Setting Up a LAMP Stack on a VPS: Secure, Fast, and Production-Ready

LAMP on a VPS: What you will build and why it matters

A LAMP stack—Linux, Apache, MariaDB/MySQL, and PHP—is still the foundation of choice for dynamic web sites and APIs. On a VPS, you have root access, predictable performance, and the ability to harden security for your needs—unlike noisy neighbors on entry-level shared hosting. If you're still deciding between environments, read up with our primer What is VPS Hosting and Why It Might Be the Right Hosting for You.

Prep work and an architecture sketch

• A fresh VPS (1–2 vCPU, 1–2 GB RAM minimum for small WordPress/Joomla sites; more for dynamic sites).
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or 24.04 LTS with SSH access (root or sudo user).
• A domain name pointing at an IPv4/IPv6 of your server (A/AAAA).
• Some familiarity with the shell, e.g., SSH, editing config files, restarting services.

Server hardening and updates—part 1

Log in via SSH as a sudo user; don't log in as root daily. Update packages and set hostname/timezone.

# connect
ssh ubuntu@your_server_ip

# update & basic tools
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt -y install curl vim ufw htop unzip

# optional: set timezone
sudo timedatectl set-timezone UTC

Set up a basic firewall with UFW (allow SSH first, then allow web traffic).

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

Install Apache and activate useful modules

Apache is mature, stable, and easy to extend. Install it and enable the modules you'll need for rewrites, and FPM.

sudo apt -y install apache2
sudo a2enmod rewrite headers ssl proxy_fcgi setenvif
# FPM integration module is enabled later with PHP packages
sudo systemctl enable --now apache2
sudo systemctl status apache2

Confirm that the default page is served up by loading http://your domain or http://your_server_ip. If you get the Apache default page, you're good to go.

Install MariaDB (or MySQL) and run the secure installation

MariaDB is a binary-compatible replacement for MySQL, which works great for most PHP apps.

sudo apt -y install mariadb-server
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb
sudo mariadb-secure-installation

• Set a strong root password (or swap to Unix socket auth as suggested).
• Remove anonymous users and the test DB.
• Disallow remote root login if using in production.

Create an application DB and user (sub in values below):

sudo mariadb -e "CREATE DATABASE appdb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;"
sudo mariadb -e "CREATE USER 'appuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'STRONG_PASSWORD_HERE';"
sudo mariadb -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON appdb.* TO 'appuser'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Install PHP 8.x with FPM and commonly used extensions

Install PHP-FPM and useful modules for popular CMS/framework:

sudo apt -y install php8.3-fpm php8.3-cli php8.3-mysql php8.3-curl php8.3-xml \
    php8.3-mbstring php8.3-zip php8.3-gd php8.3-intl php8.3-bcmath

# enable Apache <-> PHP-FPM integration
sudo a2enconf php8.3-fpm
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Verify:

php -v
php -m | grep -E "mysql|curl|xml|mbstring|zip|gd|intl|bcmath"
systemctl status php8.3-fpm

Create a virtual host for your domain

Organize your site files under /var/www/yourdomain and create a dedicated vhost that proxies PHP requests to FPM.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/yourdomain/public
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/yourdomain
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/yourdomain

# sample PHP probe
echo "" | sudo tee /var/www/yourdomain/public/info.php > /dev/null

Virtual host config (sub in yourdomain.com):

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.conf
# Paste:

    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain/public

    
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    

    <FilesMatch "\.php$">
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
    

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/yourdomain_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/yourdomain_access.log combined

Enable the site and reload Apache:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo a2ensite yourdomain.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 3: Setting Up Apache, MySQL, and PHP

Now that we have installed all the necessary components, it is time to configure them to interact correctly with one another. Apache will be the one to serve your web pages, MySQL will store your application data, and PHP will be the middleware that connects Apache and MySQL.

sudo nano/etc/apache2/sites-available/myproject.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
        ServerName myproject.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/myproject
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite myproject.conf
    sudo systemctl reload apache2

sudo mysql_secure_installation

CREATE DATABASE myproject;
    CREATE USER 'myuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strongpassword';
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myproject.* TO 'myuser'@'localhost';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php

<?php
    phpinfo();
    ?>

At this point, you should have a working LAMP stack running on your VPS server. The last step is to optimize its performance and secure things a little more.

Step 4: Optimize and Secure Your LAMP Stack

Now that you have your LAMP stack installed and running, it is important to optimize its performance and secure your server from potential threats. A well-optimized stack not only performs better but also protects itself from attacks.

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow in "Apache Full"
sudo ufw enable

ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

mysqltuner

disable_functions = exec,passthru,shell_exec,system

display_errors = Off

Now that your LAMP stack is all set up, you can confidently deploy applications such as WordPress, Laravel, or even any custom-built platform.