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Dedicated Server: Installation of PHP

This guide was created with the following products:

(Details may vary with products from different providers but the main concepts remain the same)

Dedicated Server

Introduction​

PHP is a popular general-purpose programming language with significant usage in web development. In this guide, we cover the process of installing PHP to your server.

Prerequisites​

Begin by connecting to your server via SSH. If you don't know how to do this, please have a look at our Initial access (SSH) guide.

Once logged in, it is recommended to run the update command corresponding to your operating system to keep your server secure and up to date with latest features.

  sudo apt update

Installation​

There are two main ways of installing PHP to your Linux server, either standalone or as an additional package for Apache. If you are utilising your own web server that isn't Apache or for general purpose tasks, we recommend using the standalone method. Otherwise for usage with the Apache web server, use the Apache method to install PHP as an extra package.

Standalone​

Use the following command to install the latest version of PHP. If you wish to install specific versions, you can use the -y flag followed by the version.

# Latest
sudo apt install php

# Specific Version (e.g. php7.4)
sudo apt -y install php[version]

Verify that the installation was successful using the php -v command. You have successfully installed PHP onto your server. We recommend reading the PHP Extensions section to ensure that you install any extensions you may require.

Using Apache​

To begin, you should install Apache onto your server if you have not already. This can be done using the following command.

sudo apt install apache2

Once installed, you should ensure that the appropriate firewall rules are created to ensure that the web server is accessible to the internet. In this example, we will use the UFW Firewall since Apache has a registered application for this. If you are using a different firewall, ensure that you allow port 80 (HTTP) through the firewall.

sudo ufw allow in "Apache"

Your server should now be accessible. You can test this by entering http://[your_serverip] into an internet browser.

With Apache now ready, you can install the PHP package for Apache using the following command.

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php

Verify that the installation was successful using the php -v command. You have successfully installed PHP alongside your Apache web server. We recommend reading the PHP Extensions section to ensure that you install any extensions you may require.

PHP Extensions​

PHP comes with a wide selection of extensions that are optional and can be installed to extend the functionality. To view a list of available extensions, run the following command, which will return the results of the search command into console by pipelining the results to the less command.

apt search php- | less

Use the arrow keys to scroll and press Q once ready to quit. Now to install an extension package, simply use the apt install command as following. You can enter multiple extensions at once, separated by a space to make the installation faster.

sudo apt install [php_extension] [...]

Conclusion​

You have successfully installed PHP to your Linux server. For further questions or assistance, please don't hesitate to contact our support team, which is available daily to assist you! 🙂