Tutorial
How To Install Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP (LEMP) Stack on Debian 7
Lemp Stack: Basic Info
LEMP stack is a group of open source software to get a VPS up and running. The acronym includes the Linux (L), MySQL (M), and PHP (P) of the more traditional LAMP stack, but switches out Apache for Nginx (pronounced engine x).
This tutorial explains how to install nginx/MySQL/PHP-fpm, as well as all of the required repos to download nginx and php-fpm. It will also review how to configure php and nginx, as well as how to create a php info page.
1) Update Apt-Get
The apt-get update command is used to re-synchronize the package index files from their sources. If used in combination with the apt-get upgrade command, they install the newest versions of all packages currently available.
At the moment, we only need to do a thorough update:
sudo apt-get update
2) Install MySQL on your VPS
MySQL is a powerful database management system used for organizing and retrieving data
To install MySQL, open terminal and type in these commands:
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
During the installation, MySQL will ask you to set a root password. If you miss the chance to set the password while the program is installing, it is very easy to set the password later from within the MySQL shell.
Once you have installed MySQL, we should activate it with this command:
sudo mysql_install_db
Finish up by running the MySQL set up script:
sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
The prompt will ask you for your current root password. Type it in.
Enter current password for root (enter for none): OK, successfully used password, moving on...
The prompt will ask if you want to change the root password. Go ahead and choose N for this option, as the root password should aready be set; however, for the rest of the questions you can simply reply Y to all-- unless there is a reason for you to do otherwise.
Now let's install nginx!
3) Install and Configure Nginx on your VPS
Installation
Initial installation is simple with the apt-get command.
sudo apt-get install nginx
nginx needs a command to begin running:
sudo service nginx start
Now if you point your browser to your IP address, it should confirm that nginx was successfully installed on your cloud server.
*Run the following command to reveal your VPS's IP address.
ifconfig eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2 }'
Configuration
Open up the default virtual host file with this command:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
The configuration should include the changes below (the details of the changes are under the config information):
UPDATE: Newer Ubuntu versions create a directory called 'html' instead of 'www' by default. If /usr/share/nginx/www does not exist, it's probably called html. Make sure you update your configuration appropriately.
[...]
server {
listen 80;
root /usr/share/nginx/www;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
}
error_page 404 /404.html;
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/www;
}
# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on /var/run/php5-fpm.sock
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
[...]
Here are the details of the changes:
- Add index.php to the index line.
- Change the server_name from local host to your domain name or IP address (replace the example.com in the configuration)
- Change the correct lines in “location ~ \.php$ {“ section
Save and Exit
4) Install and Configure PHP
Installation
You probably guessed it! We will use the apt-get command to install PHP-FPM:
sudo apt-get install php5-fpm php5-mysql
Configuration
We need to make one small change in the php configuration. Open up php.ini:
sudo nano /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini
Find the line cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 and change the 1 to 0.
cgi.fix_pathinfo=0
If this number is kept as 1, the php interpreter will do its best to process the file that is as near to the requested file as possible. This is a possible security risk. If this number is set to 0, conversely, the interpreter will only process the exact file path— a much safer alternative.
Save and Exit.
We need to make another small change in the php5-fpm configuration. Open up www.conf:
sudo nano /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
Find the line, listen = 127.0.0.1:9000, and change the 127.0.0.1:9000 to /var/run/php5-fpm.sock.
listen = /var/run/php5-fpm.sock
Save and Exit.
Restart php-fpm:
sudo service php5-fpm restart
5) Create a Php Info Page
We can quickly see all of the details of the new php configuration.
To set this up, first create a new file:
sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/www/info.php
Add in the following line:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Then Save and Exit.
Finishing Up
Restart nginx:
sudo service nginx restart
You can see the nginx and php-fpm configuration details by visiting http://youripaddress/info.php
Your LEMP stack is now set up and configured on your virtual private server :)
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I think it is safe to include a section that checks/removes apache if its already on your server. Great guide!
Hi !
I got a problem, I need nginx with rtmp module so I need to compile it but after the path configuration are different. The biggest problem is with php, I don’t know how nginx configuration to setup the right php path.
I try several things but it doesn’t work.
If you have a tutorial “How to install nginx with rtmp module and PHP” something like that, I will appreciate.
Regards, Misteralex0007
Edit: Everyone ignore my comment – I should have been using the tutorial for Debian 8 and not 7! https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-nginx-mysql-php-lemp-stack-on-debian-8 in case anyone is looking.
I must assume that it’s because it’s the latest php5 version – but I’m following this tutorial for Debian 8.6 x64.
The “listen = /var/run/php5-fpm.sock” line is already set correctly, so this step seems unnecessary now.
I don’t know if php.ini is generated from the PHP install or from the Debian install, so I can’t confirm whether this is because I’m on Debian 8.6 or because PHP5’s installation is newer now than it was when this article was written.
Also, some of the settings in the /default file were a bit different, but I just un-commented out the ones that seemed to make sense.
One final thing – sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/www/info.php was now under /html/info.php (the newer nginx seems to use /html instead of /www perhaps?
I also seem to not be able to view anything (on the web) that I’m adding to that /html folder – except that I can always (still) see the index.html ‘welcome to debian nginx’ page. Kind of strange. Thanks for the tutorial though!
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Installing LEMP directly on Debian 7 requires sysadmin experience and use of CLI. Unless you know how to do that, you will have difficulty doing that. In such cases, I’d recommend you to use a managed hosting, like Cloudways, for quickly and easily installing LEMP on Debian.
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Hello. Thanks for the very detailed tutorials! while I type:
mysql_install_db/// show error: command not found <<<<<<<< root@mainguiglo:/home/lanotec# mysql_install_db Installing MySQL system tables… 150806 11:42:20 [Warning] Using unique option prefix key_buffer instead of key_buffer_size is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use the full name instead. 150806 11:42:20 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 5.5.44-0+deb8u1) starting as process 28007 … OK Filling help tables… 150806 11:42:20 [Warning] Using unique option prefix key_buffer instead of key_buffer_size is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use the full name instead. 150806 11:42:20 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 5.5.44-0+deb8u1) starting as process 28013 … OKTo start mysqld at boot time you have to copy support-files/mysql.server to the right place for your system
PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET A PASSWORD FOR THE MySQL root USER ! To do so, start the server, then issue the following commands:
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘new-password’ /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h mainguiglo password ‘new-password’
Alternatively you can run: /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
which will also give you the option of removing the test databases and anonymous user created by default. This is strongly recommended for production servers.
See the manual for more instructions.
You can start the MySQL daemon with: cd /usr ; /usr/bin/mysqld_safe &
You can test the MySQL daemon with mysql-test-run.pl cd /usr/mysql-test ; perl mysql-test-run.pl
Please report any problems at http://bugs.mysql.com/
Thanks for beautiful job here! this line does not exist
`listen = 127.0.0.1:9000```na current version of php .. because already used the search feature of the nano .. ctrl + we nothing ... only this line:`; listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1``` only this line contains the IP address www.confthere is: listen = 127.0.0.1:9000
``; listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1``` it comes on the same line you to move to /var/run/php5-fpm.sock ??? please help me!
Recalling that the wizard asked me several questions in my server installation, and here not hinted at these questions after:
apt-get install mysql-serverO wizard me fez as seguintes seguntas e responde das seguintes formas: root@mainguiglo:/home/lanotec# /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we’ll need the current password for the root user. If you’ve just installed MySQL, and you haven’t set the root password yet, the password will be blank, so you should just press enter here.
Enter current password for root (enter for none): ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’ (using password: YES) Enter current password for root (enter for none): ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’ (using password: YES) Enter current password for root (enter for none): ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’ (using password: YES) Enter current password for root (enter for none): OK, successfully used password, moving on…
Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL root user without the proper authorisation.
You already have a root password set, so you can safely answer ‘n’.
Change the root password? [Y/n] n … skipping.
By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a production environment.
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y … Success!
Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from ‘localhost’. This ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y … Success!
By default, MySQL comes with a database named ‘test’ that anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed before moving into a production environment.
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far will take effect immediately.
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y … Success!
Cleaning up… /// pleass help me – already created several dynamic website with drupal, joomla, wordpress in my loca server, and always stayed in terrible hosting services and HG BH and others with shared ip, I want to experience the digital ocean so praised, but to following the step by step and to having errors. the strangest was not found after typing command:
mysql_install_db