How To Install Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS?

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).

This guide installs a LAMP stack on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and sets up your first website with its own folder.

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 Apache, MariaDB and PHP

Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12:

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

AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 (choose a current PHP stream first):

dnf module reset php && dnf module enable php:8.3
dnf install httpd mariadb-server php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-xml php-mbstring php-gd php-intl php-opcache php-pecl-zip
systemctl enable --now httpd mariadb php-fpm

Secure MariaDB (set a root password or keep socket login, remove test data): mariadb-secure-installation.

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

Create your website folder

mkdir -p /var/www/example.com
echo "<h1>It works</h1>" > /var/www/example.com/index.html
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com

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.

Disable the default site if you do not need it: a2dissite 000-default && systemctl reload apache2.

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.