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Dedicated Server: Installation of phpMyAdmin

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​

phpMyAdmin is a free, web-based tool for managing MySQL and MariaDB databases. It provides a user-friendly interface that allows users to create, edit, manage and delete databases without having to enter SQL commands manually.

Preparation​

First, you should check whether the server is up to date. To do this, the update command is executed:

sudo apt update

If the server has found new updates/packages, they can be installed with the upgrade command.

sudo apt upgrade -y

The server is now up to date.

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If "sudo" is not found, this can be installed with the following command:

apt install sudo -y

Installation​

First, the installation directory is selected in which phpMyAdmin is to be installed. This is done with the following command:

cd /usr/share

Then, the latest phpMyAdmin version is downloaded to the installation directory using wget:

wget https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.zip -O phpmyadmin.zip
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If "wget" is not found, this can be installed with the following command:

sudo apt install wget -y

As soon as the download is complete, the ZIP file can be extracted using the following command:

unzip phpmyadmin.zip
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If "unzip" is not found, this can be installed with the following command:

sudo apt install unzip -y

Now, the extracted archive can be renamed to a simpler name:

mv phpMyAdmin-*-all-languages phpmyadmin

After this is done, the original ZIP file can be removed and the necessary rights for the phpMyAdmin directory can be set by using this:

rm phpmyadmin.zip; chmod -R 0755 phpmyadmin

Creating Apache2 phpMyAdmin-Config​

The Apache2-phpMyAdmin-Config is created with the following command:

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

The empty Apache2-phpMyAdmin-Config must now be equipped with the following content:

# phpMyAdmin Apache configuration

Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin

<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin>
    Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
    DirectoryIndex index.php
</Directory>

# Disallow web access for security to directories that don't need it
<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin/templates>
    Require all denied
</Directory>
<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries>
    Require all denied
</Directory>
<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin/setup/lib>
    Require all denied
</Directory>

If the Apache2-phpMyAdmin-Config is now filled with the content, it can be saved and closed with *** CTRL + X ***, then press the *** Y key *** and with *** Enter *** to confirm. The newly created Apache2-phpMyAdmin-Config must be activated/read in by the Apache2 server:

a2enconf phpmyadmin

The Apache2 server must then be reloaded:

systemctl reload apache2

Creating temporary directory for phpMyAdmin​

For phpMyAdmin to work properly, the following directory must be created:

mkdir /usr/share/phpmyadmin/tmp/

The directory just created still needs the correct rights, here is how to do this:

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/phpmyadmin/tmp/

The phpMyAdmin installation is finished.

The phpMyAdmin web interface can now be opened via browser with/phpmyadmin, e.g. 123.123.123.123/phpmyadmin