LAMP Stack

Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP stack installation and configuration

0. Specs

0.0. The What

The LAMP stack is a popular open-source web development platform. The acronym stands for:

Linux (the operating system)
Apache (the web server)
MySQL/MariaDB (the database management system)
PHP/Perl/Python (the programming language for application logic)

It provides a robust foundation for building and hosting dynamic websites and web applications.

In this guide, we will use MariaDB as our database and PHP as our server-side scripting language.

0.1. Environment

Server Distro: Debian 12/13 or Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS Server

0.2. Sources

1. Install Packages

Update package repositories and install Apache:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install --yes apache2

Install MariaDB:

sudo apt install --yes mariadb-server

Run the security script to apply basic security settings to MariaDB:

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

You will be asked a series of questions. Here are recommended answers:

Enter current password for root (enter for none):
Press Enter as there is no password set yet.
Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n]
The root account is already protected on Debian/Ubuntu. You can answer n.
Change the root password? [Y/n]
For the same reason, you can answer n.
For the remaining questions (remove anonymous users, disallow root login remotely, remove test database, reload privilege tables), it is safe to accept the defaults by pressing Y.

Install PHP along with the necessary modules for Apache and MySQL/MariaDB integration:

sudo apt install --yes php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

Optional: Depending on your application (e.g., WordPress), you may need additional PHP extensions:

sudo apt install --yes php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-xmlrpc \
     php-soap php-intl php-zip

Restart Apache to load the PHP module:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

2. Test LAMP Stack

We will create a test database, add a table with sample data, and then create a PHP script to retrieve this data and display it in a web page.

2.1. Database Operations

Access the MariaDB shell:

sudo mariadb

Run the following commands within the MariaDB shell to create a database, a table, sample data, and a dedicated database user:

CREATE DATABASE mysampledb;
USE mysampledb;
CREATE TABLE Employees (Name CHAR(15), Age INT, Occupation CHAR(15));
INSERT INTO Employees VALUES ('Joe Smith', 26, 'Ninja');
INSERT INTO Employees VALUES ('John Doe', 33, 'Sleeper');
INSERT INTO Employees VALUES ('MariaDB Server', 14, 'RDBMS');
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mysampledb.* TO 'appuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

2.2. Create a Test PHP File

Create a new PHP file in the web server’s root directory:

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

Copy and paste the following content into the file:

<?php
   $mycon = new mysqli("localhost", "appuser", "password", "mysampledb");
   if ($mycon->connect_errno)
   {
      echo "Connection Error";
      exit();
   }
   $mysql = "SELECT * FROM Employees";
   $result = ($mycon->query($mysql));
   $rows = [];
   if ($result->num_rows > 0)
    {
        $rows = $result->fetch_all(MYSQLI_ASSOC);
    }
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
    <table>
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>Name</th>
                <th>Age</th>
                <th>Occupation</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            <?php
               if(!empty($rows))
               foreach($rows as $row)
              {
            ?>
            <tr>
                <td><?php echo $row['Name']; ?></td>
                <td><?php echo $row['Age']; ?></td>
                <td><?php echo $row['Occupation']; ?></td>
            </tr>
            <?php } ?>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
<?php
    mysqli_close($mycon);
?>

2.3. Test the Setup

Open a web browser on your workstation and navigate to the following URL, replacing srv with your server’s IP address or hostname:

http://srv/test.php

You should see a table displaying the data from the Employees table.