What is CentOS? CentOS (abbreviated from Community Enterprise Operating System) is a Linux distribution that attempts to provide a free, enterprise-class, community-supported computing platform which aims to be functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
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About LAMP
LAMP stack is a group of open source software used to get web servers up and running. The acronym stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Since the server is already running CentOS, the linux part is taken care of. Here is how to install the rest.
Set Up
The steps in this tutorial require the user on the virtual private server to have root privileges. You can see how to set that up in the Initial Server Setup Tutorial in steps 3 and 4.
Step One—Install Apache
Apache is a free open source software which runs over 50% of the world’s web servers.
To install apache, open terminal and type in this command:
Once it installs, you can start apache running on your VPS:
That’s it. To check if Apache is installed, direct your browser to your server’s IP address (eg. http://12.34.56.789). The page should display the words “It works!' like this.
How to find your Server’s IP address
You can run the following command to reveal your server’s IP address.
Step Two—Install MySQL
MySQL is a powerful database management system used for organizing and retrieving data on a virtual server
To install MySQL, open terminal and type in these commands:
During the installation, MySQL will ask you for your permission twice. After you say Yes to both, MySQL will install.
Once it is done installing, you can set a root MySQL password:
The prompt will ask you for your current root password.
Since you just installed MySQL, you most likely won’t have one, so leave it blank by pressing enter.
Then the prompt will ask you if you want to set a root password. Go ahead and choose Y and follow the instructions.
CentOS automates the process of setting up MySQL, asking you a series of yes or no questions.
It’s easiest just to say Yes to all the options. At the end, MySQL will reload and implement the new changes.
Step Three—Install PHP
PHP is an open source web scripting language that is widely used to build dynamic webpages.
To install PHP on your virtual private server, open terminal and type in this command:
Once you answer yes to the PHP prompt, PHP will be installed.
PHP Modules
PHP also has a variety of useful libraries and modules that you can add onto your server. You can see the libraries that are available by typing:
Terminal then will display the list of possible modules. The beginning looks like this:
To see more details about what each module does, type the following command into terminal, replacing the name of the module with whatever library you want to learn about.
Once you decide to install the module, type:
You can install multiple libraries at once by separating the name of each module with a space.
Congratulations! You now have LAMP stack on your droplet!
We should also set the processes to run automatically when the server boots (php will run automatically once Apache starts):
Step Four—RESULTS: See PHP on your Server
Although LAMP is installed on your virtual server, we can still take a look and see the components online by creating a quick php info page
To set this up, first create a new file:
Add in the following line:
Then Save and Exit.
Restart apache so that all of the changes take effect on your virtual server:
Finish up by visiting your php info page (make sure you replace the example ip address with your correct one): http://12.34.56.789/info.php
It should look similar to this.
See More
After installing LAMP, you can go on to do more with MySQL (A Basic MySQL Tutorial), Create an SSL Certificate, or Install an FTP Server.