How to Install Phorum with Nginx on Debian 9
Phorum is a PHP and MySQL based Open Source forum software. In this guide, we will guide you step-by-step through the Phorum installation process on the Debian 9 operating system using Nginx as the web server, MariaDB as the database, and acme.sh and Let's Encrypt for HTTPS.
Requirements
Requirements for running Phorum are:
- Nginx
- PHP version 5.2 or greater
- MySQL/MariaDB version 5.0 or greater
Prerequisites
- A Debian 9 operating system.
- A non-root user with
sudo
privileges.
Initial steps
Check your Debian version:
lsb_release -ds
# Debian GNU/Linux 9.8 (stretch)
Set up the timezone:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Update your operating system packages (software). This is an important first step because it ensures you have the latest updates and security fixes for your operating system's default software packages:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Install some essential packages that are necessary for basic administration of the Debian operating system:
sudo apt install -y curl wget vim git unzip socat bash-completion apt-transport-https build-essential
Step 1 - Install PHP
Install PHP, as well as the necessary PHP extensions:
sudo apt install -y php7.0 php7.0-cli php7.0-fpm php7.0-common php7.0-mysql
To show PHP compiled in modules, you can run:
php -m
ctype
curl
exif
fileinfo
. . .
. . .
Check the PHP version:
php --version
# PHP 7.0.33-0debian0.18.04.1 (cli) (built: Sep 13 2018 13:45:02) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
# with Zend OPcache v7.2.10-0ubuntu0.18.04.1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies
PHP-FPM service is automatically started and enabled on reboot on Ubuntu 18.04 system, so there is no need to start and enable it manually. We can move on to the next step, which is the database installation and setup.
Step 2 - Install MariaDB and create a database
Install MariaDB database server:
sudo apt install -y mariadb-server
Check the MariaDB version:
mysql --version
Run mysql_secure installation
script to improve MariaDB security and set the password for MariaDB root
user:
sudo mysql_secure_installation
Answer each of the questions:
Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD plugin? N
New password: your_secure_password
Re-enter new password: your_secure_password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y
Connect to MariaDB shell as the root user:
sudo mysql -u root -p
# Enter password
Create an empty MariaDB database and user for Phorum and remember the credentials:
mariadb> CREATE DATABASE dbname;
mariadb> GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
mariadb> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Exit from MariaDB:
mariadb> exit
Replace dbname
, username
and password
with your own names.
Step 3 - Install acme.sh client and obtain Let's Encrypt certificate (optional)
Securing your forum with HTTPS is not necessary, but it is a good practice to secure your site traffic. In order to obtain TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt we will use acme.sh client. Acme.sh is a pure UNIX shell software for obtaining TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt with zero dependencies.
Download and install acme.sh:
sudo su - root
git clone https://github.com/Neilpang/acme.sh.git
cd acme.sh
./acme.sh --install --accountemail [email protected]
source ~/.bashrc
cd ~
Check acme.sh version:
acme.sh --version
# v2.8.0
Obtain RSA and ECC/ECDSA certificates for your domain/hostname:
# RSA 2048
acme.sh --issue --standalone -d example.com --keylength 2048
# ECDSA
acme.sh --issue --standalone -d example.com --keylength ec-256
If you want fake certificates for testing you can add --staging
flag to the above commands.
After running the above commands, your certificates and keys will be in:
- For RSA:
/home/username/example.com
directory. - For ECC/ECDSA:
/home/username/example.com_ecc
directory.
To list your issued certs you can run:
acme.sh --list
Create a directory to store your certs. We will use /etc/letsencrypt
directory.
mkdir -p /etc/letsecnrypt/example.com
sudo mkdir -p /etc/letsencrypt/example.com_ecc
Install/copy certificates to /etc/letsencrypt directory.
# RSA
acme.sh --install-cert -d example.com --cert-file /etc/letsencrypt/example.com/cert.pem --key-file /etc/letsencrypt/example.com/private.key --fullchain-file /etc/letsencrypt/example.com/fullchain.pem --reloadcmd "sudo systemctl reload nginx.service"
# ECC/ECDSA
acme.sh --install-cert -d example.com --ecc --cert-file /etc/letsencrypt/example.com_ecc/cert.pem --key-file /etc/letsencrypt/example.com_ecc/private.key --fullchain-file /etc/letsencrypt/example.com_ecc/fullchain.pem --reloadcmd "sudo systemctl reload nginx.service"
All the certificates will be automatically renewed every 60 days.
After obtaining certs exit from root user and return back to normal sudo user:
exit
Step 4 - Install and configure NGINX
Install NGINX:
sudo apt install -y nginx
Check the NGINX version:
sudo nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu)
Configure NGINX for Phorum. Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/phorum.conf
and add the following configuration.
server {
listen 80;
listen 443 ssl;
server_name example.com;
root /var/www/phorum;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/example.com/private.key;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/example.com_ecc/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/example.com_ecc/private.key;
index index.php index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
}
}
Activate the new phorum.conf
configuration by linking the file to the sites-enabled
directory:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/phorum.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
Check NGINX configuration for syntax errors:
sudo nginx -t
Reload NGINX service:
sudo systemctl reload nginx.service
Step 4 - Install Phorum
Create a document root directory for Phorum:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/phorum
Change ownership of the /var/www/phorum
directory to [jour_user]:
sudo chown -R [your_user]:[your_user] /var/www/phorum
Navigate to the document root directory:
cd /var/www/phorum
Download the latest stable Phorum distribution from the official website:
wget https://www.phorum.org/downloads/phorum-5.2.23.tar.gz
Unpack the downloaded archive and move files to the document root:
tar xvzf phorum-5.2.23.tar.gz
rm phorum-5.2.23.tar.gz
mv Core-phorum_5_2_23/* . && mv Core-phorum_5_2_23/.* .
rmdir Core-phorum_5_2_23
Configure the database access:
cp include/db/config.php.sample include/db/config.php
Configure database settings by editing include/db/config.php
file:
vim include/db/config.php
Change the ownership of the /var/www/phorum
directory to www-data:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/phorum
To finish the installation, run the web-based installer by visiting http://forum.example.com/admin.php
in your web browser.