Ames Computers / Walden Systems

The next step is installing Apache web server software. Apache is a web server software that is responsible for accepting requests from visitors and sending them back the requested information in the form of web pages. It allows visitors to view content on your website. Apache is responsible for ensuring that the server your website is stored on can communicate with the device a visitor is using. Without web server software, your website will not work. A lot of large, well known companies use Apache including LinkedIn, Facebook, and eBay[5].

Before we set up Apache, we will need to set a static ip for the Linux box. An IP address is a unique number assigned to every device on a network. IP addresses identify computers and devices and lets them communicate with each other. The Internet uses the Domain Name System ( DNS ) as an internet address book. When you type a URL into your web browser, it uses DNS to look up the IP address for that domain. For example, if you type www.ames-pc.com into your browser, DNS returns an IP address, such as 100.8.171.40. Think of it as a phone book, when you look for John Doe, you can get the phone number to John Doe. A static IP address is an address that doesn't change. Once your device is assigned a static IP address, that number stays the same. Static IP addresses generally are used by servers or other important equipment. WHen Ubuntu is installed, the default setting is for DHCP, or dynamic ip address where the IP address of the machine can change.

The easiest way to set the machine to a static ip is through the Activities screen in the desktop manager. In the activities screen, search for "settings" and click on the icon. This will open the settings window. Click on the Network tab. To open the interface settings, click on the gear icon next to the interface name. In the "IPV4 Method" tab, select Manual and enter your static IP address, Netmask and Gateway. Once done, click on the Apply button. The IP address should be unique for your network.

Make sure your system is up to date and patched. After the system updated with the latest patches, we can install Apache. After installing Apache, We will enable the apache2.service so Apache loads whenever the system boots.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2.service

Once Apache is setup, we will have to modify the firewall settings to allow outside access to the default web ports. During installation, Apache registers itself with UFW to provide a few application profiles that can be used to enable or disable access to Apache through the firewall. To make sure that Apache has been registered correctly, list the ufw application profiles by typing:

sudo ufw app list

Output
Available applications:
  Apache
  Apache Full
  Apache Secure
  OpenSSH

Now enable Apache in the firewall with the command:

sudo ufw allow Apache

To test apache installation from another computer, we can use the curl command, curl -I http://COMPUTER_IP or open up a browser and go to http://COMPUTER_IP. If Apache is set up correctly and the firewall is configured to allow Apache, you will get a response from the server

The next step is to install a database for Linux. In our case, we will be installing MariaDB. MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL database management system. MySQL was one of the first open-source database available in the market. MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS) that is free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Development is led by some of the original developers of MySQL, who forked it when MySQL was bought by Oracle Corporation.

To install MariaDB, we need to add MariaDB repository on to the system. Then the installation of MariaDB will be done from the APT repository. First, we need to updated the system and install the software-properties-common package. The next step is to install the MariaDB database server. Next, you have to secure the MariaDB server by running the MySQL hardening script. After running the script, we can check the status of the database. Finally, we can test login by using the mysql command.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt -y install software-properties-common
sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client
sudo mysql_secure_installation
systemctl status mysql
mysql -u root -p

PHP is a popular server scripting language known for creating dynamic and interactive web pages. PHP is a widely-used, open source, general-purpose scripting language that is well suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. The difference between PHP and something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client. The client would receive the results of running that script, but would not know what the underlying code was. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP.

Since we are using Apache as our web server, we will run the following commands to install PHP and Apache PHP modules and restart Apache with the modules enabled.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php
sudo systemctl restart apache2

We can now download WordPress and set up our site. The document root for our site will be in the /var/www/html directory. We will replace the default Apache welcome page. First, we need to download WordPress from their site. For security concerns and other changes, always download the latest version. Enter the following command to change into the writable temporary directory. Once it is downloaded, we will need to unzip it into the /var/www/html directory. Once that is done, WordPress is installed and you can get to the WordPress Admin site by entering the IP address of the server.

Having a great website matters. It’s how you connect with your visitors and create a positive first impression. The good news is creating your own website doesn’t have to be a daunting process with WordPress. The easy-to-use CMS offers completely customizable plans suitable for all needs. With no prior knowledge necessary, you can start building your own site for your business, blog, portfolio, or online store immediately.





Reference

[1] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress "Usage statistics and market share of WordPress"

[2] https://kinsta.com/wordpress-market-share/ "In that case, WordPress holds"

[3] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-linux 2nd paragraph

[4] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements "Installation/SystemRequirements"

[5] https://stack.g2.com/apache-server "Apache Server"