Quickly Install a LAMP server on Ubuntu

I can't tell you how many times I have been asked what is the fastest, easiest way to install a LAMP (Linux Apache, MySQL, PHP) server on Ubuntu. Well, I guess it's time I just post it here for everyone to enjoy.

I am going to assume that this server does not have any of the components pre-installed. I am also going to assume you have sudo permission for the server. So starting with a blank slate we will first install Apache. To install Apache you will need to issue (from a terminal) the command:

sudo apt-get install apache2

Once this is installed you want to make sure Apache is up and running, so fire up your browser and point it to http://localhost (or you can use the servers' IP address). If you get the message "It Works!" you are good to go.

With Apache installed, let's move on. The next step should be installing PHP. To get php installed so that it will have everything it needs to integrate with Apache issue the command:

sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5

Before Apache can see that php is installed you will have to restart Apache like so:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Time to test to make sure php is working. Create a file within /var/www/testphp.php with the following contents:

< ?php phpinfo(); ?>

save that file in /var/www/ and then point your browser to that file. If all is well you will see the text, "Test PHP Page." If you see that, you can move to the next step: MySQL.

To install the necessary tools, issue the command sudo apt-get install mysql-server. Once the system is installed it gets just a bit tricky. You have to first set a password for mysql. To do this, run the first command in order to get to the mysql prompt and the second to set the password:

mysql -u root

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR \'root\'@\'localhost\' = PASSWORD(\'YOURPASSWORD\');

Where YOURPASSWORD is the actual password you want to use for the root user.

You're done. You now have a basic LAMP installation. Of course I would suggest taking this further by installing phpmyadmin in order to make creating MySQL databases much easier. But other than that, you are ready to install applications that require the LAMP configuration.