Linux, Apache, PHP & MySQL Setup (lampset)

lampset is a LAMP stack provisioning script specifically targeting Debian (Server or Desktop). The recommended way of installing this is on a VirtualBox virtual machine.

Features

• (L)inux: Debian Server on VirtualBox
• (A)pache2 - latest version
• (M)ySQL version 8
• (P)HP versions php7.2, php7.4, php8.0 and php8.1.
  • PHP-FPM allows you to run multiple sites running under different PHP versions at the same time.

For general-purpose web development support, the following packages are also installed:

• Composer version 2
• Symfony CLI

Brief History

As a web and back end developer I always had a need for an LAMP stack environment that I can use for developing different web-based applications. The major requirement was that the environment needed to support multiple versions of PHP at the same time - a problem solved by PHP FPM.

The lampset binary is the bringing together of all of the knowledge acquired from the Internet on how to bring this environment up and running in no time, especially after a fresh installation of an operating system.

Supported Platforms

• Debian-based operating system https://debian.org.
• All other operating systems (e.g. Mac, Windows) are supported via VirtualBox. The only requirement is that the guest operating system needs to be Debian Server.

How it works

lampset is an encapsulation of various bash commands and concepts that are applied when setting up a LAMP stack on Debian Server.

The following are more or less the steps that are taken during the provisioning process. Some of the steps require human intervention, so you need to stick around for the duration of the setup.

• Perform a system upgrade to ensure that every package is up to date.
• Register ppa:ondrej/php and ppa:ondrej/apache2 Personal Package Archives (PPAs) that will act as official repositories for PHP and Apache2 respectively.
• Install Apache, MySQL and support modules.
• Install PHP versions php7.2, php7.4, php8.0 and php8.0.
• For each PHP version install various extension modules that are commonly used in a web development environment but not in the core package. Additionally install the respective PHP-FPM module as well.
• Configure the default PHP version to be used by apache2.
• Run mysql_secure_installation to set up root account details and default configuration of MySQL server.
• Fix mysql configuration so that clients like WorkBench can connect to it without running into `Access Denied/Permission" issues.
• Install some opinionated packages that I always need namely Composer and Symfony CLI.

Installation

To set up the LAMP server simply clone this repository and execute the lampset.py file. In this example I have cloned into the /tmp/ directory because this script should only be run once. The system will delete the contents of /tmp/ on next boot.

$ cd /tmp/
$ git clone https://github.com/gmurambadoro/lampset.git lampset
$ cd lampset/
$ python3 lampset.py --php 8.1 --php 7.4 --php 7.2

Post Installation

mysql --version
symfony --version
composer --version
vhost-add --help

NB: The vhost-add command allows you to easily add virtual hosts to your web server. For more information visit my other repository at lampset-vhost-add on GitHub.

Additional Setup

#!/usr/bin/bash

## run the below command in the Host Operating system
# VBoxManage setextradata "SystemDev" VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/SystemDev 1

# ensure Guest Addions have been inserted
sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo /media/cdrom/./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
sudo reboot