How to Install Joomla on a VPS

What Is Joomla?

Joomla is a powerful open-source content management system used for building websites, blogs, and online applications. It offers extensive customization through templates and extensions, making it suitable for everything from personal sites to enterprise portals.

Prerequisites

• A Breeze running Ubuntu 22.04 or later
• LAMP stack installed (Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP 8.1+)
• A domain name pointed to your Breeze

Step 1: Create the Database

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE joomla_db;
CREATE USER 'joomla_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON joomla_db.* TO 'joomla_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 2: Download and Extract Joomla

cd /tmp
wget https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla5/latest -O joomla.zip
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/joomla
sudo unzip joomla.zip -d /var/www/joomla
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/joomla
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/joomla

Step 3: Configure Apache

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

Add the following virtual host configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/joomla
    <Directory /var/www/joomla>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite joomla.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4: Complete Web Installation

Navigate to http://yourdomain.com in your browser. The Joomla installer will guide you through setting the site name, admin credentials, and database connection details. Enter the database name, user, and password you created earlier.

Post-Installation Security

• Remove the installation directory when prompted
• Enable SSL with Let's Encrypt using Certbot
• Keep Joomla and all extensions updated regularly