Step by Step Guide to Setting Up Your Ubuntu 22 VPS for Laravel 11 and PHP 8.2

Embark on a journey into the digital realm as we unveil the secrets to harnessing the full power of Ubuntu 22 on your Virtual Private Server (VPS). In this step-by-step guide, we'll be your navigators through the enchanting landscape of Laravel 11 and the dynamic symphony of PHP 8.2. Get ready to sculpt a virtual masterpiece as we demystify the intricacies of setting up your VPS, transforming it into the ultimate canvas for your web development dreams. Let's dive into the future of coding, where innovation meets simplicity, and where your Ubuntu 22 VPS becomes the stage for the seamless dance of Laravel and PHP 8.2.

Login in server

Login in server with ssh (with password) [ Replace username with actual username and ip with actual IP address of the server ]

ssh username@ip

Login in server with ssh (with private key) [ Replace username with actual username and ip with actual IP address of the server ]

ssh -i path/to/private_key.pem username@ip

Update the server

sudo apt update

Install Apache 2

sudo apt install apache2

Install NginX (If not Apache2)

sudo apt install nginx

Install php 8.2

sudo apt install  ca-certificates apt-transport-https software-properties-common

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

sudo apt update

sudo apt install php8.2 php8.2-common php8.2-opcache php8.2-cli php8.2-gd php8.2-curl php8.2-mysql php8.2-mbstring php8.2-zip php8.2-xml php8.2-intl

Install MySQL server

sudo apt install mysql-server

Create a user and db in MySQL

Login to MySQL Server

sudo mysql

Create user [ Replace admin with your preferred username, password with preferred password ]

CREATE USER 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Grant all access for the user created [ admin in our case ]

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'admin'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Flush the privilege cache

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Create Database [ Replace mydatabase with your preferred name ]

CREATE DATABASE mydatabase;

Exit from mysql with exit command

exit;

Git

Check if git is installed or not. If not, install git with below command

sudo apt install git

Install Composer

cd ~ && curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer -o /tmp/composer-setup.php

we’ll verify that the downloaded installer matches the SHA-384 hash for the latest installer found on the Composer Public Keys / Signatures page. To facilitate the verification step, you can use the following command to programmatically obtain the latest hash from the Composer page and store it in a shell variable:

HASH=`curl -sS https://composer.github.io/installer.sig`

Now execute the following PHP code, as provided in the Composer download page, to verify that the installation script is safe to run:

php -r "if (hash_file('SHA384', '/tmp/composer-setup.php') === '$HASH') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"

You’ll see the following output:

Installer verified

If the output says Installer corrupt, you’ll need to download the installation script again and double check that you’re using the correct hash. Then, repeat the verification process. When you have a verified installer, you can continue.

To install composer globally, use the following command which will download and install Composer as a system-wide command named composer, under /usr/local/bin:

sudo php /tmp/composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Install Node

Step 1:

Replace the version number setup_20.x with your expected version

cd ~
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x -o nodesource_setup.sh

Step 2:

sudo bash nodesource_setup.sh

Step 3:

sudo apt install nodejs

Install yarn (optional)

npm install --global yarn

Prepare project

Now, go to server root directory

cd /var/www/html/

Clone the repo here [ Replace REPO_URL with your repo url ]

git pull REPO_URL

If there is a permission issue, give appropriate permission, For now I'm giving all user Read Write and Execute permission with the below command.

sudo chmod 777 -R /var/www/html/

Move to project root [ Replace 'PROJECT_ROOT' with project directory name ]

cd PROJECT_ROOT

Install dependency

composer install

Copy ENV

cp .env.example .env

Generate an app encryption key

php artisan key:generate

Update the env with Database credentials [ Replace mydatabase, admin, password with actual values ]

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=mydatabase
DB_USERNAME=admin
DB_PASSWORD=password

Setup Apache2 configuration

Open the default conf with below command

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

Remove everything and paste the below conf [ Replace 'PROJECT_ROOT' with project directory name ]
Note: you can use Ctrl + K to remove a line in nano.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    #ServerAdmin admin@example.com
    #ServerName mydomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/PROJECT_ROOT/public

    <Directory /var/www/html/PROJECT_ROOT/public>
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Now save the file with Ctrl + S and exit nano with Ctrl + X

Enable module rewrite in apache2

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Then restart apache server with the below command

sudo service apache2 restart

Setup NginX Configuration

Open the default conf with below command

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Remove everything and paste the below conf [ Replace 'PROJECT_ROOT' with project directory name ]
Note: you can use Ctrl + K to remove a line in nano.

server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        root /var/www/PROJECT_ROOT/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

        server_name your_domain www.your_domain;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

Laravel specific NginX Conf

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/PROJECT_ROOT/html;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;

    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

Then restart NginX server with the below command

sudo service nginx restart

These should be everything. If you encounter any challenges, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact me for assistance.

Thank you for reading this.