How to Install Flarum Forum on Ubuntu 20.04

Flarum is a free and open-source forum application or discussion platform that is fast and easy to use. This guide explains how to install Flarum on a one-click LAMP application on Ubuntu 20.04 and secure it with a Let's Encrypt SSL using Certbot.

Prerequisites

• Deploy a one-click LAMP Application on Ubuntu 20.04 from Vultr Marketplace Apps
• Create a non-root user with sudo access then login.
• Update the Ubuntu Server

Install Flarum

1. Change PHP Settings

1. Edit php.ini with Nano.

    $ sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php.ini
   

2. Press Ctrl + W and search for these settings, then edit the values to match these:

    memory_limit = 256M
    max_execution_time = 300
    upload_max_filesize = 150M
    allow_url_fopen = On
    file_uploads = On
   

3. Save and exit the file.

2. Create a Database for Flarum

1. Log in to the MariaDB shell.

    $ sudo mysql
   

2. Create a database for Flarum. Replace flarum_db with your preferred database name.

    MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE flarum_db;
   

3. Create a new user. Replace flarum_user with your preferred username and flarum_pass with your preferred strong password.

    MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'flarum_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'flarum_pass';
   

4. Grant the new user all the privileges to flarum_db.

    MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON flarum_db.* TO 'flarum_user'@'localhost';
   

5. Flush Privileges.

    MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   

6. Exit MariaDB.

    MariaDB [(none)]> exit

3. Install Composer

Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP. Composer will be used to install Flarum dependencies since Flarum is written in PHP.

1. Install Composer.

    $ sudo curl -s https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
   

2. Move composer.phar to the /usr/local/bin/ directory.

    $ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
   

3. Verify Composer Installation by checking its version.

    $ composer -V

4. Install Flarum

1. Create a new Flarum directory inside the Apache web root directory.

    $ sudo mkdir /var/www/html/flarum
   

2. Change directory to /var/www/html/flarum

    $ cd /var/www/html/flarum
   

3. Download the latest version of Flarum. Enter yes when prompted to continue as root/superuser, or you will encounter an error otherwise.

    $ sudo composer create-project flarum/flarum . --stability=beta
   

4. Install all Flarum PHP dependencies. Enter yes when prompted to continue as root/superuser, or you will encounter an error otherwise.

    $ sudo composer install
   

5. Change the ownership of the Flarum directory /var/www/html/flarum to www-data.

    $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/flarum/
   

6. Give proper permission to the Flarum directory /var/www/html/flarum.

    $ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/flarum/

5. Configure Apache for Flarum

1. Create an Apache virtual host config file for Flarum.

    $ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/flarum.conf
   

2. Paste this to your flarum.conf file. Replace your-domain-name.com with your domain name.

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/flarum/public
     ServerName your-domain-name.com
     DirectoryIndex index.php
     <Directory /var/www/html/flarum/public/>
    Options +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
     </Directory>
     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/flarum-error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/flarum-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>
   

3. Save and exit the file.

4. Enable the Flarum virtual host.

    $ sudo a2ensite flarum
   

5. Enable the Apache rewrite module, also known as mod_rewrite.

    $ sudo a2enmod rewrite
   

6. Restart the Apache Service.

    $ sudo systemctl restart apache2

6. Enable the Ubuntu Firewall

1. Enable the Ubuntu Firewall. Enter `y' when prompted to proceed with the operation.

    $ sudo ufw enable
   

2. Check the firewall status. Ensure that the ports that you will use (SSH - Port 22, HTTP - Port 80) are allowed.

    $ sudo ufw status
   

3. If you don't see the ports listed above, you need to allow them.

    $ sudo ufw allow 22,80/tcp

7. Finishing Flarum Installation

1. Navigate to your server's IP address in your web browser.
2. Fill out all the details such as the Forum Title, the Database name, the Database username and password, and the admin credentials.
3. After filling out all the details, click Install Flarum to finish setting up Flarum.
4. You will be redirected to your Forum once the installation is finished.

You have finished installing Flarum.

Optional: Configure Domain Name and Setup Let's Encrypt SSL

Proceeding with this part of the guide assumes that you have your domain name.

1. Point Your Domain to Your Flarum Server

1. Log in to your Domain provider's panel.
2. Go to DNS Management or something similar to manage your DNS records.
3. Add an A Record and point it to your Flarum cloud server (its IP Address). Note that DNS propagation may take up to 72 hours to take effect. You can use online DNS checkers to check your DNS propagation.

2. Setup Let's Encrypt SSL using Certbot

1. Install Certbot for Apache.

    $ sudo apt-get install python3-certbot-apache -y
   

2. Install Let's Encrypt SSL for your Flarum website. Replace your-domain-name.com with your domain name.

    $ sudo certbot --apache -d your-domain-name.com
   

3. You will be asked to input your email address. You also need to read and Agree to their Terms of Service.

    Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
    Plugins selected: Authenticator apache, Installer apache
    Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to
    cancel): youremail@example.com
   
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Please read the Terms of Service at
    https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
    agree in order to register with the ACME server at
    https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    (A)gree/(C)ancel: A
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
    Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
    organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work
    encrypting the web, EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    (Y)es/(N)o: Y
        
    Obtaining a new certificate
    Performing the following challenges:
    http-01 challenge for your-domain-name.com
    Waiting for verification...
    Cleaning up challenges
    Created an SSL vhost at /etc/apache2/sites-available/flarum-le-ssl.conf
    Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/apache2/sites-available/flarum-le-ssl.conf
    Enabling available site: /etc/apache2/sites-available/flarum-le-ssl.conf
   

4. Choose whether you want to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS or not. It is recommended to redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

    Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
    2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
    new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
    change by editing your web server's configuration.
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
    Redirecting vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/flarum.conf to ssl vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-available/flarum-le-ssl.conf
   

5. You should get the same output after the installation is finished.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://your-domain-name.com
    
    You should test your configuration at:
    https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=your-domain-name.com
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    
    IMPORTANT NOTES:
     - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
       /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain-name.com/fullchain.pem
       Your key file has been saved at:
       /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain-name.com/privkey.pem
       Your cert will expire on 2022-03-26. To obtain a new or tweaked
       version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again
       with the "certonly" option. To non-interactively renew *all* of
       your certificates, run "certbot renew"
     - Your account credentials have been saved in your Certbot
       configuration directory at /etc/letsencrypt. You should make a
       secure backup of this folder now. This configuration directory will
       also contain certificates and private keys obtained by Certbot so
       making regular backups of this folder is ideal.
     - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:
    
       Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt:   https://letsencrypt.org/donate
       Donating to EFF:                    https://eff.org/donate-le
    
     - We were unable to subscribe you the EFF mailing list because your
       e-mail address appears to be invalid. You can try again later by
       visiting https://act.eff.org.
   

6. On your SSH terminal, edit config.php from the Flarum directory.

    $ sudo nano /var/www/html/flarum/config.php
   

7. Find 'url' then change http:// to https://. You need to replace your server's IP Address with your domain name as well. For example:

    'url' => 'http://192.168.0.1',

   should be:

    'url' => 'https://your-domain-name.com',
   

8. Save and exit the file.

9. Allow HTTPS Port (Port 443) on the firewall.

    $ sudo ufw allow 443
   

10. Test your SSL Configuration on SSL Labs.

You now have successfully installed and secured Flarum on your Vultr server.

More Information

For more information about Flarum, Certbot, and Let's Encrypt SSL, please see these resources:

• Flarum Documentation
• Let's Encrypt SSL Documentation
• Certbot Instructions