Install Magento on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP
Magento is a powerful eCommerce platform written in PHP. It enables individuals to setup eCommerce and online stores in minutes. This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users an easy way to get Magento working on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10
Magento is written in PHP but also requires web and database servers. This can be accomplished using the LEMP stack. LEMP is a acronym for Linux, Nginx (Engine-X), MySQL and PHP. Many reputable online stores and brick and mortal establishments are using this software to run their businesses.
So, without wasting anymore of your time, let’s get started with installing Magento on Ubuntu. To do that, follow the steps below:
This post covers installing the latest version of Magento, which at the time of writing was at version 2.1.9.
To get started with installing Magento, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Nginx
Magento requires a webserver to function and the most popular webserver in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt-get 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
Moodle 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
Magento also requires PHP to function. To install PHP and related modules run the commands below
sudo apt-get install php-fpm 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
Some of the packages above may depend on Apache2 webserver.. so installing them may also install Apache2. Run the commands below to disable Apache2 from starting up.
sudo systemctl disable apache2.service
Step 4: Create Magento 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 Magento 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 magento
CREATE DATABASE magento;
Create a database user called magentouser with new password
CREATE USER 'magentouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON magento.* TO 'magentouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download Magento Latest Release
Next, visit Magento site and register for a free account. You must register before you’re allowed to download a copy. The community edition is what you’ll want to download.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the download file into Nginx root directory.
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/magento/ sudo tar -zxvf ~/Downloads/Magento-CE*.tar.gz -C /var/www/html/magento/
Change or modify the directory permission to fit Apache2 configuration.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/
Step 6: Configure Nginx
Finally, configure Nginx site configuration file for Magento. This file will control how users access Magento content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called magento
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento
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.
upstream fastcgi_backend { # server unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; # for Ubuntu 17.04 server unix:/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock; # for Ubuntu 17.10 } server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name example.com www.example.com; set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/html/magento; set $MAGE_MODE developer; include /var/www/html/magento/nginx.conf.sample; }
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the Magento
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Step 8 : Restart Nginx
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Magento setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

Continue with the wizard

Enter the database information

Create a new admin account to manage magento

Continue until you’re done.

Enjoy!
You may also like the post below:
after step 8 system return: Job for nginx.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See “systemctl status nginx.service” and “journalctl -xe” for details.
My system is ubuntu 17.10, at step 6 i delete second line (refer to 17.04 version)
Where is the problem?
If you run this command you’ll find out what’s the problem is
sudo journalctl -xe
Hi everyone
Thank you very much for this great article it helped me a lot.
Would it be possible that you expand your great manual a little?
I am a complete beginner with self hosting and also magento.
However i were able to follow your nice manual and it works so far.
But no i can’t find more information about correctly configuring secure SSL.
I have already bought an SSL certificate from go daddy.
Do you know how i need to setup the NGINX server config?
Best Greets from Switzerland :)
Hello,
thank You for this post.
I tried to configure it but in last step, when I want to run magento and I type in browser localhost, i have only:
“Welcome to nginx!” site but I can’t run magento.
Can you help me please?
Best regards, Andrzej.