Install and Configure Mautic on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP Support

Mautic is an open source, cutting-edge marketing automation software based on PHP. It is designed from the ground up for ease of use to make marketing automation decisions as intuitive as possible.

If you’re looking for a robust marketing automation software to use in your environments, you’ll find Mautic to be useful. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Mautic on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP support.

This post covers installing the latest version of Mautic.

To get started with installing Mautic, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Nginx Web Server

Mautic requires a webserver to function and the most popular webserver in use today is Nginx. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below:

sudo apt install nginx

Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server

Mautic also requires a database server to function.. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

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

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

After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server.

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

Restart MariaDB server

sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service

Step 3: Install PHP-FPM and Related Modules

Mautic is based on PHP.. so you’ll need to install it. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below

sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-tidy php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl php-sqlite3

After install PHP, run the commands below to open PHP-FPM default file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini                 # Ubuntu 17.10
sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini                 # Ubuntu 17.04

Then make the change the following lines below in the file and save.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
max_execution_time = 360
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Step 4: Create Mautic Database

Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First go and create a blank Mautic database.

Run the commands below to logon to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called mauticdb

CREATE DATABASE mauticdb;

Create a database user called mauticuser with new password

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

Then grant mauticuser full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON mauticdb.* TO 'mauticuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download Mautic Latest Release

Next, visit Mautic site and download the latest version.

After downloading, run the commands below to create a root directory for Mautic and extract the downloaded file into Nginx root directory.

cd /tmp && wget https://www.mautic.org/download/latest
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/mautic
sudo unzip latest -d /var/www/html/mautic

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Mautic to function.

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

Step 6: Configure Nginx

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Mautic. This file will control how users access Mautic content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called mautic

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mautic

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.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html/mautic;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;

    client_max_body_size 100M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;       
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info  ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_index            index.php;
     #  fastcgi_pass             unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;        # for Ubuntu 17.04
        fastcgi_pass             unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;        # for Ubuntu 17.10
        include                  fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param   PATH_INFO       $fastcgi_path_info;
        fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

Save the file and exit.

Step 7: Enable the Mautic and Rewrite Module

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

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mautic /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Step 8 : Restart Nginx

To load all the settings above, restart Nginx by running the commands below.

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

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

http://example.com/

Then follow the on-screen instructions… you will be asked to input your database configuration, administrative details and other configuration settings. When complete you may sign-in and start using Mautic. Return to http://example.com/s/login/ anytime thereafter to sign-in.