Install Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10, Apache2, MariaDB, PHP with Let’s Encrypt (LAMP + Let’s Encrypt)
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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