Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP – LEMP Stack for Laravel on Ubuntu

This quick tutorial will guide to install LEMP stack for Laravel on Ubuntu OS.

Install PHP

• Install necessary php mods:

  apt-get install nginx php5-fpm php5-cli php5-mcrypt php5-json php5-dev php-pear git

• Enable mcrypt:

  ln -s /etc/php5/conf.d/mcrypt.ini /etc/php5/mods-available
  php5enmod mcrypt

• Modify /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini and change cgi.fix_pathinfo to 0:

  cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

• Install opcache:

  pecl install zendopcache-7.0.3
  echo "zend_extension=/usr/lib/php5/20100525/opcache.so" > /etc/php5/mods-available/opcache.ini
  ln -s /etc/php5/mods-available/opcache.ini /etc/php5/conf.d/20-opcache.ini

  We can also use the following configuration for opcache.ini file (In case your application only uses annotations at development time, you can achieve even better performance by adding opcache.save_comments=0 in your PHP configuration file as well.):

  zend_extension=/usr/lib/php5/20100525/opcache.so
  opcache.memory_consumption=128
  opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
  opcache.max_accelerated_files=4000
  opcache.revalidate_freq=60
  opcache.fast_shutdown=1
  opcache.enable_cli=1

• Restart php5-fpm:

  service php5-fpm restart

• Be sure php5-fpm is running at startup:

  initctl list

Intall NGINX

• Install nginx:

  apt-get install nginx

• Create /etc/nginx/php5-fpm.conf as follow:

  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;
  }

• Remember to include the php5-fpm.conf file in nginx configuration for laravel project. Sample file is as follows:

  server {
      listen 80 default_server;
  
      root /home/domainname/public;
      index index.html index.htm index.php;
  
      server_name domainname.com www.domainname.com;
  
      #access_log /var/log/nginx/local.laravel-access.log;
      access_log off;
      error_log  /var/log/nginx/local.laravel-error.log error;
  
      charset utf-8;
  
      location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|svg|css|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|exe|pdf|doc|xls|ppt|txt|odt|ods|odp|odf|tar|bmp|rtf|js|mp3|avi|mpeg|flv|html|htm|mp4|woff|ttf|eot)$ {
              root           /home/domainname/public;
              expires        max;
          }
  
      location / {
          try_files \$uri \$uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
      }
  
      location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
      location = /robots.txt  { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
  
      error_page 404 /index.php;      
  
      include php5-fpm.conf; # The PHP5-FPM Magic Here
  
      # Deny .htaccess file access
      location ~ /\.ht {
          deny all;
      }
  }

Install MySQL/MariaDB

• For Percona server, check Setting up Nginx, HHVM, and Percona for Laravel
• For MariaDB:
  • First, go to Repository configuration tool to add necessary source list to ubuntu. E.g. for Ubuntu 14.04:

    sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
    sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0xcbcb082a1bb943db
    sudo add-apt-repository 'deb http://ftp.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/pub/dbms/mariadb/repo/5.5/ubuntu trusty main'

    Note: If you only input “keyserver.ubuntu.com”, remember to open the TCP_OUT port 11371 or it will not be able to import necessary keys.

  • Install mariadb server, client tools and driver for PHP:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client php5-mysql

  • Done

That’s it. We can work on Laravel right now.