How to Install Drupal on Rocky Linux 10

---

Drupal is a powerful, open-source Content Management System (CMS) used by organizations, governments, and individuals to build dynamic websites.

Prerequisites

---

Before you begin, make sure your server has:

• Rocky Linux 10 installed

• Root or sudo access

• A functional LAMP Stack (Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP 8.3+)

• Don't have LAMP set up? Follow this step-by-step guide before continuing: 👉 How to Install LAMP on Rocky Linux 10

Create a Database for Drupal

---

Drupal stores its content, users, and configuration in a database. We’ll create a new MariaDB database and user for it.

Login to MariaDB,

mysql -u root -p

Create the database and user,

CREATE DATABASE drupal;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON drupal.* TO 'drupal'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Note: Replace StrongPassword with actual strong password

Install Required PHP Extensions

---

Drupal needs additional PHP extensions to function properly. Let’s install them.

Install required PHP modules,

dnf install -y php-gd php-mbstring php-opcache php-pdo php-mysqlnd php-xml php-json

These extensions enable image handling (gd), multibyte string support (mbstring), database connectivity, and more.

Adjust PHP Settings

Drupal recommends increasing the memory limit for better performance. Open the PHP configuration file,

vi /etc/php.ini

Update the memory limit,

memory_limit = 256M

Save and exit the file (ESC → :wq).

Restart Apache to apply changes,

systemctl restart httpd

Download and Configure Drupal

---

We’ll now download the latest version of Drupal and configure it in the web root.

Install utilities if not already installed

dnf install -y wget tar

Download Drupal,

wget https://www.drupal.org/download-latest/tar.gz -O drupal.tar.gz

Extract and move Drupal to web root,

tar -xvf drupal.tar.gz
mv drupal-* /var/www/html/drupal

Set Correct File Permissions

---

Apache (the web server) needs permission to read and write certain files and directories.

Change ownership to Apache user

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/drupal

Set appropriate file permissions,

chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/

Create required files and folders,

mkdir /var/www/html/drupal/sites/default/files
cp /var/www/html/drupal/sites/default/default.settings.php /var/www/html/drupal/sites/default/settings.php

Configure SELinux (if enabled)

---

If SELinux is in enforcing mode, you’ll need to update file contexts so Apache can access and write to them.

Install SELinux management tools

dnf install -y policycoreutils-python-utils

Apply correct SELinux file contexts

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/html/drupal(/.*)?"
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/drupal/sites/default/settings.php'
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/drupal/sites/default/files'

Apply the context changes,

restorecon -Rv /var/www/html/drupal

Configure Apache for Drupal

---

Let’s create a virtual host so Apache serves Drupal from your domain or subdomain.

Create a new virtual host configuration file

vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/drupal.conf

Paste the following (edit ServerName and ServerAdmin accordingly),

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName dev.domainhere.info
    ServerAdmin admin@domainhere.info
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/drupal/

    <Directory /var/www/html/drupal>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        RewriteEngine on
        RewriteBase /
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Note: Replace dev.domainhere.info with actual domain name

Restart Apache to apply changes,

systemctl restart httpd

Open required firewall ports (if firewalld is enabled),

firewall-cmd --add-service={http,https} --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Access Drupal

---

Open your browser and visit,

http://dev.domainhere.info

Note: Replace with your actual domain or server IP

Follow the installer steps,

Select language,

Choose installation profile (Standard),

Enter database name: drupal, user: drupal, and the password you set earlier,

Configure site name, admin account, and email,

After you configure the site name, admin account, and email, you'll be redirected to the Drupal dashboard where you can start managing your website.

Conclusion

---

You’ve successfully installed Drupal 11 on Rocky Linux 10 with a complete LAMP stack. From here, you can start customizing your website, installing modules, creating content types, and configuring themes to suit your project needs.