How to Install Joomla with Apache2 and Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04

Are you thinking about building a new website or blog powered by Joomla? If so, please make sure to have it default to HTTPS… Because websites that are creating HTTPS compliant by default do better than do that are not…

Google and other search engines also rank HTTPS websites better than HTTP and your user privacy will be ensured as well… Going forward, always build your sites to be HTTPS compliant!

This brief tutorial will show students and new user a step by step guide on how to setup Joomla websites with Apache2 and use Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates and security features to help improve their websites performance and protect against malicious actors..

This setup might take a while to complete and the process below should work on other websites as well… It doesn’t have to be Joomla… This setup should work on other CMSes and plain HTML sites out of the box…When you’re ready to setup Joomla and Let’s Encrypt, follow the steps below:

Step 0: Get your Domain Name

Let’s Encrypt works with valid domain and a working server that the domain is pointing to… This setup assumes that your domain name is called example.com and is pointing to your server with IP address 192.168.1.2

Don’t forget to also make sure www CNAME is pointing to the domain name…. Should look like something below:

example.com        A       ==========>    192.168.1.2
www               CNAME    ==========>    example.com

Step 1: Install and Configure Joomla

Now that you’ve configured your domain to point to your server, continue below to setting up Joomla and Let’s Encrypt…

First install Apache2 HTTP server since we’re using Apache2 for this post.. To install Apache2 server, run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots…

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
sudo systemctl start apache2.service
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

Now that Apache2 is installed…. to test whether the web server is working, open your browser and browse to the URL below…

https://localhost

If you see the page above, then Apache2 is successfully installed…

Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server

Joomla also requires a database server to store its content… If you’re looking for a truly open source database server, then MariaDB is a great place to start… To install MariaDB run the commands below:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots…

Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 19.04 and 18.04 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation…

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: Enter password
Re-enter new password: Repeat password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

Now that MariaDB is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below…

sudo mysql -u root -p

type the root password when prompted…

If you see a similar screen as shown above, then the server was successfully installed…

Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

Joomla CMS is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required… However, PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories… To run PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:

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

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default configuration file for Apache2…

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

The lines below is a good settings for most PHP based CMS… Update the configuration file with these and save….

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Apache2 web server… To do so, run the commands below:

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it’s functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Apache2 default root directory…. ( /var/www/html/)

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Then type the content below and save the file.

<?php phpinfo( ); ?>

Next, open your browser and browse to the server’s hostname or IP address followed by phpinfo.php

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

You should see PHP default test page…

Step 4: Create Joomla Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Joomla to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Joomla database.

To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called joomla

CREATE DATABASE joomla;

Create a database user called joomlauser with a new password

CREATE USER 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON joomla.* TO 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download Joomla Latest Release

To get Joomla latest release you will need to go to its official download page and get it from there… The link below is where to find Joomla latest archive versions…

https://downloads.joomla.org/

At the time of this writing, the latest version is 3.9.5… Future version will have different links to download from….

Run the commands below to download and extract Joomla version 3.9.5

cd /tmp
wget https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla3/3-9-5/joomla_3-9-5-stable-full_package-zip
sudo unzip -d /var/www/html/example.com /tmp/joomla_3-9-5-stable-full_package-zip

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Joomla root directory and give Apache2 control….

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/example.com/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/example.com/

Step 6: Configure Apache2

Next, configure Apache2 site configuration file for Joomla… This file will control how users access Joomla content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called example.com.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com
  ServerAdmin admin@example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com
    
  <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/>
       Options FollowSymlinks
       AllowOverride All
       Require all granted
  </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
    
  <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/>
       RewriteEngine on
       RewriteBase /
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
       RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php [PT,L]
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Now the the example.com configuration file is created, run the commands below to enable it…

sudo a2ensite example.com.conf

At this point Apache2 should be configured and ready to respond over HTTP… It doesn’t yet support HTTPS.

Step 7: Install and Configure Let’s Encrypt

Now that our Apache2 site is enabled and ready to use, run the commands below to install and configure Let’s Encrypt to secure the Apache2 website…

First install Certbot… Certbot is a fully featured and easy to use tool that can automate the tasks for obtaining and renewing Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates…

To install it, run the commands below:

sudo apt install certbot

After installing Certbot, create a file to for Let’s Encrypt to the Webroot plugin to validate our domain in the ${webroot-path}/.well-known/acme-challenge directory….

To do that, create the directory and give Apache2 access to it…

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt/.well-known
sudo chgrp www-data /var/lib/letsencrypt
sudo chmod g+s /var/lib/letsencrypt

Next, create a well-known challenge file with the configurations below…

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/well-known.conf

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save…

Alias /.well-known/acme-challenge/ "/var/lib/letsencrypt/.well-known/acme-challenge/"
<Directory "/var/lib/letsencrypt/">
    AllowOverride None
    Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
    Require method GET POST OPTIONS
</Directory>

Save the file and exit

Step 8: Obtain Your Free Certificate

At this point, your domain should be pointing to your server IP… Apache2 HTTP server installed and configured and Certbot installed ready to obtain your certificate…

Before requesting your free certificate, open your example.com enable Apache2 configurations and modules by running the commands below…

The commands below enable Apache2 SSL, Headers, HTTPS/2 and the well-known configuration file we created above..

sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo a2enmod headers
sudo a2enmod http2
sudo a2enconf well-known

After enabling the modules and config file above, restart Apache2 server… To do that, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart apache2

At this point all is set and you’re ready to obtain your certificate… To do that run the commands below:

sudo certbot certonly --agree-tos --email admin@example.com --webroot -w /var/lib/letsencrypt/ -d example.com -d www.example.com

Let’s Encrypt should connect validate your domain and server, then install the domain certificate… If everything is successful, you should see a similar message as below:

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
   Your key file has been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
   Your cert will expire on 2019-08-18. To obtain a new or tweaked
   version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot
   again. To non-interactively renew *all* of your certificates, run
   "certbot renew"
 - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:
   Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt:   https://letsencrypt.org/donate
   Donating to EFF:                    https://eff.org/donate-le

At this point you have a certificate, now go and add it to Apache2 configuration for example.com domain…

First, let’s generate a Diffie–Hellman key exchange (DH) certificate to securely exchange cryptographic keys… To do that, run the commands below to generate a certificate with 2048 bit…

sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 2048

Next, open your example.com config file and make it so that it looks similar to the one below:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

Configure your file to look similar to the one below

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com

  Redirect permanent / https://example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com

  Protocols h2 http:/1.1

  <If "%{HTTP_HOST} == 'www.example.com'">
    Redirect permanent / https://example.com/
  </If>
  
  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined

  SSLEngine On
  SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
  SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
  SSLOpenSSLConfCmd DHParameters "/etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem"
  
  SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH
  SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
  SSLCompression off
  SSLUseStapling on

  <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/>
       Options FollowSymlinks
       AllowOverride All
       Require all granted
  </Directory>
 
  <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/>
       RewriteEngine on
       RewriteBase /
       RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
       RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php [PT,L]
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Next you will need to configure a server cache for the OCSP status information. The best place for this would be in the Apache SSL configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/ssl.conf

This file contains all the options that Apache uses for SSL. An additional option SSLStaplingCache, needs to be added to this file as below.

# Set the location of the SSL OCSP Stapling Cache
 SSLStaplingCache shmcb:/tmp/stapling_cache(128000)

The SSLStaplingCache directive defines the location for the cache and a size value for the OCSP cache.

Save your changes above and restart Apache2 for the settings above to take effect..

sudo systemctl restart apache2

To setup a process to automatically renew the certificates, add a cron job to execute the renewal process.

sudo crontab -e

Then add the line below and save.

0 1 * * * /usr/bin/certbot renew & > /dev/null

The cron job will attempt to renew 30 days before expiring

Step 9: Enable the Joomla

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo a2ensite example.com.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Joomla setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

http://example.com/

Then follow the on-screen instructions… Select the installation language and main site configuration and the backend admin account, then click Next to continue….