How To Install LEMP Stack on Debian 10

Nginx is a free, open-source, high-performance web server. It is known for stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption.

Install below packages.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y curl gnupg2 ca-certificates lsb-release

Download the Nginx repository signing key.

wget https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key

Add the Nginx key to the system.

sudo apt-key add nginx_signing.key

Add Nginx repository to the system.

echo "deb https://nginx.org/packages/debian `lsb_release -cs` nginx" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

Install Nginx package using the following command.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx

Start the Nginx service after the installation.

sudo systemctl start nginx

Open a web browser and visit the below URL.

You will get the welcome page that confirms that Nginx has been successfully installed and is up and running.

Nginx’s default document root on Debian 10 is /usr/share/nginx/html/. The configuration files are found under /etc/nginx/ directory.

Install PHP

PHP-FPM is an alternative PHP FastCGI implementation, offers lots of features useful for websites of any size, especially busier sites.

Install php-fpm by issuing the following command.

sudo apt install -y php-fpm php-mysql php-cli

PHP-FPM listens on Unix socket by default. To make PHP-FPM use a TCP connection, edit the below file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

Change the listen parameter.

FROM:

listen = /run/php/php7.3-fpm.sock

TO:

listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

Restart PHP-FPM service.

sudo systemctl restart php7.3-fpm

Create Virtual Host

Now, create a virtual host on Nginx server for the following details to test the LEMP stack.

Server Name: site.itzgeek.local
Document Root : /usr/share/nginx/html/site.itzgeek.local

Create a virtual host configuration file site.itzgeek.local.conf in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ directory.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/site.itzgeek.local.conf

Add the following content.

server {
   server_name site.itzgeek.local;
   root /usr/share/nginx/html/site.itzgeek.local;
   location / {
       index index.html index.htm index.php;
   }
   location ~ \.php$ {
      include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
      fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
      fastcgi_index index.php;
      fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/share/nginx/html/site.itzgeek.local$fastcgi_script_name;
   }
}

Create the document root directory for the virtual host.

sudo mkdir /usr/share/nginx/html/site.itzgeek.local

Place a PHP file onto the document root.

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" | sudo tee /usr/share/nginx/html/site.itzgeek.local/index.php

Restart the Nginx and PHP-FPM services.

sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart php7.3-fpm

Test LEMP Stack

Go to any client system and create a host entry for your domain (site.itzgeek.local) in the /etc/hosts file to test the LEMP stack locally.

sudo nano /etc/hosts

A host entry will loo like below.

192.168.1.10             site.itzgeek.local

Open up your web browser on the client machine and type your domain name in the web address.

The page will look like below:

From the below screenshot, PHP is working through FPM/FastCGI, as shown in the Server API line.

You can also view the MariaDB support for PHP on the same page by scrolling the page down.

Conclusion

I hope this post helped you to install LEMP stack on Debian 10. Please share your feedback in the comments section.