
Installing:
php x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 1.5 M
php-common x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 662 k
php-devel x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 712 k
php-gd x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 84 k
php-mbstring x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 580 k
php-mysqlnd x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 191 k
php-xml x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 189 k
Installing dependencies:
autoconf noarch 2.69-27.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 710 k
automake noarch 1.16.1-7.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 713 k
cpp x86_64 8.4.1-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 10 M
gcc x86_64 8.4.1-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 23 M
gcc-c++ x86_64 8.4.1-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 12 M
gd x86_64 2.2.5-7.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 144 k
glibc-devel x86_64 2.28-151.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 1.0 M
glibc-headers x86_64 2.28-151.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 478 k
isl x86_64 0.16.1-6.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 841 k
jbigkit-libs x86_64 2.1-14.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 55 k
kernel-headers x86_64 4.18.0-305.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 7.1 M
libXpm x86_64 3.5.12-8.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 58 k
libjpeg-turbo x86_64 1.5.3-10.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 156 k
libmpc x86_64 1.1.0-9.1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 61 k
libstdc++-devel x86_64 8.4.1-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 2.0 M
libtiff x86_64 4.0.9-18.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 188 k
libtool x86_64 2.4.6-25.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 709 k
libwebp x86_64 1.0.0-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 273 k
libxcrypt-devel x86_64 4.1.1-4.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 25 k
m4 x86_64 1.4.18-7.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 223 k
nginx-filesystem noarch 1:1.14.1-9.module+el8.0.0+4108+af250afe rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 24 k
pcre-cpp x86_64 8.42-4.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 47 k
pcre-devel x86_64 8.42-4.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 551 k
pcre-utf16 x86_64 8.42-4.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 195 k
pcre-utf32 x86_64 8.42-4.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms 186 k
perl-Thread-Queue noarch 3.13-1.el8 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 24 k
php-cli x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 3.1 M
php-pdo x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 123 k
Installing weak dependencies:
php-fpm x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.2.0+4601+7c76a223 rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms 1.6 M
Enabling module streams:
nginx 1.14
php 7.2
Transaction Summary
=====================================================================================================================
Install 36 Packages
Total download size: 71 M
Installed size: 186 M
Once the above packages have been installed successfully, you will need to issue the following commands:
Start php-fpm
systemctl start php-fpm
Enable php-fpm
systemctl enable php-fpm
Verify Status php-fpm
systemctl status php-fpm
[root@rhel08a ~]# systemctl start php-fpm
[root@rhel08a ~]# systemctl enable php-fpm
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/php-fpm.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/php-fpm.service.
[root@rhel08a ~]# systemctl status php-fpm
● php-fpm.service - The PHP FastCGI Process Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/php-fpm.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2021-05-30 17:54:11 BST; 40s ago
Main PID: 5319 (php-fpm)
Status: "Processes active: 0, idle: 5, Requests: 0, slow: 0, Traffic: 0req/sec"
Tasks: 6 (limit: 9188)
Memory: 14.4M
CGroup: /system.slice/php-fpm.service
├─5319 php-fpm: master process (/etc/php-fpm.conf)
├─5320 php-fpm: pool www
├─5321 php-fpm: pool www
├─5322 php-fpm: pool www
├─5323 php-fpm: pool www
└─5324 php-fpm: pool www
May 30 17:54:11 rhel08a systemd[1]: Starting The PHP FastCGI Process Manager...
May 30 17:54:11 rhel08a systemd[1]: Started The PHP FastCGI Process Manager.
php-fm allows you tu run secure, fast, dependable PHP code on your Apache Web Server.
Test PHP with Apache Web Server
Before we actually carry out a test, we will need to restart the Apache Web Server with the following command:
systemctl restart httpd
If you are running SELinux, then you will also need to issue the following command:
setsebool -P httpd_execmem 1
The above command instructs SELinux to allow Apache to run php-fm instructions
To Test that PHP is working correctly we can create a test file that when executed will display information relating to the current version of PHP.
Create a file named /var/www/html/test.php with the following phpinfo() function inside php quotes:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
To test the file that we have just created, we need to type the ip address along with our test file name into a web browser of your choice. In this example the IP address is 192.168.122.7.
So we enter: 192.168.122.7/test.php
