Installing Nginx + PHP + MySQL on Ubuntu (LEMP Stack)

LEMP = Linux + Engine-X (Nginx) + MariaDB/MySQL + PHP. This guide installs the full stack to run a PHP site on a clean Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 server: Nginx, PHP-FPM, MariaDB, a virtual host (server block) and Let's Encrypt SSL.

1. Nginx

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

If UFW already allows 80,443/tcp, opening the server's IP in a browser shows the Nginx welcome page.

2. MariaDB

sudo apt install mariadb-server -y
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb
sudo mysql_secure_installation

In the mysql_secure_installation questions: Y for unix_socket auth for root, remove anonymous users, disable remote root login, remove the test database, reload privilege tables.

A database and user for the application

sudo mysql

CREATE DATABASE app_db CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'app_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'A_STRONG_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON app_db.* TO 'app_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

3. PHP-FPM

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-mbstring php-xml php-curl php-zip php-gd php-intl php-bcmath -y

Check the version (typically 8.3 on Ubuntu 24.04):

php -v
systemctl status php8.3-fpm

4. A server block for the site

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/yoursite.com/public
sudo chown -R $USER:www-data /var/www/yoursite.com

/etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.com:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yoursite.com www.yoursite.com;
    root /var/www/yoursite.com/public;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Test

echo "<?php phpinfo();" | sudo tee /var/www/yoursite.com/public/info.php

http://yoursite.com/info.php should show the PHP info page. Delete it after testing: sudo rm /var/www/yoursite.com/public/info.php

5. DNS

Point your domain's A record at the server's IP address:

yoursite.com.      A     203.0.113.10
www.yoursite.com.  A     203.0.113.10

Wait for propagation (until dig yoursite.com +short returns the IP).

6. Free SSL (Let's Encrypt)

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d yoursite.com -d www.yoursite.com

Certbot obtains the certificate, updates the Nginx config to HTTPS and adds a redirect. Auto-renewal is set up via certbot.timer; test:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Details: What is an SSL Certificate?

7. Tighten the settings

Typical settings in /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini:

upload_max_filesize = 32M
post_max_size = 32M
memory_limit = 256M
max_execution_time = 60
date.timezone = Europe/Istanbul

sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Common problems

• 502 Bad Gateway: the PHP version in the fastcgi_pass path does not match the installed version. Run ls /run/php/ to see the correct socket.
• 403 Forbidden: the root directory is wrong or the permissions are off. www-data must be able to read.
• PHP file downloads instead of running: the location ~ \.php$ block is missing, or nginx -t reports an error.
• certbot "DNS problem": the A record has not propagated yet; verify with dig and try again.