LAMP stack is a group of open source software used to get web servers up and running. The acronym stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Since the server is already running CentOS, the linux part is taken care of. Here is how to install the rest.

Set Up

The steps in this tutorial require the user on the virtual private server to have root privileges. You can see how to set that up in the Initial Server Setup Tutorial in steps 3 and 4.

Step One—Install Apache

Apache is a free open source software which runs over 50% of the world’s web servers.

To install apache, open terminal and type in this command:

sudo yum install httpd

Once it installs, you can start apache running on your VPS:

sudo service httpd start

That’s it. To check if Apache is installed, direct your browser to your server’s IP address (eg. http://12.34.56.789). The page should display the words “It works!” like this.

How to find your Server’s IP address

You can run the following command to reveal your server’s IP address.

ifconfig eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2 }'

Step Two—Install MySQL

MySQL is a powerful database management system used for organizing and retrieving data on a virtual server

To install MySQL, open terminal and type in these commands:

sudo yum install mysql-server
sudo service mysqld start

During the installation, MySQL will ask you for your permission twice. After you say Yes to both, MySQL will install.

Once it is done installing, you can set a root MySQL password:

sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

The prompt will ask you for your current root password.

Since you just installed MySQL, you most likely won’t have one, so leave it blank by pressing enter.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): 
OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Then the prompt will ask you if you want to set a root password. Go ahead and choose Y and follow the instructions.

CentOS automates the process of setting up MySQL, asking you a series of yes or no questions.

It’s easiest just to say Yes to all the options. At the end, MySQL will reload and implement the new changes.

By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for
them.  This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother.  You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y                                            
 ... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'.  This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
... Success!

By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access.  This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
 - Dropping test database...
 ... Success!
 - Removing privileges on test database...
 ... Success!

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y
 ... Success!

Cleaning up...

All done!  If you've completed all of the above steps, your MySQL
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MySQL!

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