How to Install LAMP with RDS on Ubuntu with Let’s Encrypt SSL – AWS

How to Install LAMP with RDS on Ubuntu with Let’s Encrypt SSL – AWS. In this guide you will learn how to install Apache2, PHP 7.4 and configure MySQL in Amazon RDS.

You will also install some common PHP extensions and adjust the PHP configurations. Finally you will install Let’s Encrypt SSL and configure HTTPS

This setup is tested on an EC2 Instance with Ubuntu 18.04 OS.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2: Install Apache

Apache2 is available by default in the Ubuntu repository, so you can install it directly using the apt command.

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sudo apt install apache2

This will install apache2 and all required dependencies.

Step 3: Setup Firewall

Now you can set up Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) with Apache to allow public access on default web ports for HTTP and HTTPS

sudo ufw app list

You will see all listed applications.

Output
Available applications:
   Apache
   Apache Full
   Apache Secure
   OpenSSH

• Apache: This profile opens port 80 (normal, unencrypted web traffic)
• Apache Full: This profile opens both port 80 (normal, unencrypted web traffic) and port 443 (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic)
• Apache Secure: This profile opens only port 443 (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic)
• OpenSSH: This profile opens port 22 for SSH access.

If you are not going to use SSL you need to enable only the Apache profile.

Now we will enable Apache Full.

sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'

With this command you can view the status of UFW.

sudo ufw status

You will see the output as follows.

Output
Status: active
 To                         Action      From
 --                         ------      ----
 Apache Full                ALLOW       Anywhere                  
 OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere                  
 Apache Full (v6)           ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)             
 OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

Step: 4 Check Apache Installation

Once Apache is installed is is started automatically and already be up and running.

Every process in Apache is managed with the systemctl command. Check the status of Apache with the following command.

sudo systemctl status apache2

Output
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
            └─apache2-systemd.conf
    Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-01-06 03:59:34 UTC; 5min ago
  Main PID: 10617 (apache2)
     Tasks: 55 (limit: 667)
    CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
            ├─10617 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
            ├─10619 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
            └─10620 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
 Jan 06 03:59:34 apache systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server…
 Jan 06 03:59:34 apache systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

Now we have Apache installed and configured Firewall.

Step 5: Install PHP 7.4

Here we will install PHP 7.4 the current latest version available. Add the ondrej/php which has PHP 7.4 package and other required PHP extensions.

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update

Once you have added the PPA you can install PHP 7.4.

Execute the following command to install PHP 7.4

sudo apt install php7.4

After the installation has completed, you can confirm the installation using the following command

php -v

Step 6: Install PHP 7.4 Extensions

Installing PHP extensions are simple with the following syntax.

sudo apt install php7.4-extension_name

Now, install some commonly used php-extensions with the following command.

sudo apt install php7.4-common php7.4-mysql php7.4-xml php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-curl php7.4-gd php7.4-imagick php7.4-cli php7.4-dev php7.4-imap php7.4-mbstring php7.4-opcache php7.4-soap php7.4-zip php7.4-intl -y

Step 7: Configure PHP 7.4

Now we configure PHP for Web Applications by changing some values in php.ini file.

For PHP 7.4 with Apache the php.ini location will be in following directory.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

Hit F6 for search inside the editor and update the following values for better performance.

upload_max_filesize = 32M 
post_max_size = 48M 
memory_limit = 256M 
max_execution_time = 600 
max_input_vars = 3000 
max_input_time = 1000

Once you have modified your PHP settings you need to restart your Apache for the changes to take effect.

Step 8: Setup Amazon RDS and connect with EC2

Now you can create an RDS database server with MySQL engine and configure security groups to allow connections from EC2 Instance.

Follow the RDS setup guide to configure it with MySQL.

Step 9: Configure Apache

Disable default Apache configuration.

sudo a2dissite 000-default

Create website directories.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/domainname/public

Setup correct permissions.

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/domainname
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/domainname

Create a new virtual host configuration.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/domainname.conf

Paste the following configurations in the new file.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@domainname.com
     ServerName domainname.com
     ServerAlias www.domainname.com

     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/domainname/public

     <Directory /var/www/html/domainname/public>
         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride All
         Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log 
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined 
 </VirtualHost>

Enable the new configuration.

sudo a2ensite domainname.conf

Step 10: Install Let’s Encrypt SSL

HTTPS is a protocol for secure communication between a server (instance) and a client (web browser). Due to the introduction of Let’s Encrypt, which provides free SSL certificates, HTTPS are adopted by everyone and also provides trust to your audiences.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python-certbot-apache

Now we have installed Cert bot by Let’s Encrypt for Ubuntu 18.04, run this command to receive your certificates.

sudo certbot --apache --agree-tos --redirect -m [email protected] -d domainname.com -d www.domainname.com

Select the appropriate option and hit Enter

This command will install Free SSL, configure redirection to HTTPS and restarts the Apache server.

Step 11: Renewing SSL Certificate

Certificates provided by Let’s Encrypt are valid for 90 days only, so you need to renew them often. So, let’s test the renewal feature using the following command.

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

This command will test the certificate expiry and configures the auto-renewable feature.

Step: 12: Test the Setup

Once you have done the able steps you can create a new test PHP file in your web directory.

sudo nano /var/www/html/domainname/public/info.php

Paste the below code inside the file.

<?php phpinfo();

Save the file.

Now go ahead and check your domain name with the info.php in the url (domainname.com/info.php).

You will see that your domain got redirected to HTTPS and see the PHP information details.

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Conclusion

Now you have learned how to install LAMP stack with RDS database setup on Amazon EC2 Instance with Ubuntu 18.04.

Thanks for your time. If you face any problem or any feedback, please leave a comment below.