How to Install a LAMP Stack on Fedora, AlmaLinux, or Rocky Linux

One of the most popular open-source web development platforms is the Linux-based LAMP Stack. It provides all the essential components to host dynamic websites and web applications. This guide explains how to install and test a LAMP stack on Fedora 38, as well as compatible RHEL-based distributions like AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9.

What is a LAMP Stack?

The LAMP stack is a foundational architecture for open source web development on Linux systems. It includes four core components: Linux, Apache, MySQL or MariaDB, and PHP, Perl, or Python. This stack supports a wide range of modern websites and applications, including WordPress.

The main components are:

• Linux: A free and open source UNIX-based operating system. It is available in several distinct implementations, called distributions. This guide uses Fedora 38, a cutting-edge distribution with frequent updates. The same instructions apply to AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9, which are binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Each distribution of Linux has its own software library which includes the other LAMP stack components.

• Apache: A widely used open source web server. Apache provides the core tools to host web sites and supports additional features through optional modules such as authentication and programming language APIs.

• MariaDB/MySQL: Both are open source relational database management systems (RDBMS). MariaDB, a fork of MySQL, offers improved performance and additional features. Either can serve as the database layer in a LAMP stack.

• PHP/Perl/Python: PHP is the most common server-side scripting in LAMP environments. It integrates easily with HTML and powers many popular web applications. PHP is available for free under the PHP License. See the PHP documentation for usage instructions. Perl and Python are supported alternatives.

All components are available through Fedora 38’s default software repositories.

Before You Begin

1. Before installing the LAMP stack, make sure you have a Linode account and an active Compute Instance. Refer to our Getting Started with Linode and Creating a Compute Instance guides.

2. Next, follow the Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance guide to update your system. You may also want to set the timezone, configure the hostname, create a limited user account, and harden SSH access.

How to Install a LAMP Stack on Fedora

These instructions are designed for Fedora 38, but most steps also apply to AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9. Where necessary the guide includes alternate commands for RHEL-based distributions.

How to Install the Apache Web Server

1. Update your system:

   sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

2. Install Apache:

   sudo dnf install httpd -y

3. Enable and start Apache. (The enable command automatically launches Apache when the system reboots.)

   sudo systemctl enable httpd
   sudo systemctl start httpd

4. Verify Apache is running:

   systemctl status httpd

   ● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; preset: di>
       Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
                └─10-timeout-abort.conf
        Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-08-28 12:20:09 EDT; 47s ago

   Press Q to exit the systemctl status output and return to the terminal prompt.

5. Configure the firewall settings to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic:

   sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
   sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
   sudo firewall-cmd --reload

6. Test Apache in a Browser

   Open a Web browser and navigate to your server’s IP address. You should see the “Fedora Webserver Test Page”. AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux display similar default pages.

   This indicates the web server is working but has not been fully configured yet. The AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux distributions have their own web server test pages which are similar but slightly different.

   Note: If the page doesn’t load, Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) may be blocking access. Fedora uses SELinux in enforcing mode by default which is the fairly restrictive. You can temporarily switch to permissive mode for troubleshooting:

   sudo setenforce 0

   To make this change persistent (not recommended for production), edit the SELinux config:

   sudo sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/selinux/config
   

   Optional

   If your domain name points to the server, it can be added to the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file for better performance.

   1. Open the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf in a text editor with root permissions:

      sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

   2. Add the following lines at the end of file, replacing EXAMPLE_DOMAIN with your fully-qualified domain:

      File: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

      1 2	ServerAdmin admin@EXAMPLE_DOMAIN ServerName EXAMPLE_DOMAIN:80

   3. To save and exit, press CTRL+X, then Y then Enter.

   4. Restart the Apache web server:

      sudo systemctl restart httpd

   5. Open a Web browser and navigate to your domain name. The browser should now display the default Fedora web server page.

How to Install the MariaDB Database

This guide installs MariaDB, a drop-in replacement for MySQL and the default database in Fedora 38. MariaDB is widely adopted and offers improved performance and additional features compared to the original MySQL application. While the LAMP stack can also use MySQL, MariaDB is fully compatible and recommended for Fedora-based systems.

1  sudo mysql
2  ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_secure_password';
3  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
4  EXIT;
5

1. Install the MariaDB server:

   sudo dnf install mariadb-server -y

2. Enable and start MariaDB:

   sudo systemctl enable mariadb
   sudo systemctl start mariadb

3. Check status to confirm it is active:

   sudo systemctl status mariadb

   ● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.5 database server
        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; preset:>
       Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/service.d
                └─10-timeout-abort.conf
        Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-08-28 13:20:57 EDT; 24s ago

   Depending on your system, output may show MariaDB 10.11. Press the Q key to exit the status output and return to the terminal prompt.

4. To secure the database, use the interactive mysql_secure_installation utility:

   sudo mysql_secure_installation

   Provide the following responses to the questions in the script:

   • For Enter current password for root, press the Enter key. Because the command is run using sudo privileges, a password is not required.
   • For Switch to unit_socket authentication, answer n.
   • For Change the root password?, answer n. It is safe to permit local sudo access with the standard root password.
   • For Remove anonymous users?, answer y.
   • For Disallow root login remotely?, answer y`.
   • For Remove test database and access to it?, answer y.
   • For Reload privilege tables now?, answer y to apply the changes.

5. Access the database using sudo:

   sudo mysql

   MariaDB displays background information about the application along with the > prompt and may show a newer version, 10.11:

   Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
   Your MariaDB connection id is 9
   Server version: 10.11.6-MariaDB MariaDB Server
   
   Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
   
   Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
   
   MariaDB [(none)]>

6. Create the webdata database and a user account for web application access. In the CREATE USER query, provide a secure password in place of EXAMPLE_PASSWORD and a more meaningful username in place of EXAMPLE_USERNAME. Finally, grant full rights to the user.

   CREATE DATABASE webdata;
   CREATE USER 'EXAMPLE_USERNAME'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'EXAMPLE_PASSWORD';
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON webdata.* TO 'EXAMPLE_USERNAME'@'localhost';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

   MySQL should respond with Query OK after each line.

7. Exit the SQL shell and return to the terminal prompt:

   quit

How to Install PHP

Fedora 38 includes PHP 8.2 in its default repositories. If you want to install the latest stable version of PHP (such as PHP 8.3 or 8.4), you can use the Remi repository, which is a trusted third-party source for up-to-date PHP packages.

1. Option 1: Install PHP 8.2 component, (Default Fedora Package) This includes the php-mysqlnd package for database integration):

   sudo dnf install -y php php-mysqlnd

Note: This version is maintained by the Fedora project and may not include the latest PHP features. To learn more: [Fedora PHP Packages}(https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/php/)

1. Option 2: Install the Latest PHP Version (via Remi Repository)

To install PHP 8.3 or 8.4, enable the Remi repository and select the desired PHP module:

   sudo dnf install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/fedora/remi-release-38.rpm
   sudo dnf module reset php
   sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.3
   sudo dnf install php php-mysqlnd

This includes the php-mysqlnd package, which enables PHP to communicate with MySQL and MariaDB databases.

Note: PHP 8.3 and 8.4 are stable and production-ready. These versions are not available in Fedora’s default repositories and must be installed via Remi.

1. Optional: Install a selection of other commonly-used PHP extensions. Different applications might require additional PHP packages. Consult the application documentation for details.

   sudo dnf install php-cli php-gettext php-mbstring php-pear php-curl php-gd php-xml php-bcmath php-zip php-json -y

   sudo dnf install php-cli php-gettext php-mbstring php-pear php-curl php-gd php-xml php-bcmath php-zip php-json -y
   1. Verify the PHP release to confirm a successful installation:

   php -v

   On Fedora, the current PHP release is 8.2.9. AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux currently install release 8.0.27.

   PHP 8.2.9 (cli) (built: Aug  3 2023 11:39:08) (NTS gcc x86_64)
   Copyright (c) The PHP Group
   Zend Engine v4.2.9, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
       with Zend OPcache v8.2.9, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

   Note

   To determine if a more recent release of PHP is available, use the command dnf module list php. To select a non-default release, use the command dnf module enable php:RELEASE_NUMBER. Substitute the desired release number for RELEASE_NUMBER.

2. Restart Apache to activate the PHP Apache API:

   sudo systemctl restart httpd

How to Verify the LAMP Stack Installation

To verify the stack components, embed a PHP code block containing a database connection inside an HTML page. PHP code can be integrated into an HTML page. PHP code can be integrated into an HTML file using the <?php tag. The PHP code block can then connect to an SQL-based database using the mysqli_connect command. Provide the appropriate database credentials to connect.

To fully test all components of the LAMP stack, follow the steps below.

1. Change into the var/www/html directory and create a new phptest.php file:

   cd /var/www/html
   sudo nano phptest.php

2. Add the following contents to the file. Ensure the servername variable is set to localhost. Replace EXAMPLE_USERNAME and EXAMPLE_PASSWORD with the credentials for the database web user account.

   File: /var/www/html/phptest.php

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

   <html> <head> <title>PHP Test</title> </head> <body> <?php echo '<p>Welcome to the Site!</p>'; // When running this script on a local database, the servername must be 'localhost'. Use the name and password of the web user account created earlier. Do not use the root password. $servername = "localhost"; $username = "EXAMPLE_USERNAME"; $password = "EXAMPLE_PASSWORD"; // Create MySQL connection $conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password); // If the conn variable is empty, the connection has failed. The output for the failure case includes the error message if (!$conn) { die('<p>Connection failed: </p>' . mysqli_connect_error()); } echo '<p>Connected successfully</p>'; ?> </body> </html>

   When done, press CTRL+X, followed by Y then Enter to save the file and exit nano.

3. Run the LAMP stack script test. Open a Web browser and navigate to either the IP address or the domain name followed by /phptest.php. For example, http://example.com/phptest.php, but replace example.com with your actual domain name or IP address.

4. If the test is successful, the browser displays connected successfully message:

   

   Note

   If the page displays the Connection failed message, verify the database credentials and try again. If an HTML error occurs, ensure the contents of the sample file are complete and correct. To isolate the PHP functionality, replace the contents between with phpinfo();. This command displays information about the PHP installation and confirms if PHP is working.

Additional LAMP Stack Production Considerations

The previous instructions are sufficient for small personal sites. However, commercial sites might require additional configuration. Here are some other issues to potentially consider.

1. The database is not currently remotely accessible. To access MariaDB through the firewall, use the following commands:

   sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=mysql --permanent
   sudo firewall-cmd --reload

2. To run multiple sites from the same server, configure a virtual host for each site. This is considered a more professional configuration even for a single site.

   Configure a virtual host, add a new directory at /var/www/html/EXAMPLE_DOMAIN/public_html. Replace EXAMPLE_DOMAIN with the actual domain name. Add the website files to this directory. Then edit the file at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to add the virtual hosts. Each virtual host must define a DocumentRoot, ServerName, and ServerAdmin.

   Consult the Apache Virtual Host documentation for more information.

3. Secure and Optimize MariaDB: After installation, it’s important to run mysql_secure_installation to remove insecure defaults and set a root password. For production environments, consider configuring bind-address in the MariaDB configuration file (typically /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf or /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf) to restrict remote access. You can also improve performance by tuning settings like innodb_buffer_pool_size, query_cache_size, and max_connections based on your server’s workload and available memory.

4. To remove the default welcome page, edit the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf and comment out all directives using the # symbol.

Conclusion

The Fedora LAMP stack consists of the Linux operating system, Apache web server, the MariaDB/MySQL database, and the PHP/Perl/Python programming language. Together, this architecture is suitable for most modern computing environments. All LAMP components are available in the standard Fedora package library and are installed using dnf. To test the stack, configure a database for the web user and create a simple script using HTML and PHP.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Apache HTTP server
• MariaDB
• PHP
• PHP documentation
• MySQL
• LAMP Stack
• Apache Virtual Host documentation