Ubuntu Web Server Setup

Prerequisites:

On AWS Management Console launch an EC2 Instance
Install Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS
Add security rules for HTTP and HTTPS access and make sure the ports are 80 and 463 respectively
In the SSH rule port 22, set the source to your IP address and add a description e.g. “My IP”

In your terminal run the commands “sudo apt update” and
“sudo apt install apache2” in order to install apache
Create a folder for the site by running the command “sudo mkdir /var/www/websitename/”
Now in order to set up the virtual configuration file, you must go to the configuration file directory by using the command “cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/”
To access the virtual configuration file use the command “sudo cp 000-default.conf websitename.conf” then use “sudo nano websitename.conf” to edit it
Modify the necessary sections of the document (server administrator, document root, and server name)
Now you need to enable the site by activating the virtual host configuration file. Make sure you are in the configuration file directory (Run the command cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/) and run the command “sudo a2ensite websitename.conf”
To activate the new configuration, run: “sudo service apache2 reload”
Restart apache by running the command “service apache2 reload”

Add the repository using the command “sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot”
Update the package contents using the command “sudo apt-get update”
Install the certbot using the command “sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache”
To obtain a certificate for the domain use the command “sudo certbot –apache -d websitename.com”

Open your site’s virtual host file and add “Redirect / https://www.yourdomain.com/”
Beneath the closing tag(</VirtualHost>) for the port 80 configurations add the tag <VirtualHost_default:433> and add the following:

ServerName www.yourdomain.com

DocumentRoot /usr/local/apache2/htdocs

SSLEngine On

# etc...

Make sure that mod_rewrite is enabled by running the command “sudo a2enmod rewrite”

Edit or create the .htaccess file in your domain root directory and add these lines:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}  !=on
RewriteRule ^/?(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L]

To install my MySQL run the following commands “sudo apt-get update” and “sudo apt-get install mysql-server”
You will be prompted to create a password, so make one that is secure and that you will remember
To configure MySQL, run the command “mysql_secure_installation”
You will be asked a series of questions, answer yes to all of them
To test if MySQL is running, enter the command “systemctl status mysql.service”
If it turns out that it is not running, enter the command “sudo systemctl start mysql”

First update your server running the command “sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade”
Install the package by entering the command “sudo apt-get install python-software-properties”
Add the PHP repository by running the command “sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php”
Update your package list by running the command “sudo apt-get update”
Install PHP 7.2 by running the command “sudo apt-get install php7.2”
You may need some other modules, so the most common ones can be installed running the command “sudo apt-get install php-pear php7.2-curl php7.2-dev php7.2-gd php7.2-mbstring php7.2-zip php7.2-mysql php7.2-xml”

Install the package by running the command “wget -c http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz”
Extract it by running the command “ sudo tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz”
Move the file to the apache root directory (/var/www/websitename/) by running the command “sudo rsync -av wordpress/* /var/www/websitename/”
To change permissions for the directory use the command “find /var/www/websitename -type d -exec chmod 750 {} ;”
To change permissions for the file use the command “find /var/www/websitename -type f -exec chmod 640 {} ;”

Use the command “mysql -u root -p” to open the MySQL shell
Create a new user using the command “CREATE USER ‘username’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password’;”
Use the following commands to create the database, plugging in your values where necessary: “CREATE DATABASE databasename;”
Next, give the user privileges on the database by typing “GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON databasename.* TO ‘username’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password’;”
“FLUSH PRIVILEGES;”
“ EXIT;”
Go to the /var/www/websitename/ directory and change the name of the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php by using the command “sudo mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php”

Update the file with your database information under the MySQL settings section
Restart the web server and MYSQL using the commands “sudo system1 restart apache2.service” and sudo system1 restart mysql.service”