Installing the Lamp Stack on a Cloud Server with Centos 7 Minimal Installation

This article explains how to install a LAMP stack on a Cloud Server running CentOS 7.

A LAMP stack consists of the Linux operating system and the software applications Apache, MySQL/MariaDB and PHP. These are installed together to host dynamic websites and web applications on one server.

Follow these steps to install Apache:

• To check if an update is available for CentOS 7, enter the following command:
  yum update

• To install Apache, type the following command:
  yum install httpd The following message is displayed:
  Total download size: 3.0 M Installed
  size: 10 M Is
  this ok [y/d/N]:

• Enter [y] and press [Enter], and Apache will be installed.

• To start Apache, type the command below:
  systemctl start httpd.service

• To create a test page, enter the following command:
  echo "Welcome" > /var/www/html/index.html

• To verify that Apache has been successfully installed and started, enter the public IP address of your server in your web browser in the following format.
  
  http://YOUR-SERVER-IP-ADDRESS
  
  if you see a test page, the installation of Apache was successful.

• To ensure that Apache is also automatically restarted when the server is restarted, enter the following command:
  systemctl enable httpd.service

• To install MariaDB, type the following command:
  yum install mariadb-server mariadb
  The following message will be displayed:
  Total download size: 21 M
  Installed size: 110 M
  Is this ok [y/d/N]:

• Enter [y] and press [Enter], and MariaDB will be installed.

• To start MariaDB, type the following command:
  systemctl start mariadb

• To run a security script that removes some dangerous default settings and restricts access to the database system, type the following command: mysql_secure_installation
  After entering the command, you will be prompted for a password. Since you have not yet defined a password for MariaDB, you can skip this point. To do this, press Enter. You will then be asked if you want to set the root password.

• Enter [y] and press [Enter].

• Enter a new root password, repeat it, and then press [Enter].
  
  The following message will be displayed:
  By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone to
  log into MariaDB without having a user account created for them
  . This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation go
  a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a production
  environment.
  
  Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]

• To remove anonymous users, type [y] and press [Enter], and the following message will be displayed:
  Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]

• Enter [y] and press [Enter], and the following message appears:
  Remove test database and access to it?

• Enter [y] and press [Enter], and the following message appears:
  Reload privilege tables now?

• To reload the authorisation tables, enter [y]. To confirm the entry, press [Enter].

• To enable MariaDB on boot, type the following command:
  systemctl enable mariadb.service

To install the PHP scripting language, proceed as follows:

• To install the PHP-MySQL package, type the following command:
  yum install php php-mysql

• The following message is displayed:
  Total download size: 4.9 M
  Installed size: 18 M
  Is this ok [y/d/N]:

• To continue the installation, enter [y]. Then press [Enter].

• To restart the Apache web server, type the following command:
  systemctl restart httpd.service

To extend the functionality of PHP, you can install additional modules.

To view the available options for PHP modules and libraries, type the following command:
yum search php-
To get detailed information about a PHP module, type the command below

yum info package_name

Example:

yum info php-embedded.x86_64

To install the desired PHP modules, enter the following command:

yum install package1 package2

Example:

yum install php-cli.x86_64 php-devel.x86_64 php-dba.x86_64

To continue with the installation, enter [y]. Then press [Enter].

To test if PHP is installed properly, create a script with the editor. This must be stored in the directory /var/www/html.

• To create the script in the /var/www/html directory, enter the following command:
  vi /var/www/html/info.php
  The editor vi will open.

• Press [i] and enter the following PHP code:
  <?php phpinfo(); ?>

• To enter the command mode, press [ESC]. Then enter the command :wq to save the text and close the editor.

• To test whether the contents of the PHP script are displayed, call the corresponding URL in the following format in your web browser:
  
  http://MY-SERVER-IP-ADDRESS/info.php

• To remove the displayed page, enter the following command:
  rm /var/www/html/info.php