You'll be greeted with a special webpage made by Apache on Ubuntu 14.04. It's there to give you some basic info and to help you check if everything is working fine. It might look a bit like this:
How to See Your Server's Public IP Address:
If you're not sure what your server's public IP address is, there are a few simple ways to find it. This is the address you use to connect to your server using SSH.
One way to find it is by using commands on the command line. You can do this by typing a specific command, like this:
After running the command, you'll see one or two lines with numbers on them. Both lines show the correct addresses, but your computer might only be able to use one of them. So, you can try using each one to see which works.
Another way is to ask a different computer outside of your network to tell you what it sees as your server's IP address. You can do this by reaching out to a specific server and asking it for the information.
No matter how you find your IP address, you can simply type it into your web browser's address bar to reach your server.
Setting Up MySQL Database Management System
Let's set up MySQL now that our web server is running. MySQL is like a storage system for our website. It helps organize and manage databases where our site can keep information.
We'll use a tool called "apt" to get and install MySQL, just like before. This time, we'll also install some extra packages that help different parts of our setup talk to each other:
Note: You don't need to run "sudo apt-get update" again before installing MySQL because we already did that when installing Apache. Your computer already has the latest information about available packages.
While installing MySQL, your server will ask you to pick and confirm a password for the MySQL "root" user. This is like an administrator account in MySQL, with special powers. It's similar to the main account for the server itself, but just for MySQL.
After MySQL is installed, we have to do a few more things to make sure it's set up safely.
First, we need to tell MySQL to create the place where it will keep all its information. You can do this by typing:
First, we need to tell MySQL to create the place where it will keep all its information. You can do this by typing:
After that, we'll run a simple security script to make sure our database system is safer. To begin this script, just run:
You'll be prompted to enter the password you set for the MySQL root account. Then, it will ask if you want to change that password. If you're happy with it, just type "n" for "no".
For the other questions, just press "ENTER" to accept the default values. This will remove some sample users and databases, disable remote root logins, and apply these new rules immediately to MySQL.
Now your database system is all set up and we can move forward.
Now your database system is all set up and we can move forward.
Installing PHP for Dynamic Website Content
Let's install PHP, which is a crucial part of our setup. PHP is responsible for processing code to show dynamic content on our website. It can run scripts, communicate with our MySQL databases to fetch information, and then deliver the processed content to our web server for display.
We'll use the apt system again to install PHP along with some additional helper packages.
Installing PHP should be smooth without encountering any issues. We'll verify this shortly.
Usually, we'll want to adjust how Apache handles files when someone requests a directory from our server. Right now, if a user asks for a directory, Apache checks if there's a file called "index.html" inside. However, we prefer to use PHP files, so we'll tell Apache to look for an "index.php" file first.
To make this change, follow these steps - Open the "dir.conf" file in a text editor with special permissions. You can do this by typing:
Here's what the file will look like:
We want to move the highlighted PHP index file to the first position after the DirectoryIndex specification, like this:
Once you've made this change, save and close the file by pressing "CTRL-X". Confirm the save by typing "Y" and then hit "ENTER" to confirm the file save location.
After that, we need to restart the Apache web server to make our changes take effect. You can do this by typing:
Enhancing PHP Functionality with Additional Modules
We can make PHP even more powerful by adding extra modules. These modules provide additional features and tools that we can use in our PHP code.
To check out the available options for PHP modules and libraries, you can do this:
The list shows extra parts you can add if you want. Each one comes with a quick explanation:
To learn more about what each module does, you have two options:
- Search online.
- Check the detailed description in the package itself. You can do this by typing:
This will show a lot of information, but focus on the "Description-en" field, which gives a longer explanation of what the module does.
For instance, to find out about the php5-cli module, you can type:
In addition to many other details, you'll see something like this:
If, after checking, you decide you want to add a package, you can use the "apt-get install" command just like we did for our other software.
For example, if you've decided you need "php5-cli", you would type:
If you want to install multiple modules, you can do that by listing each one, separated by a space, after the "apt-get install" command, like this:
Now, your LAMP stack is all set up and ready to go. However, we should still check if PHP is working correctly.
Checking PHP Functionality on Your Web Server
To make sure our system is set up correctly for PHP, let's create a simple PHP script.
We'll name this script "info.php". For Apache to find and display the file properly, it needs to be saved in a specific folder called the "web root".
In Ubuntu 14.04, this folder is located at "/var/www/html/". You can create the file in that location by typing:
We'll name this script "info.php". For Apache to find and display the file properly, it needs to be saved in a specific folder called the "web root".
In Ubuntu 14.04, this folder is located at "/var/www/html/". You can create the file in that location by typing:
This will open an empty file. Now, we'll add some simple PHP code inside it. Just copy and paste the following text into the file:
Once you're done, save and close the file.
Now, let's check if our web server can show content generated by a PHP script. To do this, simply open your web browser and visit the following page. You'll need your server's public IP address again.
The address you want to visit is:
When you go to this page, you should see something similar to this:
This page shows you server information from PHP's perspective, useful for checking your setup. If everything looks good, your PHP is working as it should.
If everything went well and you see the expected information, it means your PHP is working correctly.
However, you should consider removing this file after the test because it could potentially expose information about your server to unauthorized users. To delete it, you can do the following:
If you ever need to check that information again, you can always recreate this page.
Conclusion:
Now that you've set up your LAMP stack, you're ready to do a lot of cool stuff! Basically, you've got everything you need to create different types of websites and web software on your server.There are so many possibilities! Just choose what interests you the most and start exploring.