How to Install a LAMP Stack on Fedora, AlmaLinux, or Rocky Linux

The most common web architecture for Linux-based systems is the LAMP Stack. This stack includes all necessary components for a web application, including an operating system, web server, relational database, and programming language. This guide explains how to install and test a LAMP stack on the Fedora Linux platform and the related AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux distributions.

What is a LAMP Stack?

The LAMP stack is a core architecture for the open source Linux environment. LAMP is an acronym standing for Linux, Apache, MySQL or MariaDB, and PHP, Perl, or Python. This software stack is sufficient to support most modern web sites and applications, including WordPress.

The main LAMP stack components are as follows:

• Linux: Linux is a free and open source UNIX-based operating system. It is available in several distinct implementations, called distributions. This guide uses Fedora, one of the most popular distributions. The same instructions in this guide are also applicable to the similar AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux platforms. Both of these alternatives are binary-compatible with Fedora. Each distribution of Linux has its own software library which includes the other LAMP stack components.

• Apache: The open source Apache web server is the most common Linux web server. The Apache Software Foundation produces the free standard edition, containing all components required to host a web site. However, extra modules enable additional features such as authentication and programming language APIs.

• MariaDB/MySQL: MySQL and MariaDB are free and open source relational database management systems (RDBMS). They can be used interchangeably in the LAMP Stack. MariaDB is a fork of the original MySQL code with additional features, higher scalability, and faster query speed.

• PHP/Perl/Python: PHP is the main server-side scripting and programming language for the LAMP stack. PHP commands can be efficiently embedded within an HTML page, making it a very useful language for web development. It also powers many common open source web applications. PHP is available for free under the PHP License. See the PHP documentation for usage instructions. Alternatives to PHP include Perl and Python.

All of these applications are available in the core Fedora software library.

Before You Begin

1. If you have not already done so, create a Linode account and Compute Instance. See our Getting Started with Linode and Creating a Compute Instance guides.

2. Follow our Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance guide to update your system. You may also wish to set the timezone, configure your hostname, create a limited user account, and harden SSH access.

How to Install a LAMP Stack on Fedora

These instructions are designed for Fedora 38, but work for AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux as well. The guide provides alternate commands whenever the process differs between distributions.

How to Install the Apache Web Server

1. Ensure the system is updated:

   sudo dnf upgrade
   sudo dnf update

2. Install the Apache web server:

   sudo dnf install httpd -y

3. Start and enable the web server. The enable command automatically launches Apache when the system reboots.

   sudo systemctl enable httpd
   sudo systemctl start httpd

4. Use systemctl to ensure the web server is active (running):

   systemctl status httpd

   ● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; preset: di>
       Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
                └─10-timeout-abort.conf
        Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-08-28 12:20:09 EDT; 47s ago

   Press the Q key to exit the systemctl status output and return to the terminal prompt.

5. Configure the firewall settings to allow HTTP and HTTPS connections:

   sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
   sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https

   success
   success

6. Reload the firewall:

   sudo firewall-cmd --reload

   success

7. Open a Web browser and navigate to the IP address of the Fedora system. It should display the default “Fedora Webserver Test Page”:

   This indicates the web server is working but has not been fully configured yet. The AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux distributions have their own web server test pages which are similar but slightly different.

   Note

   If the connection is blocked, it could be due to the default Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) settings. SELinux is a kernel security module packaged with several Linux distributions. The default security setting is the fairly restrictive enforcing mode. To reduce the security level, change the mode to permissive using the following command:

   sudo setenforce 0
   sudo sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/selinux/config
   Optional

   If a domain name is pointing to the server, it can be added to the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file for better performance.

   1. Open the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf in a text editor with root permissions:

      sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

   2. Add the following information to the end of file and be sure to replace EXAMPLE_DOMAIN with your fully-qualified domain name:

      File: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

      1 2	ServerAdmin admin@EXAMPLE_DOMAIN ServerName EXAMPLE_DOMAIN:80

   3. When done, press CTRL+X, followed by Y then Enter to save the file and exit nano.

   4. Restart the web server:

      sudo systemctl restart httpd

   5. Open a Web browser and navigate to your domain name. The browser should now display the default Fedora web server page.

How to Install the MariaDB Database

This guide installs MariaDB as the database, but the LAMP stack can also use MySQL. MariaDB is an increasingly popular fork of the original MySQL application with some performance advantages.

1. Install the MariaDB server:

   sudo dnf install mariadb-server -y

2. Enable and start MariaDB:

   sudo systemctl enable mariadb
   sudo systemctl start mariadb

3. Verify the status of MariaDB by running the systemctl status command to confirm it is active:

   sudo systemctl status mariadb

   ● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.5 database server
        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; preset:>
       Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
                └─10-timeout-abort.conf
        Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-08-28 13:20:57 EDT; 24s ago

   Press the Q key to exit the status output and return to the terminal prompt.

4. To secure the database, use the interactive mysql_secure_installation utility:

   sudo mysql_secure_installation

   Provide the following responses to the questions in the script:

   • For Enter current password for root, press the Enter key. Because the command is run using sudo privileges, a password is not required.
   • For Switch to unit_socket authentication, answer n.
   • For Change the root password?, answer n. It is safe to permit local sudo access with the standard root password.
   • For Remove anonymous users?, answer y.
   • For Disallow root login remotely?, answer y`.
   • For Remove test database and access to it?, answer y.
   • For Reload privilege tables now?, answer y to apply the changes.

5. Access the database using sudo:

   sudo mysql

   MariaDB displays background information about the application along with the > prompt:

   Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
   Your MariaDB connection id is 9
   Server version: 10.5.21-MariaDB MariaDB Server
   
   Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
   
   Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
   
   MariaDB [(none)]>

6. Create the webdata database and a user account for web application access. In the CREATE USER query, provide a secure password in place of EXAMPLE_PASSWORD and a more meaningful username in place of EXAMPLE_USERNAME. Finally, grant full rights to the user.

   CREATE DATABASE webdata;
   CREATE USER 'EXAMPLE_USERNAME' IDENTIFIED BY 'EXAMPLE_PASSWORD';
   GRANT ALL ON webdata.* TO 'EXAMPLE_USERNAME';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   MySQL should respond with Query OK after each line.

7. Exit the SQL shell and return to the terminal prompt:

   quit

How to Install PHP

1. Install the main PHP component, including the php-mysqlnd package for database integration:

   sudo dnf install php php-common php-mysqlnd -y

2. Optional: Install a selection of other commonly-used PHP extensions. Different applications might require additional PHP packages. Consult the application documentation for details.

   sudo dnf install php-cli php-gettext php-mbstring php-mcrypt php-pear php-curl php-gd php-xml php-bcmath php-zip php-json -y

   sudo dnf install php-cli php-gettext php-mbstring php-pear php-curl php-gd php-xml php-bcmath php-zip php-json -y
   Note

   AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux do not support the php-mcrypt component. The omission of this package is the only difference from the Fedora version of the command above.

3. Verify the PHP release to confirm a successful installation:

   php -v

   On Fedora, the current PHP release is 8.2.9. AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux currently install release 8.0.27.

   PHP 8.2.9 (cli) (built: Aug  3 2023 11:39:08) (NTS gcc x86_64)
   Copyright (c) The PHP Group
   Zend Engine v4.2.9, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
       with Zend OPcache v8.2.9, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

   Note

   To determine if a more recent release of PHP is available, use the command dnf module list php. To select a non-default release, use the command dnf module enable php:RELEASE_NUMBER. Substitute the desired release number for RELEASE_NUMBER.

4. Restart Apache to activate the PHP Apache API:

   sudo systemctl restart httpd

How to Verify the LAMP Stack Installation

To verify the stack components, embed a PHP code block containing a database connection inside an HTML page. PHP code can be integrated into an HTML file using the <?php tag. The PHP code block can then connect to an SQL-based database using the mysqli_connect command. Provide the appropriate database credentials to connect.

To fully test all components of the LAMP stack, follow these steps.

1. Change into the var/www/html directory and create a new phptest.php file:

   cd /var/www/html
   sudo nano phptest.php

2. Add the following contents to the file. Ensure the servername variable is set to localhost. Replace EXAMPLE_USERNAME and EXAMPLE_PASSWORD with the credentials for the database web user account.

   File: /var/www/html/phptest.php

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

   <html> <head> <title>PHP Test</title> </head> <body> <?php echo '<p>Welcome to the Site!</p>'; // When running this script on a local database, the servername must be 'localhost'. Use the name and password of the web user account created earlier. Do not use the root password. $servername = "localhost"; $username = "EXAMPLE_USERNAME"; $password = "EXAMPLE_PASSWORD"; // Create MySQL connection $conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password); // If the conn variable is empty, the connection has failed. The output for the failure case includes the error message if (!$conn) { die('<p>Connection failed: </p>' . mysqli_connect_error()); } echo '<p>Connected successfully</p>'; ?> </body> </html>

   When done, press CTRL+X, followed by Y then Enter to save the file and exit nano.

3. Run the LAMP stack script test. Open a Web browser and navigate to either the IP address or the domain name followed by /phptest.php. For example, http://example.com/phptest.php, but replace example.com with your actual domain name or IP address.

4. If the test is successful, the browser displays connected successfully message:

   

   Note

   If the page displays the Connection failed message, verify the database credentials and try again. If an HTML error occurs, ensure the contents of the sample file are complete and correct. To isolate the PHP functionality, replace the contents between <?php and ?>, with phpinfo();. This command displays information about the PHP installation and confirms if PHP is working.

Additional LAMP Stack Production Considerations

The previous instructions are sufficient for small personal sites. However, commercial sites might require additional configuration. Here are some other issues to potentially consider.

1. The database is not currently remotely accessible. To access MariaDB through the firewall, use the following commands:

   sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=mysql --permanent
   sudo firewall-cmd --reload

2. To run multiple sites from the same server, configure a virtual host for each site. This is considered a more professional configuration even for a single site.

   To configure a virtual host, add a new directory at /var/www/html/EXAMPLE_DOMAIN/public_html. Replace EXAMPLE_DOMAIN with the actual domain name. Add the website files to this directory. Then edit the file at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to add the virtual hosts. Each virtual host must define a DocumentRoot, ServerName, and ServerAdmin.

   Consult the Apache Virtual Host documentation for more information.

3. To remove the default welcome page, edit the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf and comment out all directives using the # symbol.

Conclusion

The Fedora LAMP stack consists of the Linux operating system, Apache web server, the MariaDB/MySQL database, and the PHP/Perl/Python programming language. Together, this architecture is suitable for most modern computing environments. All LAMP components are available in the standard Fedora package library and are installed using dnf. To test the stack, configure a database for the web user and create a simple script using HTML and PHP.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Apache HTTP server
• MariaDB
• PHP
• PHP documentation
• MySQL
• LAMP Stack
• Apache Virtual Host documentation