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

What is the LEMP Stack?

Linux + EngineX (Nginx) + MySQL + PHP. It powers millions of websites including WordPress, WooCommerce, Laravel, and Drupal.

Step 1: Install Nginx

apt update
apt install nginx -y
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx

Open your server IP in a browser — you should see the Nginx welcome page. If not, check: ufw allow 80/tcp

Step 2: Install MySQL 8.0

apt install mysql-server -y
mysql_secure_installation

The secure installation wizard will ask you to: set a root password, remove anonymous users, disable remote root login, remove the test database, and reload privileges. Answer Yes to all.

Step 3: Install PHP 8.3

apt install software-properties-common -y
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
apt update
apt install php8.3-fpm php8.3-mysql php8.3-curl php8.3-gd     php8.3-mbstring php8.3-xml php8.3-zip php8.3-bcmath php8.3-intl -y

Step 4: Configure Nginx to Use PHP

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com

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

    # Try files, then PHP
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    # PHP-FPM configuration
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    # Block .htaccess access
    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

# Enable the site and test config
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx

Step 5: Create a Database and User

mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE myapp CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'myuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongP@ssw0rd!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myapp.* TO 'myuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 6: Test PHP is Working

echo "" > /var/www/yourdomain.com/info.php

Visit http://yourdomain.com/info.php — you should see the PHP info page. Delete it after testing: rm /var/www/yourdomain.com/info.php

Step 7: Add Free SSL

apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com