How to Install Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP Stack) on Ubuntu 22.04

Have you ever wondered how websites like WordPress, Drupal, and other content management systems even exist? How can software developers build and maintain such websites without being technical experts in website hosting technologies? The answer is LAMP. LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. This article describes in detail how to set up LAMP on the Ubuntu server. If you are a website developer or intend to become one, then you’ll find this guide useful.

You will learn how to install the LAMP stack on your Ubuntu VPS server and begin developing dynamic websites that can be hosted on a stable, fast, and secure server environment. Let’s get started…

Pre-Requisities

Assuming that you have a running Ubuntu 22.04 Linux system with sudo (or root) privileged access.

Access your system and open a terminal. It will be good to update the package manager cache and upgrade currently installed packages. To do this execute:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade 

Let’s begin the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack installation on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux system.

Step 1: Install PHP (Programming Languege)

First, you need to decide on the PHP version to install on your system. You can also install multiple PHP versions on a single system. Currently the repository contains PHP 5.6, PHP 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 and PHP 8.0, 8.1. The below instruction will install PHP 8.1. Please change the version as per your requirements.

The ondrej/php PPA contains all PHP version’s for Ubuntu systems. So add this repository in your system with command below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php 

Now update the apt cache and install PHP 8.1.

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install php8.1 

This will install PHP on your Ubuntu system along with some useful PHP extensions.

Step 2: Install Apache (Web Server)

Generally, the PHP installation also installs Apache and its module on your system. Still, you can run the following commands to confirm the installations.

sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php8.1 -y 

This will install Apache and start the service.

Now, you need to allow web server ports in the firewall. To allow ports 80 and 443 in the UFW firewall, execute the following commands.

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp 
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp 

Open a web browser on your system and type the server’s IP in the address bar. You will get the default Apache server page

Step 3: Install MySQL (Database Server)

The default Ubuntu repositories contain MySQL 8.0. Which can be directly installed using the package manager. To install the available MySQL server version, execute the following command.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server 

Once the installation is finished, you can secure the MySQL server by executing the following command.

sudo mysql_secure_installation 

This will ask for a few questions to secure the MySQL server.

1. Press ‘y’ to enable validate password plugin. This will allow you to set a strict password policy for user accounts.

   VALIDATE PASSWORD COMPONENT can be used to test passwords
   and improve security. It checks the strength of password
   and allows the users to set only those passwords which are
   secure enough. Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD component?
   
   Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No: y
   

2. Chose the password complexity level. Read the all 3 options and choose one:

   LOW    Length >= 8
   MEDIUM Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, and special characters
   STRONG Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, special characters and dictionary file
   
   Please enter 0 = LOW, 1 = MEDIUM and 2 = STRONG: 1
   

3. Enter a new password and re-enter it. Make sure it matches the complexity level as described above.

   New password: *************
   Re-enter new password: *************
   

4. Press ‘y’ to continue with provided password.

   Do you wish to continue with the password provided?(Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
   

5. Remove default anonymous users from MySQL server:

   Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
   

6. Disable root login from remote systems

   Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
   

7. Remove test database form MySQL created by default during installation.

   Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
   

8. Reload all privileges to apply the above changes immediately.

   Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
   

You have secured the MySQL server in the LAMP stack on Ubuntu 22.04 Linux system.

Remember that the above password set for the root accounts is used for remote users only. To log in from the same system, just type mysql on terminal.

sudo mysql 

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 14
Server version: 8.0.28-0ubuntu4 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

Step 4: Installing Other Required Packages

You may also need to install modules like MySQL and other extensions for PHP based on the application requirements. Use the following command to find our available PHP extensions.

sudo apt search php8.1-* 

The above command will list all available PHP7 modules for installation, Let’s begin the installation of modules.

sudo apt install php8.1-mysql php8.1-curl php8.1-xml 

Step 5: Test LAMP Setup

You have successfully completed the installation of Apache, MySQL, and PHP on the Ubuntu 22.04 Linux system. To verify the PHP integration with Apache, create a PHP script (example: info.php) on the website document root and write the below content.

Now access this file in the web browser. It will so all the details about versions and installation.

http://server-ip-address/info.php 

Conclusion

This tutorial helped you to set up the LAMP stack on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system. Now, you can host PHP-based web applications on your server.