Linux [Ubuntu], Apache2, MariaDB, PHP (LAMP) is an alternative to LEMP. LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache2, MySQL / MariaDB and PHP. It’s a application stack that powers some of the most popular websites and applications online today.

LAMP with Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates is becoming the standard implementation for websites and blogs today.

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install LAMP on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates. This blog uses LAMP + Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS certificates. If you need to run a PHP-based website like WordPress, Drupal or Joomla, then LAMP or LEMP + Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificates should be considered.

To get LAMP installed on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Let’s Encrypt, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Update Ubuntu server

To get started, update Ubuntu first by running the commands below. This assumes that you have administrative (root) rights to the systems and can install packages from the command line. To update Ubuntu server, run the commands below:

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade && sudo apt autoremove

Step 2: Install Apache2 HTTP Server

After updating Ubuntu, run the commands below to install Apache2 HTTP server.

sudo apt install apache2

After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start, disable and enable Apache2 service

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

Step 3: Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL and the default opensource database server. To install MariaDB run the commands below

sudo apt 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: Create 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

Continue below to install PHP and related PHP modules.

Step 4: Installing PHP on Ubuntu

The last step is to install PHP and other PHP modules on Ubuntu to get the LAMP stack complete.

To install PHP run the commands below:

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php

For most PHP applications to function properly, you must also install related PHP modules. Run the commands below to get as many installed.

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php-common libapache2-mod-php php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed LAMP!

Step 5: Create  Apache2 Website for Example.com

Now that LAMP is installed, go and configure a website to use with LAMP + Let’s Encrypt. Run the commands below to create a new example.com domain configuration file called example.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.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@myexample.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com/
     ServerName myexample.com
     ServerAlias www.myexample.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
</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit.

Step 6: Enable the Example.conf Site

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

sudo a2ensite example.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Step 7 : Restart Apache2

To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Step 8: Obtain and Configure Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates

Now that LAMP is installed, continue below to get Let’s Encrypt installed and configured.

sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache

After that run the commands below to obtain your free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate for the domain myexample.com

sudo certbot --apache -m admin@example.com -d myexample.com -d www.myexample.com

After running the above commands, you should get prompted to enter your email and accept the licensing terms. If everything is checked, the client should automatically install the free SSL/TLS certificate and configure the Nginx 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 Apache2 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 Nginx configuration file automatically by Let’s Encrypt certbot. Your site is ready to be used over HTTPS.

<VirtualHost *:80>   
  ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com/
     ServerName myexample.com
     ServerAlias www.myexample.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
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =myexample.com [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.myexample.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/example-le-ssl.conf. That file should contain the certificate definitions defined in it.

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
     ServerAdmin admin@example.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.com/
     ServerName myexample.com
     ServerAlias www.myexample.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

SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/myexample.com/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/myexample.com/privkey.pem
Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

After that, browse to your domain name and the site should respond over HTTPS.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed a LAMP site with Let’s Encrypt free SSL/TLS 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

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