Web Server Setup using Nginx, PHP, and MySQL on Ubuntu Server

Introduction

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

• An Ubuntu 22.04 Server with SSH access

• Basic knowledge of terminal commands

• Permissions to install and configure services

 sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Step 1: Install the Nginx Web Server

1. Install Nginx From apt
Nginx is available in Ubuntu’s default repositories, so it is possible to install it from these repositories using the apt packaging system
Make sure to update the local package index so we have access to the most recent package listings. Afterward, you can install nginx.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y 

Verify the nginx already installed by running this command:

sudo systemctl status nginx

It will automatically running as system service.

2. Allow Access To Nginx on Firewall
Before testing Nginx web server, the firewall on the system needs to be adjusted to allow access to the service.
List the application configurations that ufw :

sudo ufw app list

Your output should be a list of the application profiles:

Output
Available applications:
	Nginx Full
	Nginx HTTP
	Nginx HTTPS
	OpenSSH

The list display three profiles available for Nginx:
• Nginx Full: This profile opens both port 80 and port 443
• Nginx HTTP: This profile opens only port 80
• Nginx HTTPS: This profile opens only port 443
It is recommended that you enable only port you’re using.

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

Verify the change:

sudo ufw status

The results will be look like this:

3. Start and Enable Nginx
The Nginx is actually already run as service after it is installed, but if the Nginx not running yet you can start and enable it using commands below:

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

Now, you can test accessing the default Nginx landing page by using curl to localhost:

curl -I http://localhost

The output will look like this:

Step 2: Install MySQL to Mange Site Data

1. Install MySQL using APT

sudo apt install mysql-server=8.0

The MySQL database software is now installed, but it needs to be configured.

2. Secure Installation
To secure the installation, MySQL comes with a script that will ask whether you want to modify some insecure defaults. Initiate the script by typing the following:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

The script will ask security options like VALIDATE PASSWORD PLUGIN to test passwords and check the strength of password, allowing the users to set only those password which are secure enough.
Answer Y for yes, or anything else to continue without enabling.
For the rest of the questions, you should press Y and hit the ENTER key at each prompt. This will remove some anonymous users and the test database, disable remote root logins, and load these new rules so that MySQL immediately respects the changes we have made.



Now for authentication of root user, by default MySQL use auth_socket plugin rather than a password.
Let’s switch auth_socket to mysql_native_password so we can use external program such as phpMyAdmin.

3. Switch Root Authentication to Password

sudo mysql

Next, check which authentication method each of your MySQL user accounts uses with the following command:

SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;



This example demonstrates that the root user does in fact authenticate using the auth_socket plugin. To configure the root account to authenticate with a password, run the following ALTER USER command. Be sure to change password to a strong password of your choosing.

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password';

Then run FLUSH PRIVILEGES to tell the server to reload the grant tables and put your new changes into effect:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Check the authentication methods again to confirm tat root no longer authenticates using the auth_socket plugin:

SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;



You can exit the MySQL shell:

exit

Now to access MySQL, you must run the following:

mysql -u root -p

Enter password you set and you will enter to MySQL prompt.

Step 3: Installing PHP and Configure Nginx to use the PHP Processor

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql 

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-project-2410

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-project-2410
server {
        listen 80;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        server_name web-project-2410;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
                include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
        }

        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-project-2410 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

sudo unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

sudo nginx -t

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 4: Test the Web Server Setup

sudo vim /var/www/html/info.php

# /var/www/html/info.php
<?php
phpinfo();

http://<server domain or IP>/info.php

If you get the 502 Bad Gateway

cat /var/log/nginx/error.log

Wrong php fpm version use by Nginx:

Change the nginx.conf

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-project-2410
server {
        listen 80;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        server_name web-project-2410;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
                include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        }

        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
}

Reload nginx

sudo nginx -s  reload

 

Conclusion