Install Apache, MariaDB and PHP7 (LAMP Stack) on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus comes with PHP7 by default so you don’t have to rely on third-party PPA to get PHP7 installed. In this tutorial, we are going to look at how to install Apache, MariaDB and PHP7 (LAMP stack) on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus.

Update: This tutorial is also successfully tested on Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak.

Step 1: Update Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Before we install any software, it’s always a good idea to update repository and software packages. SSH into your Ubuntu 16.04 server and enter the below commands.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Step 2: Install Apache Web Server

Enter this command to install Apache Web server.

sudo apt-get install apache2 apache2-utils

After it’s installed, Apache should be automatically started. Check out its status with systemctl.

systemctl status apache2

Output:

● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-04-20 18:32:57 EDT; 32s ag
o

If it’s not running, use systemctl to start it.

sudo systemctl start apache2

It’s also a good idea to enable Apache to automatically start when Ubuntu 16.04 is rebooted.

sudo systemctl enable apache2

Check Apache version:

apache2 -v

output:

Server version: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
Server built: 2016-04-15T18:00:57

Now in your browser’s address bar, type the public IP address of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server. You should see the “It works!” Web page which means Apache Web server is running correctly.

You can use the following command to fetch the public IP address of Ubuntu 16.04 server.

sudo apt-get install curl

curl http://icanhazip.com

If you are installing LAMP on your local Ubuntu 16.04 box, just type 127.0.0.1 or localhost in the browser address bar.

Finally, we need to make www-data (Apache user) as the owner of web root directory.

sudo chown www-data /var/www/html/ -R

Step 3: Install MariaDB

MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL. It is developed by former members of MySQL team who concerned that Oracle might turn MySQL into a closed-source product. Many Linux distributions and companies have migrated to MariaDB. So we’re going to install MariaDB instead of MySQL.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After it’s installed, MariaDB server should be automatically stared. Use systemctl to check its status.

systemctl status mysql

Output:

● mysql.service - LSB: Start and stop the mysql database server daemon
 Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/mysql; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
 Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-04-20 18:52:01 EDT; 1min 30s ago
 Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)

If it’s not running, start it with this command:

sudo systemctl start mysql

To enable MariaDB to automatically start when Ubuntu 16.04 is rebooted:

sudo systemctl enable mysql

Now run the post installation security script.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When it asks you to enter MariaDB root password, press enter because you have not set the root password yet. Then enter y to set the root password for MariaDB server.

Next you can just press Enter to answer all the remaining questions. This will remove anonymous user, disable remote root login and remove test database. This step is a basic requirement for MariaDB database security.

Step 4: Install PHP7

Enter the following command to install PHP7 and PHP7 extensions.

sudo apt-get install php7.0-fpm php7.0-mysql php7.0-common php7.0-gd php7.0-json php7.0-cli php7.0-curl libapache2-mod-php7.0

Enable the Apache php7.0 module then restart Apache Web server.

sudo a2enmod php7.0

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 5: Test PHP

To test the cli version of PHP7, we just need to enter this command:

user@www:~$ php --version
PHP 7.0.4-7ubuntu2 (cli) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2016 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.0.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2016 Zend Technologies
  with Zend OPcache v7.0.6-dev, Copyright (c) 1999-2016, by Zend Technologies

To test PHP with Apache server, first create a test.php file in the Web root directory.

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

Paste the following PHP code into the file.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Save and close the file. Now in the browser address bar, enter server-ip-address/test.php. Replace sever-ip-address with your actual IP. Of course, if you follow this tutorial on your local computer, then type 127.0.0.1/test.php or localhost/test.php.

You should see your server’s PHP information. This means PHP processing is fine. You can find that Zend OPcache is enabled.

Apache PHP7.0 Module vs PHP-FPM

There are now basically two ways to run PHP code with Apache web server:

• Apache PHP module
• PHP-FPM.

The above configuration uses the Apache PHP7.0 module to handle PHP code. It’s totally fine and if you are happy with it, then delete test.php file now so that no one else can see your server’s information and don’t follow the instructions below.

But if you want to use PHP-FPM to run PHP code, then you need to enable Apache mod_proxy_fcgi module with the following command:

sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi

Then edit the virtual host configuration file. This tutorial uses the default virtual host as an example.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

Add the ProxyPassMatch directive to this file.

....

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/var/www/html/

.....

Save and close this file. Restart Apache2.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Start php7.0-fpm

sudo systemctl start php7.0-fpm

Enable php7.0-fpm to start at boot time.

sudo systemctl enable php7.0-fpm

Check status:

systemctl status php7.0-fpm

Output:

● php7.0-fpm.service - The PHP 7.0 FastCGI Process Manager
 Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/php7.0-fpm.service; enabled; vendor pre
set: enabled)
 Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-04-20 19:21:05 EDT; 2s ago

Now if you refresh the test.php page in your browser, you will find that Server API is FPM/FastCGI which means Apache web server will pass PHP requests to PHP-FPM.

For your server’s security, you should delete test.php file now to prevent prying eyes.

Congrats! You have successfully installed Apache, MariaDB and PHP7 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus.