Setup Laravel App on a LEMP Stack with Ubuntu

· #linux#laravel

Initial Setup

Switch to root user

If you are not switched yet, run;

su -

Update system

apt update
apt upgrade
apt dist-upgrade

Create a Non root User

Using root user is discouraged, create a new normal user instead.

adduser foo
usermod -aG sudo foo
su foo # Switch to user 'foo'

So, next time you login to the server like this;

ssh foo@ip

Setup ZSH 1

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
nano ~/.zshrc

...
echo "Server @ $(hostname -I)"

alias pa="php artisan"

source ~/.zshrc

Install Essential Tools & Utility

sudo apt install curl git zsh ranger neofetch

Install PHP & Composer

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
PHP_VERSION=8.3
sudo apt install php$PHP_VERSION php$PHP_VERSION-fpm php$PHP_VERSION-mysql php$PHP_VERSION-xml php$PHP_VERSION-mbstring php$PHP_VERSION-curl php$PHP_VERSION-zip php$PHP_VERSION-bcmath php$PHP_VERSION-gd
sudo update-alternatives --config php # Switch PHP version, in case you have multiple versions

sudo apt install composer

Installing MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server
sudo mysql_secure_installation
sudo systemctl restart mysql

CREATE USER 'user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database.* TO 'user'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

mysql -u user -p -D database < database.sql

MySQL config file located at /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

mysql -u user -p -h ip

Setup NGINX

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /srv/example.com/public;

    # ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/cert_bundle.crt; # Update this
    # ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/your_private_key.key; # Update this

    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/php8.3-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;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log # Check for errors
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log # Check for errors

Install Node.js

Node.js via NVM 2

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"\n[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
NODE_VERSION=22
nvm install $NODE_VERSION
node -v

Bun 3

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
bun install --frozen-lockfile

Install Laravel App Source Code

cd
git clone https://user@bitbucket.org/org/laravel.git laravel
sudo mv laravel /var/www

Directory Permissions

Laravel will need to write to the bootstrap/cache and storage directories, so you should ensure the web server process owner has permission to write to these directories.

sudo chown -R foo:foo /var/www/laravel
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/laravel
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/laravel/storage /var/www/laravel/bootstrap/cache

composer install
npm ci
npm run build
cp .env.example .env
# Update your .env with proper info and credentials
pa key:generate
pa migrate:fresh --seed

Verify

Verify by accessing your site using domain or ip address in the web browser.

Common Linux Commands

sudo apt-cache policy {package} # Check the version of installable packages
lsb_release -a # Check Ubuntu release version

Troubleshooting

MySQL Error

  1. ERROR 1227 (42000) at line ...: Access denied; you need (at least one of) the SUPER privilege(s) for this operation

Nginx Error

  1. [emerg] socket() [::]:80 failed (97: Address family not supported by protocol)

In /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default file;

...
server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server; # Comment this line
...

To set up and run jobs and the scheduler for your Laravel application on your Ubuntu server, follow these steps:

1. Configure Laravel Scheduler

Laravel’s scheduler requires a single cron job to run every minute. Here’s how to set it up:

  1. Open the crontab for the www-data user:

    sudo crontab -u www-data -e

  2. Add the following line to run the Laravel scheduler every minute:

    * * * * * php /path/to/laravel/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

    Replace /path/to/laravel with the full path to your Laravel project.

  3. Save and exit the editor.

2. Run Laravel Queues

Laravel uses a queue worker to process jobs. Start the queue worker using artisan:

  1. Test the queue manually:

    php /path/to/laravel/artisan queue:work

  2. To keep the queue running continuously, you should use a process manager like Supervisor.

3. Configure Supervisor for Laravel Queues

  1. Install Supervisor:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install supervisor

  2. Create a Supervisor configuration file for your Laravel queue worker:

    sudo nano /etc/supervisor/conf.d/laravel-worker.conf

  3. Add the following configuration (replace paths with your project details):

    [program:laravel-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /var/www/edewan/artisan queue:work --sleep=3 --tries=3 --timeout=90
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=www-data
numprocs=1
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/path/to/laravel/storage/logs/worker.log

[program:laravel-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /home/forge/app.com/artisan queue:work sqs --sleep=3 --tries=3 --max-time=3600
autostart=true
autorestart=true
stopasgroup=true
killasgroup=true
user=forge
numprocs=8
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/www/edewan/storage/logs/supervisor.log
stopwaitsecs=3600

  4. Save and exit the editor.

  5. Update Supervisor to apply the configuration:

    sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start laravel-worker:*

4. Verify Everything is Running

  • Check the logs to confirm the scheduler and queue are working:

    • Laravel logs: /path/to/laravel/storage/logs/laravel.log
    • Worker logs: /path/to/laravel/storage/logs/worker.log

  • Use supervisorctl to manage the queue worker:

    sudo supervisorctl status

With this setup, the scheduler will run automatically every minute, and the queue worker will continuously process jobs in the background. Let me know if you need any troubleshooting!

Minimal Steps (If No Permission Issues Exist Already)

If the writable directories already have the correct ownership (www-data) and you’re fine with being the owner of the rest, you can skip redundant steps:

sudo chmod -R 775 /path/to/laravel/storage /path/to/laravel/bootstrap/cache
sudo chown -R $USER:www-data /path/to/laravel

This will likely suffice. Let me know if you want to further refine the commands!

MYSQL

Your commands are mostly correct, but to improve security and match your two-server setup, you should limit the privileges to only the IP of your application server (192.223.1.10). Here’s the adjusted command:

CREATE USER 'images_user'@'192.223.1.10' IDENTIFIED BY 'images_password'; 
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON images.* TO 'images_user'@'192.223.1.10'; 
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

This ensures that the images_user can only connect from the application server. Additionally:

  1. Make sure your database server (192.223.1.11) is configured to allow remote connections.

    • Update the MySQL configuration file (/etc/mysql/my.cnf or /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf) and set bind-address = 192.223.1.11.

  2. Restart MySQL to apply the configuration:

    sudo systemctl restart mysql

  3. Open the appropriate port (default is 3306) in the firewall of the database server to allow connections from the app server.

You can create a database from the app server if:

  1. You have remote access to the database server (192.223.1.11).
  2. The MySQL user you are using (e.g., images_user or root) has sufficient privileges to create databases.

If these conditions are met, follow these steps:

1. Connect to the Database Server from the App Server

On the app server (192.223.1.10), use the following command to log in to MySQL on the DB server:

mysql -u root -p -h 192.223.1.11

Replace root with the appropriate MySQL user and provide the password when prompted.

2. Create the Database

Once logged in, create the database:

CREATE DATABASE images;

3. Verify

Check if the database was created:

SHOW DATABASES;

Note:

  • Ensure that the database server (192.223.1.11) allows connections from the app server IP (192.223.1.10) by properly configuring bind-address in MySQL and opening the necessary firewall ports.
  • If the images_user does not have permissions to create a database, use a privileged account like root.

Let me know if you encounter any issues!

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash nvm install 22 nvm install-latest-npm

Footnotes

  1. https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh ↩

  2. https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager ↩

  3. https://bun.sh/docs/installation ↩