Drupal is a powerful and popular content management systems (CMS) use by many webmasters to create powerful websites and blogs. For those webmasters and website owners looking to run and manage dynamic, PHP-based websites and blogs easily may want to take a look at Drupal CMS.
In today’s environments, Drupal is frequently being installed with SSL/TLS encryption so that all traffic to and from the website is protected over HTTPS. Also, websites that use HTTPS may rank better with Google and other search engine providers.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Drupal on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Apache2, MariaDB, PHP and Let’s Encrypt support. When you’re done, your website will automatically be configured to use HTTPS for all traffic.
To get started with installing Drupal with Let’s Encrypt support, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2
Drupal requires a webserver to function and the second most popular webserver in used today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt install apache2
Next, run the commands below 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
Step 2: Install MariaDB
Drupal 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 and Related Modules
Drupal also requires PHP to function. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php libapache2-mod-php php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl
After install PHP, run the commands below to open Apache2 PHP default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.10 sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.04
Then change the following lines below in the file and save. You may increase the value to suite your environment.
max_execution_time = 180 max_input_time = 60 memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 64M cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
Step 4: Create Drupal Database
Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create Drupal 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 drupal
CREATE DATABASE drupal;
Create a database user called drupaluser with new password
CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON drupal.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download Drupal Latest Release
Next, visit Drupal site and download the latest package…. or run the commands below to download and extract Drupal content.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file and move it into a new Drupal root directory.
cd /tmp && cd /tmp && wget https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-8.4.2.tar.gz tar -zxvf drupal*.gz sudo mv drupal-8.4.2 /var/www/html/drupal
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Drupal to function properly.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/drupal/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/drupal/
Step 6: Configure Apache2 Drupal Site
Finally, configure Apache2 configuration file for Drupal. This file will control how users access Drupal content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called drupal.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/drupal.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>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/drupal
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory /var/www/html/drupal/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/html/drupal>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the Drupal Site
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite drupal.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2enmod env sudo a2enmod dir sudo a2enmod mime
Step 8 : Restart Apache2
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Step 9: Obtain and Configure Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates
Now that the Drupal configuration is done, continue below to get Let’s Encrypt installed and configured. Let’s Encrypt now provides a Apache2 module to automate this process. To get the client/module installed on Ubuntu, run the commands below
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache
After that run the commands below to obtain your free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate for your site.
sudo certbot --apache -m admin@example.com -d example.com -d www.example.com
After running the above commands, you should get prompted to accept the licensing terms. If everything is checked, the client should automatically install the free SSL/TLS certificate and configure the Apache2 site to use the certs.
Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A
Choose Yes ( Y ) to share your email address
Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about EFF and
our work to encrypt the web, protect its users and defend digital rights.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Y)es/(N)o: Y
This is how easy is it to obtain your free SSL/TLS certificate for your Nginx powered website.
Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration. 2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this change by editing your web server's configuration. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
Pick option 2 to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. This is important!
After that, the SSL client should install the cert and configure your website to redirect all traffic over HTTPS.
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://example.com and https://www.example.com You should test your configuration at: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=example.com https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.example.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 2018-02-24. To obtain a new or tweaked version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again with the "certonly" option. 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
The highlighted code block should be added to your Apache2 Drupal site configuration file automatically by Let’s Encrypt certbot. Your Drupal site is ready to be used over HTTPS.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/drupal/
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory /var/www/html/drupal/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/html/drupal/>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
</Directory>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =example.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.example.com
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>
A new configuration file for the domain should also be created named /etc/apache2/sites-available/drupal-le-ssl.conf. This is Apache2 SSL module configuration file and should contain the certificate definitions defined in it.
<IfModule mod_ssl.c> <VirtualHost *:443> ServerAdmin admin@example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/drupal/ ServerName example.com ServerAlias www.example.com ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined <Directory /var/www/html/drupal/> Options FollowSymlinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory> <Directory /var/www/html/drupal/> RewriteEngine on RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA] </Directory> SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf </VirtualHost> </IfModule>
After that, open your browser and browse to your domain name to start Drupal configuration wizard. You should see Drupal setup wizard… Please follow the wizard carefully.
Follow the onscreen wizard until you’re done.
Enter the database connection info and continue.
Create your Drupal site admin account and website name.
Finish
Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed Drupal with Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificates.
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
Enjoy!
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