How to install LAMP stack on Ubuntu

In this tutorial we will learn to install LAMP stack on Ubuntu.

Note! This step will work for Ubuntu 16 and newer version like 18.04 LTS.

LAMP stack

LAMP stack stands for Linux Apache MySQL and Php. Ubuntu is Linux so, we have to install Apache, MySQL database and Php.

Getting started

Before we start lets go ahead and update the packages using the following command.

$ sudo apt update

Step #1: Install Apache

We will start by installing Apache2. Open Terminal and run the following command.

$ sudo apt install apache2

Note! In the above command we are using sudo so, you will be prompted to enter your password.

Allow web traffic

Now we have to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic via firewall. For this we will run the following command.

$ sudo ufw app list

This will list the apps.

Available applications:
  Apache
  Apache Full
  Apache Secure
  CUPS

We have to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic to Apache Full on port 80 and 443.

To see the details we can run the following command.

$ sudo ufw app info "Apache Full"

Output:

Profile: Apache Full
Title: Web Server (HTTP,HTTPS)
Description: Apache v2 is the next generation of the omnipresent Apache web
server.

Ports:
  80,443/tcp

To enable traffic we have to run the following command.

$ sudo ufw allow in "Apache Full"

On success we will be able to open localhost in the browser and get the following output.

Tips

To check the status of apache2 run the following command.

$ sudo systemctl status apache2.service

To stop apache2 run the following command.

$ sudo systemctl stop apache2.service

To start apache2 run the following command.

$ sudo systemctl start apache2.service

To restart apache2 run the following command.

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Document root

By default, the document root directory is /var/www/html so, we have to place our website project files inside that directory.

Step #2: Install MySQL

To install MySQL database run the following command.

$ sudo apt install mysql-server mysql-client

Setting up MySQL by running the following command. This will help you to create a login password for MySQL.

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the instructions and set the password.

Step #3: Install Php

Run the following command to install Php.

$ sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

On successful installation you will be able to check the version of Php by running the following command.

$ php -v
PHP 7.2.5-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 (cli) (built: May  9 2018 17:21:02) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.2.5-0ubuntu0.18.04.1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

phpinfo

For testing purpose you can cd into /var/www/html directory and create a new file lets say info.php and write the following code.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Now, if you visit localhost/info.php you will get to see a similar output as shown below.