How to Install Drupal with Nginx and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04

Drupal is a very popular open-source content management system that allows anyone to build, manage, and maintain your website’s content without coding knowledge.

Many different content management solutions are available, but not all are right for every project. If you want to build a website with something flexible and powerful, look no further than the Drupal content management system.

Here, we will see how to install Drupal with Nginx and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04.

Setup Environment

Install LEMP Stack

Follow the below links to install the LEMP stack on your Debian system for Drupal installation.

Install EMP (Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP) on Ubuntu 22.04

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

The default PHP values may not be appropriate for everyone, and you may need to change them based on the requirement. So, update the /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini file as per your requirement. You may start with the below values and increase or decrease the values when required.

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/g' /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/^upload_max_filesize \= .*/upload_max_filesize \= 64M/g' /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/^post_max_size \= .*/post_max_size \= 64M/g' /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/;realpath_cache_size = .*/realpath_cache_size = 256k/' /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

sudo sed -i 's/;realpath_cache_ttl = .*/realpath_cache_ttl = 3600/' /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini

Setup Nginx Server Block for Drupal

We will start with creating a virtual host for a Drupal installation. You can find all Nginx’s virtual host configuration files under /etc/nginx/conf.d directory.

Typically, a server block contains a domain name, port number, document root, log location, fast CGI, etc.

I am assuming the following,

Domain name: itzgeek.net, www.itzgeek.net
Port No: 80
Document root: /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/html
Logs: /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/logs
Server Block File: /etc/nginx/conf.d/www.itzgeek.net.conf

First, create a virtual host configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/www.itzgeek.net.conf

Then, place the following content into the above configuration file. However, you need to change server_name , root, and fastcgi_pass as per your requirement.

server {
	server_name itzgeek.net www.itzgeek.net;
	root /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/html;
	
	index index.php index.html;
	
	access_log /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/logs/access.log;
	error_log /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/logs/error.log;
	

	
	location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location ~* \.(txt|log)$ {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~ \..*/.*\.php$ {
        return 403;
    }

    location ~ ^/sites/.*/private/ {
        return 403;
    }

    # Block access to scripts in site files directory
    location ~ ^/sites/[^/]+/files/.*\.php$ {
        deny all;
    }

    # Allow "Well-Known URIs" as per RFC 5785
    location ~* ^/.well-known/ {
        allow all;
    }

    # Block access to "hidden" files and directories whose names begin with a
    # period. This includes directories used by version control systems such
    # as Subversion or Git to store control files.
    location ~ (^|/)\. {
        return 403;
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string; # For Drupal >= 7
    }

    location @rewrite {
        rewrite ^ /index.php; # For Drupal >= 7
    }

    # Don't allow direct access to PHP files in the vendor directory.
    location ~ /vendor/.*\.php$ {
        deny all;
        return 404;
    }

    # Protect files and directories from prying eyes.
    location ~* \.(engine|inc|install|make|module|profile|po|sh|.*sql|theme|twig|tpl(\.php)?|xtmpl|yml)(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig|\.save)?$|^(\.(?!well-known).*|Entries.*|Repository|Root|Tag|Template|composer\.(json|lock)|web\.config)$|^#.*#$|\.php(~|\.sw[op]|\.bak|\.orig|\.save)$ {
        deny all;
        return 404;
    }

    location ~ '\.php$|^/update.php' {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(|/.*)$;
        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
        fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg)$ {
        try_files $uri @rewrite;
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    # Fighting with Styles? This little gem is amazing.
    location ~ ^/sites/.*/files/styles/ { # For Drupal >= 7
        try_files $uri @rewrite;
    }

    # Handle private files through Drupal. Private file's path can come
    # with a language prefix.
    location ~ ^(/[a-z\-]+)?/system/files/ { # For Drupal >= 7
        try_files $uri /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    # Enforce clean URLs
    # Removes index.php from urls like www.example.com/index.php/my-page --> www.example.com/my-page
    # Could be done with 301 for permanent or other redirect codes.
    if ($request_uri ~* "^(.*/)index\.php/(.*)") {
        return 307 $1$2;
    }
}

Then, create directories for placing Drupal files and logs.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/html/

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/logs/

Finally, restart the Nginx and PHP-FPM services.

sudo systemctl reload nginx php8.1-fpm

Install Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate

Create DNS Record

Go to your domain registrar and create an A and CNAME (optional if you want to use www subdomain) record.

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, which helps us generate and install the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate in Nginx, 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 Nginx web server.

sudo certbot --nginx

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. You will now be able to access the website with HTTPS.

Note: If you access the website now, you will get a 403 forbidden error because you are yet to place Drupal files.

Redirect non-www HTTP requests to www HTTPS with Nginx

You will need to configure the Nginx server to redirect the traffic from the non-www HTTP site to the WWW HTTPS site, I.e., http://itzgeek.net >> https://www.itzgeek.net.

Auto-Renew SSL Certificate

The Certbot client now includes auto-renewal of SSL certificates through the systemd. So, you will not have to renew the certificates manually.

Install Drupal with Nginx

Create Database for Drupal

First, login into MariaDB/MySQL database server.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, create a database, user, and password for Drupal installation.

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 by using the following 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-*/* /usr/share/nginx/www.itzgeek.net/html/

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

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/nginx/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, 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 Nginx and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04.