How to Install LEMP Stack on Ubuntu 18.04
The term LEMP is an acronym of the names of its four open-source components:
- L - Linux operating system
- E - Nginx [engine x] a HTTP and reverse proxy server
- M - MySQL or MariaDB relational database management system
- P - PHP programming language.
This series of tutorials will show you how to install Nginx, create Nginx server blocks, generate a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, install and secure MySQL and install PHP 7.2.
The detailed tutorials that are part of this series are listed at the end of this page.
If you are in a hurry and don’t want to read more detailed documentation you can install LEMP Stack on your Ubuntu 18.04 server by following our Quickstart section.
Install LEMP Stack on Ubuntu 18.04 [Quickstart]
This quickstart will show you the basic steps required to get a LEMP stack installed on an Ubuntu 18.04 server.
Prerequisites
The user you are logged in as must have sudo privileges to be able to install packages.
Step 1. Installing Nginx
Nginx is available in Ubuntu repositories. Update the packages index and install Nginx with the following commands:
sudo apt updatesudo apt install nginx
Step 2. Installing MySQL
The next step is to install the MySQL packages. To do so type:
sudo apt install mysql-serverOnce the installation is completed, issue the mysql_secure_installation command to improve the security of the MySQL installation:
sudo mysql_secure_installationYou will be asked to set the root password, remove the anonymous user, restrict root user access to the local machine and remove the test database. You should answer “Y” (yes) to all questions.
Step 3. Installing PHP
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ships with the latest and greatest PHP version 7.2. To install PHP FPM and several most common PHP modules type:
sudo apt install php-fpm php-opcache php-cli php-gd php-curl php-mysqlStep 4. Configuring Nginx to Process PHP Pages
Now that we have all of the LEMP components installed, we can edit the Nginx virtual host configuration file and add the following lines so Nginx can process PHP files:
server {
# other code
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
}
}Do not forget to restart the Nginx service for the changes to take effect:
sudo systemctl restart nginxMore Information
For more detailed instructions about each step, please consult the following tutorials.
