Tutorial: Install a LAMP server on AL1

To install and start the LAMP web server with the Amazon Linux AMI

1. Connect to your instance.

2. To ensure that all of your software packages are up to date, perform a quick software update on your instance. This process may take a few minutes, but it is important to make sure that you have the latest security updates and bug fixes.

   The -y option installs the updates without asking for confirmation. If you would like to examine the updates before installing, you can omit this option.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum update -y

3. Now that your instance is current, you can install the Apache web server, MySQL, and PHP software packages.

   Important

   Some applications may not be compatible with the following recommended software environment. Before installing these packages, check whether your LAMP applications are compatible with them. If there is a problem, you may need to install an alternative environment. For more information, see The application software I want to run on my server is incompatible with the installed PHP version or other software

   Use the yum install command to install multiple software packages and all related dependencies at the same time.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install -y httpd24 php72 mysql57-server php72-mysqlnd

   If you receive the error No package package-name available, then your instance was not launched with the Amazon Linux AMI (perhaps you are using AL2 instead). You can view your version of Amazon Linux with the following command.

   cat /etc/system-release

4. Start the Apache web server.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo service httpd start
   Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]

5. Use the chkconfig command to configure the Apache web server to start at each system boot.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo chkconfig httpd on

   The chkconfig command does not provide any confirmation message when you successfully use it to enable a service.

   You can verify that httpd is on by running the following command:

   [ec2-user ~]$ chkconfig --list httpd
   httpd           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

   Here, httpd is on in runlevels 2, 3, 4, and 5 (which is what you want to see).

6. Add a security rule to allow inbound HTTP (port 80) connections to your instance if you have not already done so. By default, a launch-wizard-N security group was set up for your instance during initialization. This group contains a single rule to allow SSH connections.

   1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

   2. Choose Instances and select your instance.

   3. On the Security tab, view the inbound rules. You should see the following rule:

      Port range   Protocol     Source
      22           tcp          0.0.0.0/0

      Warning

      Using 0.0.0.0/0 allows all IPv4 addresses to access your instance using SSH. This is acceptable for a short time in a test environment, but it's unsafe for production environments. In production, you authorize only a specific IP address or range of addresses to access your instance.

   4. Choose the link for the security group. Using the procedures in Add rules to a security group, add a new inbound security rule with the following values:

      • Type: HTTP

      • Protocol: TCP

      • Port Range: 80

      • Source: Custom

7. Test your web server. In a web browser, type the public DNS address (or the public IP address) of your instance. You can get the public DNS address for your instance using the Amazon EC2 console. If there is no content in /var/www/html, you should see the Apache test page. When you add content to the document root, your content appears at the public DNS address of your instance instead of the test page.

   Verify that the security group for the instance contains a rule to allow HTTP traffic on port 80. For more information, see Add rules to a security group/>.

   If you are not using Amazon Linux, you may also need to configure the firewall on your instance to allow these connections. For more information about how to configure the firewall, see the documentation for your specific distribution.

To set file permissions

1. Add your user (in this case, ec2-user) to the apache group.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo usermod -a -G apache ec2-user

2. Log out and then log back in again to pick up the new group, and then verify your membership.

   1. Log out (use the exit command or close the terminal window):

      [ec2-user ~]$ exit

   2. To verify your membership in the apache group, reconnect to your instance, and then run the following command:

      [ec2-user ~]$ groups
      ec2-user wheel apache

3. Change the group ownership of /var/www and its contents to the apache group.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo chown -R ec2-user:apache /var/www

4. To add group write permissions and to set the group ID on future subdirectories, change the directory permissions of /var/www and its subdirectories.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo chmod 2775 /var/www
   [ec2-user ~]$ find /var/www -type d -exec sudo chmod 2775 {} \;

5. To add group write permissions, recursively change the file permissions of /var/www and its subdirectories:

   [ec2-user ~]$ find /var/www -type f -exec sudo chmod 0664 {} \;

To test your LAMP web server

1. Create a PHP file in the Apache document root.

   [ec2-user ~]$ echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

   If you get a "Permission denied" error when trying to run this command, try logging out and logging back in again to pick up the proper group permissions that you configured in Step 1: Prepare the LAMP server.

2. In a web browser, type the URL of the file that you just created. This URL is the public DNS address of your instance followed by a forward slash and the file name. For example:

   http://my.public.dns.amazonaws.com/phpinfo.php

   You should see the PHP information page:

   

   If you do not see this page, verify that the /var/www/html/phpinfo.php file was created properly in the previous step. You can also verify that all of the required packages were installed with the following command. The package versions in the second column do not need to match this example output.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum list installed httpd24 php72 mysql57-server php72-mysqlnd
   Loaded plugins: priorities, update-motd, upgrade-helper
   Installed Packages
   httpd24.x86_64                          2.4.25-1.68.amzn1                    @amzn-updates
   mysql56-server.x86_64                   5.6.35-1.23.amzn1                    @amzn-updates
   php70.x86_64                            7.0.14-1.20.amzn1                    @amzn-updates
   php70-mysqlnd.x86_64                    7.0.14-1.20.amzn1                    @amzn-updates

   If any of the required packages are not listed in your output, install them using the sudo yum install package command.

3. Delete the phpinfo.php file. Although this can be useful information, it should not be broadcast to the internet for security reasons.

   [ec2-user ~]$ rm /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

To secure the database server

1. Start the MySQL server.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo service mysqld start
   Initializing MySQL database:  
   ...
   
   PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET A PASSWORD FOR THE MySQL root USER !
   ...
   
   Starting mysqld:                                           [  OK  ]

2. Run mysql_secure_installation.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

   1. When prompted, type a password for the root account.

      1. Type the current root password. By default, the root account does not have a password set. Press Enter.

      2. Type Y to set a password, and type a secure password twice. For more information about creating a secure password, see https://identitysafe.norton.com/password-generator/. Make sure to store this password in a safe place.

         Setting a root password for MySQL is only the most basic measure for securing your database. When you build or install a database-driven application, you typically create a database service user for that application and avoid using the root account for anything but database administration.

   2. Type Y to remove the anonymous user accounts.

   3. Type Y to disable the remote root login.

   4. Type Y to remove the test database.

   5. Type Y to reload the privilege tables and save your changes.

3. (Optional) If you do not plan to use the MySQL server right away, stop it. You can restart it when you need it again.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo service mysqld stop
   Stopping mysqld:                                           [  OK  ]

4. (Optional) If you want the MySQL server to start at every boot, type the following command.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo chkconfig mysqld on

To install phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is a web-based database management tool that you can use to view and edit the MySQL databases on your EC2 instance. Follow the steps below to install and configure phpMyAdmin on your Amazon Linux instance.

1. Log in to your EC2 instance using SSH.

2. Install the required dependencies.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo yum install php72-mbstring.x86_64 -y

3. Restart Apache.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo service httpd restart
   Stopping httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
   Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]

4. Navigate to the Apache document root at /var/www/html.

   [ec2-user ~]$ cd /var/www/html
   [ec2-user html]$ 

5. Select a source package for the latest phpMyAdmin release from https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads. To download the file directly to your instance, copy the link and paste it into a wget command, as in this example:

   [ec2-user html]$ wget https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.tar.gz

6. Create a phpMyAdmin folder and extract the package into it using the following command.

   [ec2-user html]$ mkdir phpMyAdmin && tar -xvzf phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.tar.gz -C phpMyAdmin --strip-components 1

7. Delete the phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.tar.gz tarball.

   [ec2-user html]$ rm phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.tar.gz

8. (Optional) If the MySQL server is not running, start it now.

   [ec2-user ~]$ sudo service mysqld start
   Starting mysqld:                                           [  OK  ]

9. In a web browser, type the URL of your phpMyAdmin installation. This URL is the public DNS address (or the public IP address) of your instance followed by a forward slash and the name of your installation directory. For example:

   http://my.public.dns.amazonaws.com/phpMyAdmin

   You should see the phpMyAdmin login page:

   

10. Log in to your phpMyAdmin installation with the root user name and the MySQL root password you created earlier.

    Your installation must still be configured before you put it into service. To configure phpMyAdmin, you can manually create a configuration file, use the setup console, or combine both approaches.

    For information about using phpMyAdmin, see the phpMyAdmin User Guide.