PHP web application on a LAMP Stack

This solution walks you through the creation of an Ubuntu Linux virtual server, with Apache web server, MySQL, and PHP (the LAMP stack). To see the LAMP server in action, you will install and configure the WordPress open source application.

Time to complete: 15 minutes

Objectives

• Provision a LAMP server
• Re-install Apache, MySQL, and PHP
• Verify installation and configuration
• Install and configure WordPress
• Configure domain
• Server monitoring and usage
• Server Security

Provision a LAMP server

1. Login to IBM Cloud, navigate to the Catalog page and select the Virtual Server service under the Infrastructure section.
2. Select Public Virtual Server and then click Create.
3. Under Image, select LAMP latest version under Ubuntu. This will come with pre-installed with Apache, MySQL, and PHP but we will reinstall PHP and MySQL with the latest version.
4. Under Network Interface select the Public and Private Network Uplink option.
5. Review the other configuration options, then click Provision to provision the server.
   Note: The provisioning process can take up to 10 minutes for the server to be ready for use. Once the server is created, you should see the server login credentials. The server username, password public IP would be needed to SSH into the server.
6. Connect to the server using SSH

   sudo ssh root@<Public-IP-Address>

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   Note: The server Public IP and server password can be found in the Dashboard.

Re-install Apache, MySQL, and PHP

Run the following command to update Ubuntu package sources and reinstall Apache, MySQL, and PHP with latest versions.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install lamp-server^

Note the caret (^) at the end of the command.

Verify installation and configuration

Verify Apache, MySQL, and PHP running on Ubuntu image.

1. Verify Ubuntu by opening in the Public IP address in the browser. You should see the Ubuntu welcome page.
   
2. Check Apache version installed using the following command:

   apache2 -v

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3. Verify port 80 for web traffic, run the following command:

   sudo netstat -ntlp | grep LISTEN

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4. Check the version of MySQL using the following command:

   mysql -V

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5. Run the following script to help secure MySQL database:

   mysql_secure_installation

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6. Enter MySQL root password, and configure the security settings for your environment.
   To create a MySQL database, add users, or change configuration settings, login to MySQL

   mysql -u root -p

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   Note: MySQL default username and password is root and root.
   When done, exit the mysql prompt by typing \q.

7. Check the version of PHP using the following command:

   PHP -v

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8. If you want to test further, create a quick PHP info page to view in a browser. The following command creates the PHP info page:

   sudo sh -c 'echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/info.php'

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   Now you can check the PHP info page you created. Open a browser and go to http://YourPublicIPAddress/info.php. Substitute the public IP address of your virtual server. It should look similar to this image.
   

Install and configure WordPress

If you want to try your LAMP stack, install a sample app. As an example, the following steps install the open source WordPress platform to create websites and blogs. For more information and settings for production installation, see the WordPress documentation.

Install the WordPress packages

1. Run the following command to install WordPress:

   sudo apt install wordpress

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2. Configure WordPress to use MySQL and PHP. Run the following command to open a text editor and create the file /etc/wordpress/config-localhost.php

   sudo sensible-editor /etc/wordpress/config-localhost.php

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3. Copy the following lines to the file, substituting yourPassword with your MySQL database password (leave other values unchanged). Then save using Ctrl+X to exit and save the file.

   <?php
   define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
   define('DB_USER', 'wordpress');
   define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourPassword');
   define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
   define('WP_CONTENT_DIR', '/usr/share/wordpress/wp-content');
   ?>

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4. In a working directory, create a text file wordpress.sql to configure the WordPress database:

   sudo sensible-editor wordpress.sql

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5. Add the following commands, substituting your database password for yourPassword (leave other values unchanged). Then save the file.

   CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
   GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,ALTER ON wordpress.*
   TO wordpress@localhost
   IDENTIFIED BY 'yourPassword';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

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6. Run the following command to create the database

   cat wordpress.sql | sudo mysql --defaults-extra-file=/etc/mysql/debian.cnf

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7. After the command completes, delete the file wordpress.sql. Move the WordPress installation to the web server document root:

   sudo ln -s /usr/share/wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress
   sudo mv /etc/wordpress/config-localhost.php /etc/wordpress/config-default.php

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8. Complete the WordPress setup and publish on the platform. Open a browser and go to http://yourVMPublicIPAddress/wordpress. Substitute the public IP address of your VM. It should look similar to the image below.
   

Configure Domain

To point your domain to the LAMP server, simply point the A record to the server public IP address.
You can get the server public IP address from the dashboard.

Server monitoring and usage

The correct monitoring must be in place for any production application. Below we will explore the options available to monitor a LAMP stack server and understand the usage of the server at any given time.

Server Monitoring

There are two basic monitoring types SERVICE PING and SLOW PING.

• SERVICE PING: Test ping to address
• SLOW PING: Test ping address, will not fail on slow server response due to high latency or high server load.

Service ping is added by default so let’s add Slow ping. To add Slow ping monitoring, follow the steps below:

1. From the dashboard, select your server from the list of devices and then click on the monitoring tab.
   
2. Click on the Manage Monitors button

3. Add the SLOW PING monitoring option and then click on Add Monitoring, for the IP address select your Public IP address.
   
   Note duplicate monitors with the same configurations wont be allowed, only 1 monitor per configuration can be created.

4. Done, with that in place, you should now receive notification alert to your IBM Cloud account email address.
   

Server Usage

1. Next, we want to track the usage to understand the current usage of the server memory and CPU, this can be found under the usage tab.
   

Server Security

With IBM Cloud Virtual Servers, you have several security options like vulnerability scanner and add-on firewalls.

Vulnerability Scanner

The vulnerability scanner scans the server for any vulnerabilities related to the server. To run a vulnerability scan on the server follow the steps below.

1. From the dashboard, select your server and then click on the security tab.
2. Click on the scan button and to start the scan.
   The scan can take up to 10 minutes depending the type of application running on your server.
3. Once the scan is completed, you should see a Scan Complete button to view the scan report.
   

4. Click on the Scan complete button to view the report. View the report for any vulnerabilities. Expand on each of the results by clicking on the -+ buttons on the right.

   The report should look like the image below:
   

Firewalls

Another way to secure the server is by adding firewall to the server. With IBM Cloud Virtual Servers, you have several firewall options that provide an essential security layer. The firewall options are provisioned on demand, without service interruptions. The firewall services prevent unwanted traffic from hitting your servers, reducing the likelihood of an attack and allowing your server resources to be dedicated for their intended use.

Firewalls are available as an add-on feature for all servers on the Infrastructure public network. As part of the ordering process, you can select device-specific hardware or a software firewall to provide protection. Alternatively, you can deploy dedicated firewall appliances to the environment and deploy the virtual server to a protected VLAN.
Learn more on firewalls here.

Summary

In this tutorial, you deployed a LAMP server using IBM Cloud. You learned how to:

• Provision a LAMP server
• Re-install Apache, MySQL, and PHP
• Verify installation and configuration
• Install and configure WordPress
• Configure domain
• Server monitoring and usage
• Server Security

Next steps

Advance to the next tutorial to learn how to:

• Use IBM Compose for MySQL service instead of the traditional MySQL database.