How to Install LAMP Stack on AlmaLinux 8

A LAMP stack is a group of open-source software that is typically installed together to enable a server to host dynamic websites and web apps. This term is actually an acronym which represents the Linux operating system, with the Apache web server. The site data is stored in a MySQL database, and dynamic content is processed by PHP.

Install Apache Web Server

First, we will start by installing the Apache web server. To complete the installation, use the following command.

yum install httpd httpd-tools

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum install httpd
AlmaLinux 8.3 - BaseOS                           14 MB/s | 2.6 MB     00:00
AlmaLinux 8.3 - AppStream                        21 MB/s | 6.5 MB     00:00
AlmaLinux 8.3 - PowerTools                      8.0 MB/s | 1.9 MB     00:00
AlmaLinux 8.3 - Extras                           12 kB/s | 1.2 kB     00:00
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package     Arch   Version                                     Repo       Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 httpd       x86_64 2.4.37-30.module_el8.3.0+2016+8bf57d29.alma appstream 1.4 M

Once the installation is complete, enable Apache (to start automatically upon system boot), start the web server and verify the status using the commands below.

systemctl enable httpd

systemctl start httpd

systemctl status httpd

Output:

 [root@server ~]# systemctl status httpd
● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor prese>
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-02-08 15:03:51 EST; 5s ago
     Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
 Main PID: 26398 (httpd)
   Status: "Started, listening on: port 80"
    Tasks: 213 (limit: 23680)
   Memory: 29.1M
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ├─26398 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─26399 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

To make your pages available to public, you will have to edit your firewall rules to allow HTTP and HTTPS requests on your web server by using the following commands.

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http 

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https 

firewall-cmd --reload

Output:

[root@server ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
success
[root@server ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
success
[root@server ~]# firewall-cmd --reload
success

Verify that the web server is running and accessible by accessing your server’s IP address.

And restart tht Web Server to reflect the changes made.

systemctl restart httpd

From your browser,

http://IP_address

image

Install PHP

By default, AlmaLinux uses PHP 7.2 and since it is EOL, we will install PHP 7.4 instead.

If you would like to install a different version of PHP from remi repository, please refer Install PHP 7.X wiki.

We will install the EPEL Repository,

rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

To install PHP 7.4 on AlmaLinux, use the command below.

dnf module install php:7.4

We will need other PHP modules as well,

yum install -y php-mysqlnd php-dom php-simplexml php-xml php-intl php-xmlreader php-curl php-exif php-ftp php-gd php-iconv  php-json php-mbstring php-posix php-sockets php-tokenizer

Now restart your web server so that Apache knows that it will be serving PHP requests as well.

systemctl restart httpd 

Test your PHP, by creating a simple info.php file with a phinfo() in it. The file should be placed in the directory root for your web server, which is /var/www/html.

To create the file use:

echo "<?php phpinfo() ?>" > /var/www/html/info.php

Now again, access http://localhost/info.php or http://yourserver-ip-address/info.php. You should see a page similar to below one.

image

Install MariaDB Server

MariaDB is a popular database server. The installation is simple and requires just a few steps as shown.

yum install mariadb-server mariadb

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum install mariadb-server mariadb
Last metadata expiration check: 0:05:56 ago on Mon 08 Feb 2021 03:03:08 PM EST.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package                    Arch   Version                      Repo       Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 mariadb                    x86_64 3:10.3.27-3.module_el8.3.0+2028+5e3224e9
                                                                appstream 6.0 M
 mariadb-server             x86_64 3:10.3.27-3.module_el8.3.0+2028+5e3224e9
                                                                appstream  16 M
Installing dependencies:
 mariadb-common             x86_64 3:10.3.27-3.module_el8.3.0+2028+5e3224e9

Once the installation is complete, enable MariaDB (to start automatically upon system boot), start the MariaDB and verify the status using the commands below.

systemctl enable mariadb

systemctl start mariadb

systemctl status mariadb

Output:

[root@server ~]# systemctl status mariadb
● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.3 database server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor pre>
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-02-08 15:10:12 EST; 5s ago
     Docs: man:mysqld(8)
           https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
  Process: 30138 ExecStartPost=/usr/libexec/mysql-check-upgrade (code=exited, s>
  Process: 30004 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/mysql-prepare-db-dir mariadb.service>
  Process: 29979 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/mysql-check-socket (code=exited, sta>
 Main PID: 30107 (mysqld)

Finally, you will want to secure your MariaDB installation by issuing the following command.

mysql_secure_installation

Output:

[root@server ~]# 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!

Once secured, you can connect to MySQL and review the existing databases on your database server by using the following command.

mysql -e "SHOW DATABASES;" -p

Output:

[root@server ~]# mysql -e "SHOW DATABASES;" -p
Enter password:
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
+--------------------+

Done!