This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to easily install Drupal CMS on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP support. For those who don’t know Drupal is a content management system (CMS) that enables webmasters and website owners to build dynamic and powerful websites.
Drupal is free to use and easy to customize and many websites owners can use it to create great websites and web applications. If WordPress or Joomla is not meeting your needs, you may want to give Drupal a try. It may just be what you need to run your website content online.
This post covers installing the latest version of Drupal, which at the time of writing was at version 8.3.7.
To get started with installing Drupal, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Nginx
Drupal requires a webserver to function and one of the most popular webserver is Nginx. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt-get update 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
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-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-tidy php-recode php-zip php-curl
Some of the PHP packages above depend on Apache2.. so installing them might also install Apache2 webserver. Since we’re using Nginx, run the commands below to disable Apache2.
sudo systemctl disable apache2.service
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, run the commands below to download Drupal latest release. The commands below to download Drupal archive package.
cd /tmp && wget https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-8.3.7.tar.gz
Then run the commands below to extract the download file and rename the folder drupal.
sudo tar -zxvf drupal*.gz -C /var/www/html
sudo mv /var/www/html/drupal-8.3.7/ /var/www/html/drupal/
Change modify the directory permission.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/
Step 6: Configure Nginx
Finally, configure Apahce2 site 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
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/drupal
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/drupal; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name example.com www.example.com; location / { try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string; } location @rewrite { rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1; } location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) { 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; } location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/styles/ { # For Drupal >= 7 try_files $uri @rewrite; } location ~ ^(/[a-z\-]+)?/system/files/ { # For Drupal >= 7 try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string; } }
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the Drupal site
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/drupal /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Step 8 : Restart Nginx and PHP-FPM
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service sudo systemctl restart php7.0-fpm.service sudo systemctl restart php7.1-fpm.service
Then browse to the domain of the site and you should see Drupal site setup wizard.
Enter the database confirmation and continue with the setup.
Continue with the wizard until you’ve successfully configured Drupal.
Enjoy!
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