Preparing an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server

This page prepares a server running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS for a hub, from nothing to a web server ready to serve it. It uses PHP 8.2 from Ondřej Surý's PPA, Ubuntu's own MariaDB 10.11, and Apache or nginx with PHP-FPM. Then Installing the hub installs it, the same way on every system.

Full installs, from the browser and the command line, were run on Ubuntu 24.04 behind both Apache and nginx with these configurations, using Ubuntu's own PHP 8.3; nothing in them changes with the PHP version but the number in the package and socket names. The PHP 8.2 packages from the PPA were installed on Ubuntu 24.04 and every extension the hub needs was present.

For another system, or help choosing one, see Preparing the server.

What you need

• A server running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and an account on it that can use sudo.
• A name for the hub, such as hub.example.org, pointing at the server, and a TLS certificate for it. A hub has to be served over HTTPS: the administrator sign-in form always posts to an https:// address, so on plain HTTP the administrator can never sign in.

1. Install MariaDB, PHP and the tools

Ubuntu 24.04 ships PHP 8.3. PHP 8.2 comes from Ondřej Surý's PPA. Add it first:

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update

Then the packages. MariaDB is Ubuntu's own, 10.11.

sudo apt install mariadb-server git unzip \
    php8.2-cli php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql php8.2-mbstring php8.2-curl \
    php8.2-gd php8.2-zip php8.2-xml

php8.2-xml is for the libraries Composer installs, which need it, and muse install check asks Composer what they need, so it checks for it too. json, openssl, fileinfo and pdo come with PHP itself.

2. Install the web server

Choose Apache or nginx. Install one of them, not both.

Apache:

sudo apt install apache2
sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif ssl

Or nginx:

sudo apt install nginx

3. Get the code

The repository is the hub: its top directory is the web server's document root. Clone it, and give it to www-data, the account PHP-FPM runs as:

sudo git clone --branch 2.4-main https://github.com/hubzero/hubzero-cms.git /var/www/hub
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/hub

The installer writes the hub's configuration into a new app/ directory inside it, and the hub later keeps its uploads, logs and cache there, so www-data has to be able to write to the whole tree.

4. Configure the web server

Each configuration below does the same four things:

• serves /var/www/hub as the document root, over HTTPS;
• passes PHP files to PHP;
• sends every address that is not a file to index.php, which is how the hub's addresses work;
• refuses requests for the hub's configuration, logs, temporary files, command-line programs and hidden files.

The last of those matters: app/config/database.php holds the database password, and nothing else stops a browser from reading it.

Replace hub.example.org and the certificate paths with your own. The examples use certificates from Let's Encrypt's certbot: sudo apt install certbot.

Before you have a certificate

The hub is always served over HTTPS, but it need not wait for a real certificate, or for its name to reach the server. Start with a self-signed one. Debian and Ubuntu make one with the ssl-cert package:

sudo apt install ssl-cert

and in the configuration below, use its files in place of the Let's Encrypt paths:

	Path
Certificate	/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
Key	/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key

Browsers warn about a self-signed certificate; accept the warning to reach the installer. When the real certificate arrives, put its paths in instead and reload the web server.

If you installed Apache

/etc/apache2/sites-available/hub.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName hub.example.org
    Redirect permanent / https://hub.example.org/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName hub.example.org
    DocumentRoot /var/www/hub

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile    /etc/letsencrypt/live/hub.example.org/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/hub.example.org/privkey.pem

    <Directory /var/www/hub>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
        FallbackResource /index.php
    </Directory>

    <FilesMatch "\.php$">
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    </FilesMatch>

    <LocationMatch "^/(app/(config|logs|tmp)|core/(bin|vendor/bin))(/|$)">
        Require all denied
    </LocationMatch>
    <LocationMatch "/\.(?!well-known)">
        Require all denied
    </LocationMatch>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/hub-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/hub-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite hub
sudo apache2ctl configtest && sudo systemctl reload apache2

The repository has no .htaccess file. Everything the hub needs is in this block, so AllowOverride None is right, and FallbackResource does the work a rewrite rule would.

Or, if you installed nginx

/etc/nginx/sites-available/hub:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name hub.example.org;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name hub.example.org;
    root /var/www/hub;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/hub.example.org/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/hub.example.org/privkey.pem;

    client_max_body_size 100m;

    location ~ ^/(app/(config|logs|tmp)|core/(bin|vendor/bin))(/|$) { deny all; }
    location ~ /\.(?!well-known) { deny all; }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    # Addresses such as /administrator/index.php name no file; the hub's own
    # index.php answers them, as it does every other address
    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/hub /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/hub
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Do not use the distribution's snippets/fastcgi-php.conf for the PHP block. It answers 404 for any .php address that is not a file, and the administrator interface lives at one: /administrator/index.php is answered by the hub's index.php, not by a file of that name. Raise client_max_body_size if members will upload files larger than 100 MB.

5. Next: install the hub

The server is ready. Go on to Installing the hub, which creates the database and runs the installer, the same way on every system.

When something goes wrong on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

/administrator answers 404 under nginx. The PHP block is passing every .php address straight to PHP, or uses snippets/fastcgi-php.conf. Use the block above, which hands addresses that are not files to index.php.

For everything else, see When something goes wrong on the page that installs the hub.