How to Install Drupal with Apache and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Debian 11

Drupal is a popular open-source content management system that allows you to build, manage, and maintain your website’s content with no coding knowledge.

Many different content management systems are available on the internet, but not all are right for every website. If you want to build your website with something flexible and powerful, look no further than Drupal.

Here, we will see how to install Drupal with Apache and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Debian 11.

Prerequisites

Install LAMP Stack

Follow the below link to install the LAMP stack on your Debian system for Drupal installation.

Install AMP (Apache, MariaDB, and PHP) on Debian 11

Install PHP Extensions for Drupal

Use the apt command to install PHP extensions for Drupal installation.

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y php-mysql php-gd php-dom php-curl php-imagick php-zip php-xml php-mbstring php-json php-pdo php-cli php-apcu

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends -y php-uploadprogress

Configure PHP for Drupal

Drupal recommends you a few PHP configurations for the better performance of the website. So, edit the /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini file and update the below values. Not all values may be appropriate for all websites. But, you can start with the below values.

memory_limit = 256M

upload_max_filesize = 64M

post_max_size = 64M

realpath_cache_size = 256k

realpath_cache_ttl = 3600

sudo sed -i 's/memory_limit = .*/memory_limit = 256M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/upload_max_filesize = .*/upload_max_filesize = 64M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/post_max_size = .*/post_max_size = 64M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/;realpath_cache_size = .*/realpath_cache_size = 256k/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/;realpath_cache_ttl = .*/realpath_cache_ttl = 3600/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

Setup Apache Virtual Host for Drupal

We will start with creating a virtual host for a Drupal installation. You can find all Apache virtual hosts under /etc/apache2/sites-available/ directory.

Typically, a virtual host file contains a ServerName, ServerAlias, Port number, Document root, log location, etc.

I am assuming the following,

Domain name: www.itzgeek.net
Port No: 80
Document root: /var/www/html/www.itzgeek.net

First, create a virtual host configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/www.itzgeek.net.conf

Then, place the following information into the above configuration file. Change the values as per your requirement.

<VirtualHost *:80>

   ServerName itzgeek.net
   ServerAlias www.itzgeek.net
   ServerAdmin admin@itzgeek.net
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html/www.itzgeek.net


   ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.itzgeek.net_error.log
   CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.itzgeek.net_access.log combined


   <Directory /var/www/html/www.itzgeek.net>
      Options FollowSymlinks
      AllowOverride All
      Require all granted

      RewriteEngine on
      RewriteBase /
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
   </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Create a directory for placing Drupal files.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/www.itzgeek.net/

Enable the site and Apache modules (SSL and rewrite).

sudo a2ensite www.itzgeek.net 

sudo a2enmod rewrite ssl

Restart the Apache service.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Install Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate

Create DNS Record

Go to your domain registrar and create an A and CNAME (optional if you do not want to use www subdomain) record for your domain.

1. Non-www Domain Name (Ex. itzgeek.net) >> A record point to your server IP
2. www Domain Name (Ex. www.itzgeek.net) >> CNAME record point to itzgeek.net

For this demo, I will create two records so that my Drupal website will be accessible at www.itzgeek.net.

Install Certbot client

The Certbot client that helps generate and install the Let’s Encrypt certificate is now available as a snap package for Debian. So, first, install snapd daemon on your system.

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y snapd

Then, update snapd to the latest version.

sudo snap install core && sudo snap refresh core

Finally, install the Certbot client using the below command.

sudo snap install --classic certbot

sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

Install SSL Certificate

Use the below command to generate and install the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate in the Apache webserver.

sudo certbot --apache

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: itzgeek.net
2. www.itzgeek.net
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel): 1,2

Wait for the SSL installation to complete.

Redirect non-www HTTP requests to www HTTPS with Apache

The Certbot client will place the required rules to redirect the traffic from HTTP to the HTTPS website.

1. http://itzgeek.net >> https://itzgeek.net

2. http://www.itzgeek.net >> https://www.itzgeek.net

As you can see, the first domain is not reaching www HTTPS with rules placed by Certbot. So, you will have to add a rule manually to redirect traffic from non-www HTTP to www HTTPS domain, I.e., http://itzgeek.net >> https://www.itzgeek.net if required.

Auto-Renew SSL Certificate

The Certbot client comes with systemd for auto-renewal of SSL certificates. So, you will not have to renew the certificates manually.

Install Drupal with Apache

Create Database for Drupal

First, login into MariaDB/MySQL database server.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, create the database for Drupal installation along with the database user and password.

CREATE DATABASE drupaldb;

CREATE USER 'drupaluser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON drupaldb.* TO 'drupaluser'@'localhost';

EXIT

Download Drupal Package

Download the latest version of the Drupal installer using the below command.

wget https://www.drupal.org/download-latest/tar.gz -O drupal-latest.tar.gz

Then, extract the downloaded file.

tar -zxvf drupal-latest.tar.gz

And then, move the files to your website document root directory.

sudo mv drupal-*/* /var/www/html/www.itzgeek.net/

Update the ownership and a group of the Drupal website directory.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/www.itzgeek.net/

Install Drupal CMS

Open your browser and visit your Drupal domain to perform the Drupal installation.

Access Drupal Website

Now, you will be able to access the site with your domain name.

Screenshot of Drupal CMS Back-End:

After installing Drupal, you will need to enable the Trusted Host Settings to protect your Drupal website against HTTP HOST Header attacks.

Conclusion

That’s All. I hope you have learned how to install Drupal with Apache and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Debian 11.