Install a LAMP Stack on an Ubuntu 24.04 Linux VPS

A LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP) is the classic foundation for WordPress, Laravel and most PHP applications. In this guide you will build it step by step on a fresh VPS Linux Infrawire running Ubuntu 24.04, with a dedicated virtual host and a firewall that only exposes what is needed.

📋 Prerequisites

• A KVM VPS running Ubuntu 24.04 (the IP and the root password are available in your client area)
• SSH access as root, or as a user with sudo rights
• A domain example.com whose A (and AAAA) records point to VPS_IP

All commands below assume you are root. Prefix them with sudo otherwise.

1. Update the system

Bash
1apt update && apt upgrade -y

2. Install Apache

Bash
1apt install -y apache2
2systemctl enable --now apache2
3apache2 -v

The service starts immediately and is enabled at boot.

3. Install MariaDB

MariaDB is available in the Ubuntu repositories and is a drop-in replacement for MySQL. If you prefer Oracle MySQL, install mysql-server instead, but never install both on the same machine.

Bash
1apt install -y mariadb-server
2systemctl enable --now mariadb
3mysql_secure_installation

In the wizard, keep the unix_socket authentication for root, set a strong password if asked, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login and remove the test database. Then create a database and a dedicated user for your application:

Bash
1mariadb

SQL
1CREATE DATABASE appdb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
2CREATE USER 'appuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'STRONG_PASSWORD';
3GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON appdb.* TO 'appuser'@'localhost';
4FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
5EXIT;

4. Install PHP 8.3

Ubuntu 24.04 ships PHP 8.3 in its default repositories, so no extra PPA is required.

Bash
1apt install -y php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip php-intl
2php -v

The libapache2-mod-php package switches Apache to the prefork MPM automatically and loads the PHP module.

5. Create a virtual host and enable mod_rewrite

Bash
1mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/public_html
2chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com
3nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

Apache
1<VirtualHost *:80>
2    ServerName example.com
3    ServerAlias www.example.com
4    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html
5
6    <Directory /var/www/example.com/public_html>
7        AllowOverride All
8        Require all granted
9    </Directory>
10
11    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log
12    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined
13</VirtualHost>

AllowOverride All lets .htaccess files work, which pretty URLs in WordPress or Laravel rely on. Now enable the module and the site, and disable the default page:

Bash
1a2enmod rewrite
2a2ensite example.com.conf
3a2dissite 000-default.conf
4apache2ctl configtest
5systemctl reload apache2

configtest must answer Syntax OK before you reload.

6. Configure the firewall

Allow SSH first, otherwise you will lock yourself out when the firewall is enabled.

Bash
1ufw allow OpenSSH
2ufw allow 'Apache Full'
3ufw enable
4ufw status

The Apache Full profile opens ports 80 and 443. Do not open port 3306: MariaDB only needs to listen locally.

7. Test PHP, then remove the test file

Bash
1echo '<?php phpinfo();' > /var/www/example.com/public_html/info.php
2curl -sI http://example.com/info.php | head -n 1

You should get HTTP/1.1 200 OK. Open http://example.com/info.php in a browser to see the PHP configuration page. A phpinfo() page discloses versions, paths and modules, so delete it immediately:

Bash
1rm /var/www/example.com/public_html/info.php

Check the other components as well:

Bash
1apache2ctl -M | grep -E 'rewrite|php'
2php -m | grep -E 'mysqli|pdo_mysql'
3systemctl is-active apache2 mariadb

🛠️ Troubleshooting

The default Apache page still appears. The default site is still enabled or DNS has not propagated yet. Run a2dissite 000-default.conf, reload Apache, and test with curl -I -H 'Host: example.com' http://VPS_IP/.

403 Forbidden. Check that the directory has Require all granted, that www-data can read the files (ls -ld /var/www/example.com/public_html) and read the log in /var/log/apache2/example.com-error.log.

The browser downloads the PHP file instead of running it. The PHP module is not loaded. Run apache2ctl -M | grep php, then systemctl restart apache2. If nothing appears, reinstall libapache2-mod-php.

Rewrite rules are ignored (404 on pretty URLs). Confirm that a2enmod rewrite was run and that your <Directory> block contains AllowOverride All.

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🎉 Your LAMP stack is up: Apache, MariaDB and PHP 8.3 are ready to host your first site.