Before we can start building our world-changing website or application on LEMP, we have to lay the foundation for the stack. In this hands-on lab, we will walk through deploying phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu Linux.
When the lab is complete, we will have a running phpMyAdmin installation on Ubuntu Linux.
Learning Objectives
Successfully complete this lab by achieving the following learning objectives:
- Validate That the NGINX Server Is Installed, Enabled, and Running
Become
root:sudo su -Check the status of the NGINX service:
systemctl status nginxThe service should be
enabledandrunning.Verify that we can load the default NGINX web page using
curl:By Public IP:
curl http://`cat /tmp/public_ip.txt`By Public DNS:
curl http://`cat /tmp/public_dns.txt`- Validate That the php7.2-fpm Service Is Installed, Enabled, and Running
Validate that the
php7.2-fpmservice is running, usingsystemctl:systemctl status php7.2-fpm.serviceThe service should be
enabledandrunning.- Validate and Secure MariaDB
Check the status of the MariaDB server using
systemctl:systemctl status mariadbThe server should be
enabledandrunning.Secure MariaDB by running the
mysql_secure_installationscript. Set the MariaDBrootpassword to123456:mysql_secure_installationOur MariaDB installation is now configured and secured.
- Install phpMyAdmin
Install phpMyAdmin from the Ubuntu software repository using
apt-get:apt-get -y install phpmyadminThis will launch a configuration dialog.
We’re going to configure phpMyAdmin with NGINX. Do NOT select anything. Just use the Tab key to get down to OK, and hit Enter.
Select Yes to create a new database using
dbconfig-common.We will need to provide a password for the new
phpmyadminuser. Use 123456. Once this is done, installation and configuration is complete.- Configure NGINX to Work with phpMyAdmin – Part 1
The lab server has been created with a pre-configured server block. We will validate the NGINX configuration and examine it.
Validate the NGINX server configuration:
nginx -tLet’s look at the virtual host configurations:
cd /etc/nginx/conf.dls -laThere are two virtual host configurations, one for the default site configuration, and a template for the phpMyAdmin configuration.
- Configure NGINX to Work with phpMyAdmin – Part 2
We need to enable the configuration for phpMyAdmin:
mv phpmyadmin.conf.template phpmyadmin.confValidate that the NGINX configuration is still OK:
nginx -t- Configure NGINX to Work with phpMyAdmin – Part 3
Let’s take a look at the phpMyAdmin configuration:
more phpmyadmin.confWe can see a few key things about the configuration:
- The server supports HTTP connections.
- The server name is configured as the EC2 instance’s DNS name.
- The document root location is
/usr/share/phpmyadmin/. - The logs for this virtual host are going to their own log files, separate from the logs for the main server.
- PHP is configured for this virtual host.
- Configure NGINX to Work with phpMyAdmin – Part 4
PHP is configured to communicate over a UNIX socket (
/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock).Now, let’s reload the NGINX service to pick up the phpmyadmin virtual host configuration. We’ve already validated the NGINX configuration (above), so we’re good to go with a reload:
systemctl reload nginxsystemctl status nginx- Configure NGINX to Work with phpMyAdmin – Part 5
Verify that the phpMyAdmin site is available using the
curlcommand:curl -H "http://`cat /tmp/public_dns.txt`" http://`cat /tmp/public_dns.txt`If everything is working as it should, we will see a lot of code.
- Test HTTP Connection to phpMyAdmin
Verify that we can connect to phpMyAdmin using a web browser. We can get the Public DNS for the lab server in
/home/cloud_user/server_info.txt. Connect to http://OUR_PUBLIC_DNSConnections to the
defaultNGINX web server instance can be made via the Public IP. This is also in/home/cloud_user/server_info.txt. Connect to http://OUR_PUBLIC_IP- Validate the phpMyAdmin SSL Certificate
Before we configure the phpMyAdmin site to use SSL/TLS, we want to verify that the SSL certificate is good:
cd /etc/nginx/ssl/phpMyAdminVerify that the X509 certificate was correctly generated using the
openssl verifycommand:openssl verify -CAfile ca-cert.pem server-cert.pemWe should see:
server-cert.pem: OK.- Check the Properties of the phpMyAdmin SSL Certificate
We can display information about the CA and server SSL certificate information using
openssl x509:openssl x509 -in ca-cert.pem -noout -textopenssl x509 -in server-cert.pem -noout -textNote that the CN entries are different. This is important. If the CN is the same for the CA and the server certificate, we will get an error and SSL will fail.
- Secure phpMyAdmin with SSL
Edit the
phpmyadmin.conffile:vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/phpmyadmin.confChange the
listenlines from port 80 to 443 and addsslafter 443:listen 443 ssl;
and
listen [::]:443 ssl;Add the following lines after the
server_nameconfiguration line:ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/phpMyAdmin/server-cert.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/phpMyAdmin/server-key.pem;Save and exit.
- Load the New NGINX Configuration for phpMyAdmin
Before we reload NGINX to pick up the new configuration, validate:
nginx -tIf everything checks out, reload:
systemctl reload nginxOur SSL configuration is now active.
- Log into the phpMyAdmin Site
Verify that we can connect to phpMyAdmin using HTTPS with a web browser. We can get the Public DNS for the lab server in
/home/cloud_user/server_info.txt. Connect to https://OUR_PUBLIC_DNSWe will get a certficate error. Accept the certificate and proceed.
Log into the phpMyAdmin site with the username
phpmyadminand password123456. This puts us in the Home page for thephpMyAdminsite.
