How to install LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) Stack on Ubuntu 16

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Ubuntu 16.04 is no longer supported, so this guide now uses Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Debian 12 works the same way).

Install Apache, MariaDB and PHP on Ubuntu 24.04 in a few commands.

Before you start

• A VPS or dedicated server with a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12 or AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 installation, and root or sudo access.
• A domain or subdomain pointing to the server (an A record), if you want HTTPS.
• The system updated: apt update && apt upgrade or dnf upgrade.

Install the packages

apt update
apt install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-gd php-intl

Secure MariaDB with mariadb-secure-installation. Ubuntu 24.04 installs PHP 8.3 and MariaDB 10.11.

Open the firewall

ufw allow 80,443/tcp                                   # Ubuntu / Debian with UFW
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http --add-service=https && firewall-cmd --reload   # AlmaLinux / Rocky

Check it works

echo '<?php phpinfo();' > /var/www/html/info.php

Open http://SERVER-IP/info.php and delete the file afterwards.

Create the Apache site

Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf (Ubuntu/Debian) or /etc/httpd/conf.d/example.com.conf (AlmaLinux/Rocky):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
    <Directory /var/www/example.com>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Ubuntu/Debian: a2ensite example.com && a2enmod rewrite && systemctl reload apache2. AlmaLinux/Rocky: apachectl configtest && systemctl reload httpd.

Add a free SSL certificate

apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache                     # Ubuntu / Debian
dnf install epel-release && dnf install certbot python3-certbot-apache   # AlmaLinux / Rocky
certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot installs a timer that renews the certificate automatically; test it with certbot renew --dry-run.