How To Install phpMyAdmin With Apache on Debian 11 / Debian 10

phpMyAdmin is an open-source, web-based administration tool for managing the MySQL and MariaDB database. It is written in PHP and is one of the most popular database administration tools used by web hosting companies to enable novice system administrators to carry out database activities.

phpMyAdmin helps in performing database activities such as creating, deleting, querying, tables, columns, relations, indexes, users, permissions, etc. It is released under GNU GPL v2.

In this post, we will see how to install phpMyAdmin with Apache on Debian 11 / Debian 10.

Prerequisites

Install MySQL / MariaDB Server

Before installing phpMyAdmin, install a database instance on your system to connect. You could install it as a standalone database or install it as part of the LAMP stack.

Install the database and then the required packages shown below.

Standalone Database

READ: How To Install MariaDB on Debian 11

READ: How To Install MariaDB on Debian 10

READ: How To Install MySQL 8.0 / 5.7 on Debian 11 / Debian 10

sudo apt install -y apache2 apache2-utils php libapache2-mod-php php-pdo php-zip php-json php-common php-fpm php-mbstring php-cli php-xml php-mysql

LAMP Stack

READ: How To Install LAMP Stack on Debian 11

READ: How To Install LAMP Stack on Debian 10

sudo apt install -y php-json php-mbstring php-xml

Install phpMyAdmin

The phpMyAdmin package is now available in the Debian repository. But, we do not use it here since it is an older version. So, we will download the latest version from the official website.

wget https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpMyAdmin/5.1.1/phpMyAdmin-5.1.1-all-languages.tar.gz

Extract the phpMyAdmin tarball using the following command.

tar -zxvf phpMyAdmin-5.1.1-all-languages.tar.gz

Move the phpMyAdmin set up to the desired location.

sudo mv phpMyAdmin-5.1.1-all-languages /usr/share/phpMyAdmin

Configure phpMyAdmin

Copy the sample configuration file.

sudo cp -pr /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/config.sample.inc.php /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/config.inc.php

Edit the configuration file and add a blowfish secret.

sudo nano /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/config.inc.php

Generate blowfish secret and then place it into the below line.

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '2O:.uw6-8;Oi9R=3W{tO;/QtZ]4OG:T:'; /* YOU MUST FILL IN THIS FOR COOKIE AUTH! */

Also, uncomment the phpMyAdmin storage settings shown below.

/**
 * phpMyAdmin configuration storage settings.
 */

/* User used to manipulate with storage */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlhost'] = 'localhost';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlport'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'pma';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'pmapass';

/* Storage database and tables */
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = 'phpmyadmin';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = 'pma__bookmark';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = 'pma__relation';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = 'pma__table_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = 'pma__table_coords';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = 'pma__pdf_pages';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = 'pma__column_info';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = 'pma__history';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_uiprefs'] = 'pma__table_uiprefs';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['tracking'] = 'pma__tracking';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['userconfig'] = 'pma__userconfig';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['recent'] = 'pma__recent';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['favorite'] = 'pma__favorite';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['users'] = 'pma__users';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['usergroups'] = 'pma__usergroups';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['navigationhiding'] = 'pma__navigationhiding';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['savedsearches'] = 'pma__savedsearches';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['central_columns'] = 'pma__central_columns';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['designer_settings'] = 'pma__designer_settings';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['export_templates'] = 'pma__export_templates';

Credit: TECHIES WORLD

Import the create_tables.sql to create tables for phpMyAdmin.

sudo mysql < /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/sql/create_tables.sql -u root -p

Login to MariaDB.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Add the user and grant permission to phpMyAdmin’s database.

CREATE USER 'pma'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'pmapass';

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON phpmyadmin.* TO 'pma'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

Create an alias in Apache webserver to access phpMyAdmin with http://your-ip-add-dress/phpmyadmin.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/phpmyadmin.conf

Copy and paste the below content into the above file.

Alias /phpMyAdmin /usr/share/phpMyAdmin
Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpMyAdmin

<Directory /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/>
   AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

   <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
     # Apache 2.4
     <RequireAny> 
      Require all granted
     </RequireAny>
   </IfModule>
   <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
     # Apache 2.2
     Order Deny,Allow
     Deny from All
     Allow from 127.0.0.1
     Allow from ::1
   </IfModule>
</Directory>

<Directory /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/setup/>
   <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
     # Apache 2.4
     <RequireAny>
       Require all granted
     </RequireAny>
   </IfModule>
   <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
     # Apache 2.2
     Order Deny,Allow
     Deny from All
     Allow from 127.0.0.1
     Allow from ::1
   </IfModule>
</Directory>

Enable the virtual host with the below command.

sudo a2ensite phpmyadmin

Create the tmp directory for phpMyAdmin and change the permission.

sudo mkdir /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/tmp

sudo chmod 777 /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/tmp

Set the ownership of the phpMyAdmin directory.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/phpMyAdmin

Restart the Apache web service.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Create DB & User

By default, the MariaDB root user is allowed to log in locally via Unix socket (MariaDB v10.4 and below). So, we will create a database user and login to phpMyAdmin with that user.

CREATE DATABASE app_db;

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

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON app_db.* TO 'app_user'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

If required, you can disable Unix socket authentication and enable native password login.

Access phpMyAdmin

Now, access the phpMyAdmin interface using the browser. The URL will be:

OR

Log in with the database user we created in the previous step.

You will get the below page where you can perform all database activities.

Conclusion

I hope this post helped you how to install phpMyAdmin with Apache on Debian 11 / Debian 10 to manage MariaDB and MySQL servers. Additionally, you can take a look at how to secure your phpMyAdmin installation.