How to install and configure LAMP on Linux VPS

Preparation

VPS with Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 or Debian 11/12.
User with sudo, SSH access.
Domain (optional) and open port 80/443 in the provider’s panel.

Apache: installation, autostart, and verification

				
					sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt -y install apache2
sudo systemctl enable --now apache2
curl -I http://127.0.0.1

Expecting HTTP/1.1 200 OK headers. The default page is located in /var/www/html/.

UFW firewall for HTTP/HTTPS and service status

				
					sudo systemctl status apache2 --no-pager
sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'   # opens 80 и 443
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

If you are not using UFW, ensure that 80/443 are allowed in your provider’s cloud firewall.

MySQL Server: installation and basic protection

				
					sudo apt -y install mysql-server
sudo systemctl enable --now mysql
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Respond securely:

Enable password strength checking (Yes).
Remove anonymous users (Yes).
Disallow remote root login (Yes).
Remove test database (Yes).
Reload privileges (Yes).

Creating a database and user for the application

				
					sudo mysql -u root -p

In the MySQL console:

				
					CREATE DATABASE appdb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'appuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'S3cureP@ss!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON appdb.* TO 'appuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

For remote access, specify the host: “appuser”@‘%’ and configure the bind-address/firewall in isolation.

PHP: module installation and test page

				
					sudo apt -y install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-xml php-zip
php -v
echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' | sudo tee /var/www/html/info.php

Open http://<IP>/info.php in your browser to see the phpinfo() page (then delete it).

Production directory and Apache virtual host

Let’s create the site structure and configuration file:

				
					sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/public_html
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/example.com
sudo nano /var/www/example.com/public_html/index.php

index.php (verification PHP):
<?php echo "Hello from LAMP!"; ?>

Create the configuration file /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf:

				
					<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html

  <Directory /var/www/example.com/public_html>
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
  </Directory>

  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example_error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

AllowOverride All is needed if you use .htaccess (rewrites, caching, etc.).

Activate the site, mod_rewrite, and reread the config.

				
					sudo a2ensite example.com.conf
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo apache2ctl configtest   # Syntax OK
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Check the website by domain or IP: Hello from LAMP! should open.

Checking the PHP ↔ MySQL (PDO) connection

Create /var/www/example.com/public_html/dbtest.php:

				
					<?php
try {
  $pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=appdb;charset=utf8mb4','appuser','S3cureP@ss!', [
    PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
    PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC
  ]);
  echo $pdo->query('SELECT 1')->fetchColumn();
} catch (Throwable $e) { echo $e->getMessage(); }

Open http://example.com/dbtest.php → you will see 1.

HTTPS in 2 minutes (bonus)

If the domain points to the server, we install a free certificate:

				
					sudo apt -y install certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot will automatically enable HTTPS and auto-renewal.

Configuring PHP for production (briefly)

Edit /etc/php/*/apache2/php.ini:

expose_php = Off
memory_limit = 256M (depending on load)
upload_max_filesize and post_max_size according to your CMS
date.timezone = Europe/Kyiv
Restart Apache: sudo systemctl reload apache2.

Analogues for AlmaLinux/Rocky/CentOS (RHEL)

				
					sudo dnf -y install httpd mariadb-server php php-mysqlnd php-cli php-xml php-zip php-curl
sudo systemctl enable --now httpd mariadb
sudo mysql_secure_installation
# дальше — те же шаги: создать БД/пользователя, vhost в /etc/httpd/conf.d/site.conf,
# включить firewalld: sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=http --add-service=https --permanent && sudo firewall-cmd --reload