How to Install LEMP on Rocky Linux 8

4 min readUpdated 1 April 2025

Introduction

The Linux, Nginx (pronounced as Engine X), MySQL, and PHP (LEMP) stack is a collection of software installed to serve dynamic web applications on a server. Nginx works as the web server application, MySQL as the database server, and PHP as the dynamic scripting language that supports multiple frameworks for web applications. In this article, you'll install LEMP on Rocky Linux 8.

Prerequisites

Create a new Rocky Linux 8 server on Vultr.
Access the server as a non-root user with sudo privileges.
Update the server.
Set up a domain and point it to the server.

1. Install Nginx

Install Nginx.
$ sudo dnf install nginx
Enable Nginx to start at boot time.
$ sudo systemctl enable nginx
Start Nginx.
$ sudo systemctl start nginx
Allow HTTP access through the firewall.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
Reload Firewall rules.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Test your Nginx installation by visiting your server IP.
http://1.2.3.4

2 Install MySQL/MariaDB

Install MariaDB.
$ sudo dnf install mariadb-server
Enable MariaDB to start at boot time.
$ sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Start the MariaDB server.
$ sudo systemctl start mariadb

3. Install PHP

Install PHP and PHP-FPM.
$ sudo dnf install php php-fpm
Install common PHP extensions required by most web applications.
$ sudo dnf install php-mysqlnd php-cgi php-bcmath php-json php-xml php-gd php-zip php-intl php-mbstring
Enable PHP-FPM to start at boot time.
$ sudo systemctl enable php-fpm
Start PHP-FPM.
$ sudo systemctl start php-fpm

4. Configure MariaDB

Initialize MariaDB and set the root password.
$ sudo mysql_secure_installation
Press enter when prompted for the root user password, reply with yes `y' to set a new root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database.
Log in to the MySQL console as root.
$ sudo mysql -u root -p
Create a sample database.
CREATE DATABASE sampledb;
Create a sample database user assigned with a strong password.
CREATE USER 'example-user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ultra-strong-password';
Grant the user full privileges to the sample database.
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON sampledb.* TO 'example-user'@'localhost';
Refresh MySQL privileges.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Exit the console.
EXIT
Test your MySQL login as the sample user.
mysql -u example-user -p
Show available databases.
SHOW DATABASES;
Exit the console.
EXIT

5. Configure Nginx

Create a new web files directory for your application.
$ sudo mkdir /usr/share/nginx/example.com
Using a text editor, create a simple HTML file in the directory.
$ sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/example.com/index.html
Add the following contents to the file.
<html> <title> It Works!!! </title> <body> <h2> Hello World!! Your WebServer Works!</h2> </body> </html>
Save and exit the editor.
Grant Nginx read and write permissions to the directory.
$ sudo chown -R nginx.nginx /usr/share/nginx/example.com
Create a new Nginx configuration file.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.com.conf

Add the following configurations to the file.

  server {
     listen       80;
     listen       [::]:80;
     server_name  _;
     root         /usr/share/nginx/example.com;
 
     index index.php index.html index.htm;
 
     error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error;
     access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access;
 
     location ~ \.php$ {
     fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
     fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
     fastcgi_index index.php;
     fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
     }
 
     location ~ /\. {
     deny all;
     access_log off;
    }
 
    }

Save and exit the editor.

Test Nginx for configuration errors.
$ sudo nginx -t
Restart Nginx to save changes.
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

6. Security

Nginx serves web applications through HTTP and HTTPS Ports. Allow them through the firewall.

Allow HTTP connections.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
Allow HTTPS connections.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
Reload Firewall rules to save changes.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload

7. Configure SSL

Install the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository.
$ sudo dnf install epel-release
Enable the PowerTools repository.
$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
Install the snap library.
$ sudo dnf install snapd -y
Enable the snap socket and enable classic snap support.
$ sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket && sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
Close your SSH connection and Login again to complete snap integration.
Install the Certbot agent
$ sudo snap install --classic certbot
Request a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt.
$ sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com
Replace example.com with your actual domain.
Restart Nginx to load changes.
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

8. Test

Through a web browser, visit your configured domain.
https://example.com
Your HTML application should output Hello World headings.
To test database communication, set up a new dbtest.php file in your domain's webroot directory.
$ sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/example.com/dbtest.php

Add the following contents to the file. Enter your database information created earlier.

  <?php
  $server = "localhost";
  $user = "example-user";
  $password = "ultra-strong-password";

  $connect = new mysqli($server, $user, $password);

  if ($connect->connect_error) {
  die("'<h2>'Connection failed: '</h2>'" . $connect->connect_error);
  }
  echo "'<h2>' Database Connected successfully '</h2>'";

  echo " '<h2>' '<br> Below is your Server PHP Information '</h2>' '<br>'";

  phpinfo();

  ?>

Save and exit the editor.

Visit your domain and load dbtest.php.
https://example.com/dbtest.php

A connection successful message should display together with your server PHP information.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed LEMP on a Rocky Linux 8 server, and tested communication between applications. With a working stack, you can perform extra steps to get your web applications up and running securely without errors.

Next Steps

Depending on your use case, you can install multiple applications on your server and set up extra features, visit the following articles for more information.

How to Install WordPress on a Subdomain with Nginx.
Manage WordPress with WordOps.
How to Install OpenCart on a Vultr LEMP Server.
Initial Steps to secure Rocky Linux 8.
How to Set Up Load Balancing using Nginx.

Tags:Rocky Linux PHP Web Servers

How to Install LEMP on Rocky Linux 8

4 min readUpdated 1 April 2025

Introduction

Prerequisites

Create a new Rocky Linux 8 server on Vultr.
Access the server as a non-root user with sudo privileges.
Update the server.
Set up a domain and point it to the server.

1. Install Nginx

Install Nginx.
$ sudo dnf install nginx
Enable Nginx to start at boot time.
$ sudo systemctl enable nginx
Start Nginx.
$ sudo systemctl start nginx
Allow HTTP access through the firewall.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
Reload Firewall rules.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Test your Nginx installation by visiting your server IP.
http://1.2.3.4

2 Install MySQL/MariaDB

Install MariaDB.
$ sudo dnf install mariadb-server
Enable MariaDB to start at boot time.
$ sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Start the MariaDB server.
$ sudo systemctl start mariadb

3. Install PHP

Install PHP and PHP-FPM.
$ sudo dnf install php php-fpm
Install common PHP extensions required by most web applications.
$ sudo dnf install php-mysqlnd php-cgi php-bcmath php-json php-xml php-gd php-zip php-intl php-mbstring
Enable PHP-FPM to start at boot time.
$ sudo systemctl enable php-fpm
Start PHP-FPM.
$ sudo systemctl start php-fpm

4. Configure MariaDB

Initialize MariaDB and set the root password.
$ sudo mysql_secure_installation
Press enter when prompted for the root user password, reply with yes `y' to set a new root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database.
Log in to the MySQL console as root.
$ sudo mysql -u root -p
Create a sample database.
CREATE DATABASE sampledb;
Create a sample database user assigned with a strong password.
CREATE USER 'example-user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ultra-strong-password';
Grant the user full privileges to the sample database.
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON sampledb.* TO 'example-user'@'localhost';
Refresh MySQL privileges.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Exit the console.
EXIT
Test your MySQL login as the sample user.
mysql -u example-user -p
Show available databases.
SHOW DATABASES;
Exit the console.
EXIT

5. Configure Nginx

Create a new web files directory for your application.
$ sudo mkdir /usr/share/nginx/example.com
Using a text editor, create a simple HTML file in the directory.
$ sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/example.com/index.html
Add the following contents to the file.
<html> <title> It Works!!! </title> <body> <h2> Hello World!! Your WebServer Works!</h2> </body> </html>
Save and exit the editor.
Grant Nginx read and write permissions to the directory.
$ sudo chown -R nginx.nginx /usr/share/nginx/example.com
Create a new Nginx configuration file.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.com.conf

Add the following configurations to the file.

  server {
     listen       80;
     listen       [::]:80;
     server_name  _;
     root         /usr/share/nginx/example.com;
 
     index index.php index.html index.htm;
 
     error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error;
     access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access;
 
     location ~ \.php$ {
     fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
     fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
     fastcgi_index index.php;
     fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
     }
 
     location ~ /\. {
     deny all;
     access_log off;
    }
 
    }

Save and exit the editor.

Test Nginx for configuration errors.
$ sudo nginx -t
Restart Nginx to save changes.
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

6. Security

Nginx serves web applications through HTTP and HTTPS Ports. Allow them through the firewall.

Allow HTTP connections.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
Allow HTTPS connections.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
Reload Firewall rules to save changes.
$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload

7. Configure SSL

Install the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository.
$ sudo dnf install epel-release
Enable the PowerTools repository.
$ sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
Install the snap library.
$ sudo dnf install snapd -y
Enable the snap socket and enable classic snap support.
$ sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket && sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
Close your SSH connection and Login again to complete snap integration.
Install the Certbot agent
$ sudo snap install --classic certbot
Request a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt.
$ sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com
Replace example.com with your actual domain.
Restart Nginx to load changes.
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

8. Test

Through a web browser, visit your configured domain.
https://example.com
Your HTML application should output Hello World headings.
To test database communication, set up a new dbtest.php file in your domain's webroot directory.
$ sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/example.com/dbtest.php

Add the following contents to the file. Enter your database information created earlier.

  <?php
  $server = "localhost";
  $user = "example-user";
  $password = "ultra-strong-password";

  $connect = new mysqli($server, $user, $password);

  if ($connect->connect_error) {
  die("'<h2>'Connection failed: '</h2>'" . $connect->connect_error);
  }
  echo "'<h2>' Database Connected successfully '</h2>'";

  echo " '<h2>' '<br> Below is your Server PHP Information '</h2>' '<br>'";

  phpinfo();

  ?>

Save and exit the editor.

Visit your domain and load dbtest.php.
https://example.com/dbtest.php

A connection successful message should display together with your server PHP information.

Conclusion

Next Steps

Depending on your use case, you can install multiple applications on your server and set up extra features, visit the following articles for more information.

How to Install WordPress on a Subdomain with Nginx.
Manage WordPress with WordOps.
How to Install OpenCart on a Vultr LEMP Server.
Initial Steps to secure Rocky Linux 8.
How to Set Up Load Balancing using Nginx.

Tags:Rocky Linux PHP Web Servers

How to Install LEMP on Rocky Linux 8

Introduction

Prerequisites

1. Install Nginx

2 Install MySQL/MariaDB

3. Install PHP

4. Configure MariaDB

5. Configure Nginx

6. Security

7. Configure SSL

8. Test

Conclusion

Next Steps

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0 Comments

How to Install LEMP on Rocky Linux 8

Introduction

Prerequisites

1. Install Nginx

2 Install MySQL/MariaDB

3. Install PHP

4. Configure MariaDB

5. Configure Nginx

6. Security

7. Configure SSL

8. Test

Conclusion

Next Steps

More to Explore

Tech Talk: Running a Self-Improving AI Agent with Hermes on Vultr

Tech Talk: Implementing Fine-Grained Access Control with Vultr IAM

Tech Talk: Getting Started with Vultr IAM

Tech Talk: Simplifying Zero-Trust Networking with NetBird on Vultr Marketplace

0 Comments