Install Drupal on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - Step by step process ?

Drupal is an open-source and one of the most popular PHP-based Content Management System (CMS) platforms for building personal blogs or big corporate websites. It has thousands of templates and plugins that are mostly free to download and install. Due to the stability of the base, the adaptability of the platform, and its active community, Drupal remains a popular choice after more than a decade on the scene.

Here at LinuxAPT, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform related Linux Open-source Software Installation queries.

In this context, we shall look into the best method of installation of Drupal on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Steps to install Drupal on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa 

1. Perform system update

First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

2. Install LAMP server

A Ubuntu 20.04 LAMP server is required. If you do not have LAMP installed, you can follow our guide here.

3. Install Drupal 9 on the system

The first thing downloads the Drupal 9 tarball to the host where the service will run:

$ wget https://www.drupal.org/download-latest/tar.gz -O drupal.tar.gz

Once the download is completed, extract the downloaded file with the following command:

$ tar xvf drupal.tar.gz
$ rm -f drupal*.tar.gz
$ sudo mv drupal-*/ /var/www/html/drupal

We will need to change some folders permissions:

$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/
$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/

4. Configure MariaDB for Drupal

By default, MariaDB is not hardened. You can secure MariaDB using the mysql_secure_installation script. you should read and below each step carefully which will set a root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database and access to secure MariaDB:

$ mysql_secure_installation

Configure it like this:

- Set root password? [Y/n] y
- 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

Next, we will need to log in to the MariaDB console and create a database for Drupal. Run the following command:

$ mysql -u root -p

This will prompt you for a password, so enter your MariaDB root password and hit Enter. Once you are logged in to your database server you need to create a database for Drupal installation:

CREATE DATABASE drupal;
CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password_here';
GRANT ALL ON drupal.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

5. Configure Apache for Drupal

Now we create a new Apache configuration for the Drupal website:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/drupal.conf

Add the following lines:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName yoursite.com
     ServerAlias www.yoursite.com
     ServerAdmin admin@yoursite.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/drupal/
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     <Directory /var/www/html/drupal>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Require all granted
            RewriteEngine on
            RewriteBase /
            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
   </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Now, we can restart the Apache webserver so that the changes take place:

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
$ sudo a2ensite drupal.conf
$ systemctl restart apache2

6. Install Let's Encrypt Wildcard Certificates

First, download the required packages and create a new system binary:

$ wget https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto
$ sudo mv certbot-auto /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto
$ sudo chown root /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto
$ sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto

Next, run the Certbot command that will download and install all of its dependencies:

$ sudo /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto --apache

7. Access Drupal CMS

Drupal will be available on HTTP port 80 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to https://your-domain.com or https://server-ip-address and complete the required steps to finish the installation. 

Remember that you'll need the database name, username, and password you created earlier to connect. 

If you are using a firewall, please open port 80 to enable access to the control panel.

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