How to setup a Nginx Server (LEMP Stack)

Setup an Ubuntu Server with only the

• [x] Essential Services
• [x] SSH Server

Login as root

Lets start with an update

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

To secure your server a bit. Edit ssh and change the default port

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Change ‘port 22’ to whatever port you wish to use then…

service ssh reload

(you can now login like this:  ssh root@ur.server.ip.ip -p portyouchose )

We now begin setting up the actual server components starting with MySQL

apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

(you will be prompted to enter your password here: lets call that passwordA)

Now MySQL is installed lets configure for production use.

mysql_install_db
/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

It my ask for the root password: enter passwordA which you entered above.
Do you want to change password: N
Remove Anonymous Users: Y
Disallow Root Login Remotely: Y
Remove test Database: Y
Reload Tables: Y

All done!! At Least with MySQL

During the installation of MySQL an apache server may have been setup.. since we want LEMP (we need to uninstall apache2 and install Nginx) do that with

(uninstall apache)

service apache2 stop
apt-get purge apache2 apache2-utils apache2.2-bin apache2-common
apt-get autoremove

(install Nginx)

apt-get install nginx
service nginx start

(you can do a ‘ifconfig’ to get ip address and test out server in your browser)

On to the last part. Installing PHP.

apt-get install php5-fpm

And configure it..

Open php.ini

vim /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini # you may use nano if u wish (nano /etc/php...)

find ‘cgi.fix_pathinfo=1’ and replace with ‘cgi.fix_pathinfo=0’ – this makes PHP not ‘guess’ what urls users are trying to go to (added security)

and restart php

service php5-fpm restart

Well.. thats about it.. your html files are at /usr/share/nginx/www

For added security you can install denyhosts

apt-get install denyhosts

and phpmyadmin

apt-get install phpmyadmin

 

Enjoy your new high performance and secure Nginx server.