Random Notes for Setting up a New Ubuntu LAMP Server on Linode

This is the first entry written on the new home of this blog, a 1GB Linode server. I moved it here from a Pair account that I am in the process of closing. The server is running Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS, Apache, MySQL, and PHP 7.

Using /srv/www as Web Root

It looks like Apache defaults to using /var/www as the web root. I prefer using /srv/www. To enable this open up /etc/apache2/apache.conf, comment out the section and uncomment the section. Make sure to change the AllowOverride directive to All or .htaccess and mod_rewrite won’t work.

Getting mod_rewrite to Work

You need to make sure that the AllowOverride directive is setup as per above. Then just enable the mod with a2enmod rewrite.

Installing PHP7

PHP7 is installed fairly easily with sudo apt-get install php7.0 php7.0-fpm php7.0-mysql.

Permissions for WordPress

When first installing WordPress make sure to

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/site-root/

After installation set permissions on folders and files using:

find . -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Note that 775 is used because we need www-data and a ftp user to be able to modify the WordPress install.

Then take ownership of the whole folder again with:

sudo chown -R ftp-user:ftp-user /srv/site-root/

And give ownership of wp-content to Apache with:

chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/site-root/wp-content

And secure wp-config.php with:

chmod 600 /srv/site-root/wp-config.php

Setting up a MySQL Database and User

It like to have a user for each WordPress install rather than using some sort of global user. It’s done fairly easily with:

create database database_name;
create user user_name@’localhost’ identified by ‘somepassword’;
grant all privileges on database_name.* to user_name@’%’ identified by ‘somepassword’;
grant all privileges on database_name.* to user_name@localhost identified by ‘somepassword’;
flush privileges;

Zipping a WordPress Install

Moving a WordPress install from Pair to Linode involved zipping up the install folder, transferring it via SFTP to the new server, and unzipping it. This is done with:

tar -zcvf somesitename.tar.gz somesitename/

And extracting with:

tar -xvzf somesitename.tar.gz

The extraction will create the folder to put the contents in.

Basic Process of Moving Site

  1. Zip up WordPress install folder.
  2. Dump database using MySQL Dump or phpMySQL. Remember to add use database_name; to start of MySQL Dump file.
  3. Transfer install folder and MySQL dump to new server using SFTP.
  4. Create new database and user. Import data to database using something like mysql -uroot -ppassword < mysql_dump.sql
  5. Unzip WordPress tar.gz file to /srv.
  6. Edit the /srv/domain_name/wp-config.php file to enter new database details and login.
  7. Create new /srv/domain_name-logs/ folder for Apache logs and set www-data as the owner.
  8. Set permissions on WordPress folders as covered earlier.
  9. Make entry into /etc/hosts file for 127.0.0.1 site_name.
  10. Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/site_name.com.conf file making sure to set the web root and log file path correctly.
  11. Enable the site with a2ensite site_name.com.conf.
  12. Test by setting your local machine’s hosts file for the domain to the server IP address.
  13. Setup the new DNS Zone on Linode for the site.
  14. Adjust the Name Servers at the domain registrar for the domain.
  15. Wait for the DNS records to propagate!