Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Bitwarden on Debian 12

Bitwarden is a free and open-source password management service that stores sensitive information such as website credentials in an encrypted vault. The Bitwarden platform offers a variety of client applications including a web interface, desktop applications, browser extensions, mobile apps, and a command-line interface.

In this article, we are going to learn how to install Bitwarden on Debian 12. So, let’s get started.

Checkout the Bitwarden Project Here.

Try this wiki on our VPS. Starting at just $5/month with 24×7 In-house customer support.

Update the System

apt update 

apt upgrade 

Pre-requisites

• A system with Debian 12 installed and running.
• Min 2GB of RAM.
• root access to the system.
• Docker installed and running, for this, you can refer to one of our guides on installing Docker on the Debian Server.

Once you’re all set, we’ll proceed with Bitwarden installation and configuration.

Create a user for Bitwarden

Create a dedicated directory for its user:

mkdir /opt/bitwarden

Add the user:

adduser bitwarden

Permit created directory access to the added user:

chmod -R 700 /opt/bitwarden

chown -R bitwarden:bitwarden /opt/bitwarden

Finally, add the user created for Bitwarden to the Docker group so that it can run the docker command without having sudo or root user access.

usermod -aG docker bitwarden

Download and Install Bitwarden

Install curl command using below command,

apt install curl -y

For this, we will switch over to the new user account we created moments ago. Use the below command to change the user,

su - bitwarden

Download the Bitwarden install script from their official site and start the installation.

curl -Lso bitwarden.sh https://go.btwrdn.co/bw-sh && chmod 700 bitwarden.sh

./bitwarden.sh install

The installation process will start now. It may take 5-10 mins to complete.

Complete the Instructions in the Installer

Enter your Bitwarden instance's domain name:

This value is usually the DNS record that has been set up.

Do you want to generate a free SSL certificate with Let's Encrypt? (y/n):

Enter y to use Let’s Encrypt to generate a trusted SSL certificate. Let’s Encrypt will ask you for an email address to send you expiration reminders.

Alternatively, If you have your SSL Certificate, enter n and select the option Do you have an SSL certificate to use? with y.

Fill in the following information about your installation:

For installing Bitwarden on your self-hosted server. You need to generate the installation id & installation key from the bitwarden website.

Enter the following installation ID:

For this, you will need to open their site Bitwarden Host. Enter your email address and you will be provided with an Installation ID and Key.

Enter the following installation key:

Now enter the Installation key that was provided to you.

After this, the Bitwarden installation should complete.

Environment Variables

The bitwarden.sh script does not configure all of Bitwarden’s functionalities. Edit the global.override.env environment file in ./bwdata/env/global.override.env to customize these values. At the very least, you should change the settings for:

...
globalSettings__mail__smtp__host=<placeholder>
globalSettings__mail__smtp__port=<placeholder>
globalSettings__mail__smtp__ssl=<placeholder>
globalSettings__mail__smtp__username=<placeholder>
globalSettings__mail__smtp__password=<placeholder>
...
adminSettings__admins=dev@bw.domainhere.info
...

Replace dev@bw.domainhere.info with your email id.

Now run the following commands

./bitwarden.sh restart

./bitwarden.sh start

./bitwarden.sh rebuild 

After that Verify that all containers are running correctly

docker ps

Accessing Bitwarden

Now open the IP address from your browser, this will redirect you to the Bitwarden

https://bw.domainhere.info

Replace the bw.domainhere.info with the actual IP or domain configured on the server.

For accessing the admin panel open the URL from your browser, this will redirect you to the Bitwarden Admin.

https://bw.domainhere.info/admin/login?returnUrl=%2Fadmin

This is a passwordless entry. Make sure you have configured SMTP services properly. Replace the bw.domainhere.info with the actual IP or domain configured on the server.

Follow the below steps:

Now you have successfully installed Bitwarden on Debian 12.

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Joomla on Debian 12

Joomla is a free and open-source content management system for publishing web content on websites. Web content applications include discussion forums, photo galleries, e-Commerce, and user communities, and numerous other web-based applications.

Update the System to latest,

apt update

apt upgrade

LAMP Stack Configuration

Joomla like any other CMS application, will require a web server with Database running on the system to support it.

And since Joomla is built on PHP, we will need to install PHP as well.

Install Apache and PHP

We will now install Apache and PHP and other supporting packages by running the below command,

apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php openssl php-imagick php-gd php-imap php-intl php-json php-ldap php-mbstring php-mysql php-pgsql php-smbclient php-ssh2 php-sqlite3 php-xml php-zip

Verify apache version using below command,

apache2 -version

Output:

root@server:~# apache2 -version
Server version: Apache/2.4.57 (Debian)
Server built:   2023-04-13T03:26:51

Now start and enable the Apache Web server,

systemctl start apache2 
systemctl enable apache2

Verify Apache is up and running using below command,

systemctl status apache2

Output:

root@server:~# systemctl status apache2
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; preset: enab>
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2023-06-17 14:18:37 EDT; 19s ago
       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
   Main PID: 1227 (apache2)
      Tasks: 55 (limit: 2306)
     Memory: 21.6M
        CPU: 133ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
             ├─1227 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─1229 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             └─1230 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Jun 17 14:18:37 server systemd[1]: Starting apache2.service - The Apache HTTP S>
Jun 17 14:18:37 server systemd[1]: Started apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Se>

Open server IP address on your browser(http://Server_Ip) to see default Apache page.

Note: Replace Server_Ip with actual IP address of the server.

Verify PHP using below command

php -v  

Output:

  root@server:~# php -v
PHP 8.2.7 (cli) (built: Jun  9 2023 19:37:27) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.2.7, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.2.7, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Install MariaDB

Let us install MariaDB on the server now with the following command,

apt install mariadb-server

MariaDB is not secured by default, As a precaution, we are secure the database engine using below command.

mysql_secure_installation

Create a Joomla Database

Login to MariaDB using the command

mysql -u root -p

Let us configure the Database so Joomla can connect to it and store the data.

For this, we will create a Database, create a User and grant certain Privileges to the User. Refer the below commands for the usecase.

CREATE DATABASE joomladb;

CREATE USER 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

Replace the StrongPassword with a strong and secure password.

Download and Extract Joomla

We will now download the latest version of Joomla from the Official site.

Download Joomla in Debian using below command,

wget https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/releases/download/4.3.2/Joomla_4.3.2-Stable-Full_Package.zip

Once the download is complete. We need to unzip this to the /var/www/html/ directory. Make the directory called Joomla.

apt install unzip 

mkdir /var/www/html/joomla

Unzip the zipped Joomla file to ‘Joomla’ directory created above.

unzip Joomla_4.3.2-Stable-Full_Package.zip -d /var/www/html/joomla

After unzip, Set the directory ownership of the directory to Apache user and change the permissions using below command,

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/joomla
chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/joomla

Restart Apache Web server using following command,

systemctl restart apache2 

Configuring Apache for Joomla

Configure the Apache webserver to serve Joomla webpages. For this create a virtual host’s file for Joomla and name it joomla.conf,

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

Add the following content into the file

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerAdmin admin@dev.domainhere.info
 DocumentRoot /var/www/html/joomla/
 ServerName dev.domainhere.info

 ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
 CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

 <Directory /var/www/html/joomla/>
        Options FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
 </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save and exit the file,

Replace dev.domainhere.info with your actual domain name.

Enable the virtual host file,

a2ensite joomla.conf
a2enmod rewrite

After this Restart Apache Webserver using below command,

systemctl restart apache2

Open your browser to load the site, http://dev.domainhere.info.

Install SSL Certificate

Let us install the SSL Certificate from Let’s Encrypt. For this, you will need to install certbot via snapd.

Installing snapd,

apt install snapd

Check the snapd for updates,

snap install core; snap refresh core

Install Certbot

snap install --classic certbot

ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

Since we’re using Apache web server, run the below command to get the certificate,

certbot --apache

The Certbot will take care of your renewal automatically before they expire, you would have to run the certbot again only if you make changes to your configuration. You can perform a test run with below command,

certbot renew --dry-run

Next, reload the page on the browser and it should then redirect and load the HTTPS site https://dev.domainhere.info.

Joomla Configuration

On the browser, we will configure the remaining aspects of getting our Joomla CMS up and running

Upon loading the domain, you will be prompted with setting up Language and Site Name

Enter the required details such as Username, User Account, Super User Password, and Email Address, and click on Setup Database Connection button

Enter the Database information that was configured earlier,

Enter the username and password which was set earlier,

View of the Dashboard after loggin in,

Done! This concludes the topic of installing latest version of Joomla on Debian 12.

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Gitlab On Debian 12

GitLab is a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool that provides a Git repository manager providing wiki, issue-tracking, and continuous integration and deployment pipeline features, using an open-source license, developed by GitLab Inc.

Update the system.

apt update

apt upgrade

Install required dependencies,

apt-get install curl ca-certificates apt-transport-https gnupg2 -y

Add Gitlab Repository using below command,

curl -s https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ce/script.deb.sh | bash

At the time of making this guide, the GitLab package is not available for Debian 11. You will need to edit the GitLab source file and replace the Debian 11 (Bullseye) code name with Debian 10 (Buster),

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gitlab_gitlab-ce.list

Find the following lines,

deb https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/gitlab-ce/debian/ booksworm main
deb-src https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/gitlab-ce/debian/ booksworm main

Replaced them with the following lines.

deb https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/gitlab-ce/debian/ bullseye main
deb-src https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/gitlab-ce/debian/ bullseye main

Save and close the file and update the repository using the below command,

apt-get update 

Install GitLab CE

apt-get install gitlab-ce -y

Output:

root@server:~# apt-get install gitlab-ce -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gitlab-ce
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,323 MB of archives.
After this operation, 3,164 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/gitlab-ce/debian bullseye/main amd64 gitlab-ce amd64 16.0.4-ce.                                                                                                       0 [1,323 MB]
Fetched 1,323 MB in 43s (30.7 MB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package gitlab-ce.
(Reading database ... 28668 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../gitlab-ce_16.0.4-ce.0_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking gitlab-ce (16.0.4-ce.0) ...
Setting up gitlab-ce (16.0.4-ce.0) ...
It looks like GitLab has not been configured yet; skipping the upgrade script.

   *.                  *.
  ***                 ***
 *****               *****
.******             *******
********            ********
 ,,,,,,,,,***********,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,*********,,,,,,,,,,,
.,,,,,,,,,,,*******,,,,,,,,,,,,
    ,,,,,,,,,*****,,,,,,,,,.
       ,,,,,,,****,,,,,,
          .,,,***,,,,
              ,*,.

   _______ __  __          __
  / ____(_) /_/ /   ____ _/ /_
 / / __/ / __/ /   / __ `/ __ \
/ /_/ / / /_/ /___/ /_/ / /_/ /
\____/_/\__/_____/\__,_/_.___/

Thank you for installing GitLab!
GitLab was unable to detect a valid hostname for your instance.
Please configure a URL for your GitLab instance by setting `external_url`
configuration in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb file.
Then, you can start your GitLab instance by running the following command:
  sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure

For a comprehensive list of configuration options please see the Omnibus GitLab readme
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/README.md

Help us improve the installation experience, let us know how we did with a 1 minute survey:
https://gitlab.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6kVqZANThUQ1bZb?installation=omnibus&release=16-0

Configure GitLab

Once the installation is complete, we will configure the GitLab to our requirements. Below are the edits that can be done,

nano /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb

Replace the following line with your domain name,

external_url 'https://Your_Domain_Name'

Replace/Edit the following lines to enable the Let’s Encrypt SSL,

# Enable the Let's encrypt SSL
letsencrypt['enable'] = true

# This is optional to get SSL related alerts
letsencrypt['contact_emails'] = ['youremail@mail.com']

# This example renews every 1st day at 01:00 AM
letsencrypt['auto_renew_hour'] = "1"
letsencrypt['auto_renew_minute'] = "0"
letsencrypt['auto_renew_day_of_month'] = "*/1"

Save and close the file.

Let us update the repository now with the below command,

gitlab-ctl reconfigure

Output:

   Recipe: registry::enable
  * runit_service[registry] action restart (up to date)
Recipe: nginx::enable
  * execute[reload nginx] action run
    - execute gitlab-ctl hup nginx
Recipe: letsencrypt::enable
  * ruby_block[display_le_message] action run
    - execute the ruby block display_le_message
Recipe: monitoring::grafana
  * runit_service[grafana] action restart (up to date)

Running handlers:
Running handlers complete
Chef Infra Client finished, 26/861 resources updated in 02 minutes 08 seconds

Warnings:
Let's Encrypt is enabled, but external_url is using http

gitlab Reconfigured!

Retrieve the GitLab password using following command,

cat /etc/git/initial_root_password

Output:

root@server:~# cat /etc/gitlab/initial_root_password
# WARNING: This value is valid only in the following conditions
#          1. If provided manually (either via `GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD` environment variable or via `gitlab_rails['initial_root_password']` setting in `gitlab.rb`, it was provided before database was seeded for the first time (usually, the first reconfigure run).
#          2. Password hasn't been changed manually, either via UI or via command line.
#
#          If the password shown here doesn't work, you must reset the admin password following https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/security/reset_user_password.html#reset-your-root-password.

Password: sfC7QoruHZwNUt/WCQtyDa0uFldUUV+vdGBlitq/Bww=

# NOTE: This file will be automatically deleted in the first reconfigure run after 24 hours.

Open a browser and type the following address and You will be redirected to the GitLab login page,

Replace Your_Domain_Name with Actual Domain name

https://Your_Domain_Name 

Done.

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Rust on Debian 12

Rust is a multi-paradigm, general-purpose programming language that emphasizes performance, type safety, and concurrency. It enforces memory safety—ensuring that all references point to valid memory—without requiring the use of a garbage collector or reference counting present in other memory-safe languages.

Install Rust

Install the Rust using rustup command line tool,

Run the below command to install curl and then download the rustup command,

apt install curl -y

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.3 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

Output:

root@vps:~# curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.3 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
info: downloading installer

Welcome to Rust!

This will download and install the official compiler for the Rust
programming language, and its package manager, Cargo.

Rustup metadata and toolchains will be installed into the Rustup
home directory, located at:

  /root/.rustup

This can be modified with the RUSTUP_HOME environment variable.

The Cargo home directory is located at:

  /root/.cargo

This can be modified with the CARGO_HOME environment variable.

The cargo, rustc, rustup and other commands will be added to
Cargo's bin directory, located at:

  /root/.cargo/bin

This path will then be added to your PATH environment variable by
modifying the profile files located at:

  /root/.profile
  /root/.bashrc

You can uninstall at any time with rustup self uninstall and
these changes will be reverted.

Current installation options:

   default host triple: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
     default toolchain: stable (default)
               profile: default
  modify PATH variable: yes

1) Proceed with installation (default)
2) Customize installation
3) Cancel installation
>
info: profile set to 'default'
info: default host triple is x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Run the below command to add the Rust toolchain directory to the PATH environment variable,

source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

Verify the Installation

Verify the Rust installation by requesting the version,

rustc --version

Output:

root@vps:~# rustc --version
rustc 1.71.1 (eb26296b5 2023-08-03)
root@vps:~# 

Installing a Compiler

First, update the Apt package index using below command,

apt update

apt upgrade 

Once the upgrades are complete, install the build-essential package using the below command,

apt install build-essential

Creating, Compiling, and Running a Test Program, Start by creating some directories to store the test script,

mkdir ~/rustprojects
cd ~/rustprojects
mkdir testdir
cd testdir

Create a file in testdir to store your Rust code,

nano test.rs

Note: You need to use the .rs extension for all your Rust programs.

Add the following code into test.rs and save the file,

fn main() {
    println!("Congratulations! You have installed your Rust program and it works.");
}

Compile the code using the rustc command,

rustc test.rs

Run the resulting executable,

./test

Output:

root@vps:~/rustprojects/testdir# ./test
Congratulations! You have installed your Rust program and it works.
root@vps:~/rustprojects/testdir# 

Use the below command to update the rustup,

rustup update

Output:

root@vps:~/rustprojects/testdir# rustup update

info: syncing channel updates for 'stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'
info: checking for self-update

  stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu unchanged - rustc 1.71.1 (eb26296b5 2023-08-03)

info: cleaning up downloads & tmp directories
root@vps:~/rustprojects/testdir# 

Done, you’ve installed and tested out Rust on Debian 12.

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install WordPress with LAMP Stack on Debian 12

WordPress is one of the most popular website-building tools available out there. It is a simple way to get your online presence and perfect for those who do not know how to code and want a simple and effective way to share and build your story on the internet.

Prerequisites:

• Root access to your Debian 12 server.
• LAMP Stack installed and running. Learn how to setup LAMP Stack.

Creating Database

Setup the database so the WordPress can store in all the information. Log in to MariaDB as root user.

In this, we will create a Database, User and provide all kinds of privileges of managing the specific database to the user.

mysql -u root -p

output:

root@vps:~# mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 15

Now, create your WordPress database. We’re creating it with wp_database as an example, but you can name it related to the website you’re going to host.

CREATE DATABASE wp_database;

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE wp_database;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)    

Create a regular user for WordPress.

CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

Replace StrongPassword with an actual strong password.

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Finally, grant the new user all the privileges for the database wp_database.

GRANT ALL ON `wp_database`.* TO `wpuser`@`localhost`;

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON `wp_database`.* TO `wpuser`@`localhost`;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Flush your privileges and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Download And Unzip WordPress

Visit the official WordPress site to get to know the latest version available for download and also for more information on requirements of the server.

You can also use the below URL link to download the latest version at any given time.

cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Unzip the downloaded WordPress file.

tar xpf latest.tar.gz

The resulting folder will be wordpress. It contains the entire WordPress install. How and where you copy it is entirely up to you and depends on your web server configuration

mkdir /var/www/wordpress

cp -R wordpress/* /var/www/wordpress/

Ofcourse, you can create the directory with the name of your choice or the name of the website.

Change the permissions and ownership to improve security and grant your webserver proper access.

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/wordpress

find /var/www/wordpress -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

find /var/www/wordpress -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Create a Apache vHost

Using your favourite editor, we will create a config file in /etc/apache2/sites-available.

The config file can be the name of the website but it has to end with a .conf file extension.

We’re using nano for adding the configuration :

nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf

Add in the below contents:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    # ServerAlias www.example.com
    ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/wordpress

    <Directory /var/www/wordpress>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/wordpress-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/wordpress-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Replace example.com with your actual domain name.

Next, we’ll have to create a symbolic link, so the config file is available in sites-enabled as well.

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

Enable the new configuration,

a2ensite wordpress.conf

Test the configuration for any typos and syntax errors,

apachectl configtest

Once you get Syntax OK, restart apache web server for the changes to go live.

systemctl restart apache2

Open up a web browser and navigate to the domain name,

http://example.com

Start a WordPress installation by clicking on the Run the installation button.

Provide the requested information.

Once WordPress has been installed log in with your new user credentials.

This concludes our topic of setting up WordPress with LAMP stack on a Debian 12 system.

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Matomo with LAMP Stack on Debian 12

Matomo, formerly Piwik, is a free and open-source web analytics application developed by a team of international developers, that runs on a PHP/MySQL webserver. It tracks online visits to one or more websites and displays reports on these visits for analysis. In this article, we are going to learn how to install Matomo on Ubuntu 22.04. So, let’s get started.

Checkout the Matomo Project Here.

Try this wiki on our VPS. Starting at just $5/month with 24×7 In-house customer support.

Pre-requisites :

• A system with Debian 12 installed and running.
• root access to the system.
• LAMP Stack installed and running, for this, you can refer to one of our guides on installing the LAMP Stack (Apache, MariaDB, and PHP).

Once you’re all set, we’ll proceed with Matomo installation and configuration.

Create Database

Let us begin with creating a Database and a user. We will then grant the required privileges to the user so it can interact with the Database.

mysql -u root

CREATE DATABASE matomo_db;

CREATE USER 'matomo_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE';

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON matomo_db.* TO 'matomo_user'@'localhost';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

QUIT

The above commands will give complete access to the user matomo_user. Replace YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE with a safe and secure password.

Install Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate

Let’s issue an SSL certificate for the domain for this we will need a snap package for Debian operating system.

We will update and install the snap package on the system:

apt update

apt install -y snapd

snap install core && sudo snap refresh core

Next, with the help of snap, we will install the certbot client which is used to create Let’s Encrypt certificates:

snap install --classic certbot

ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

Install SSL Certificate

Use the certbot command to issue a Let’s Encrypt certificate. The command will auto-detect the domains available or configured in the vHost configuration:

certbot --apache

Download Matomo

Download Matomo from official website : Click here.

Install the unzip package by following command

apt install unzip

cd /var/www/

wget https://builds.matomo.org/matomo.zip && unzip matomo.zip

rm matomo.zip

cd matomo

mkdir tmp

Setting up File Permissions

Let’s make the folders readable.

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/matomo

chmod -R 755 /var/www/matomo

Configuring Apache vHost

Create a new apache configuration file dev.domainhere.info.conf for the domain with the following command:

vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/dev.domainhere.info.conf

Add the following codes:

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerName dev.domainhere.info
ServerAlias dev.domainhere.info
ServerAdmin admin@dev.domainhere.info
DocumentRoot /var/www/matomo

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dev.domainhere.info_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dev.domainhere.info_access.log combined

<Directory /var/www/matomo/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Change dev.domainhere.info with your actual Domain Name.

Now, press the Esc key, and type :wq! and press the Enter key to save and exit the file.

Edit the PHP config filephp.ini using nano or vi,

nano /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini

Add the following lines at the end of the file,

extension=mysqli.so
extension=pdo.so
extension=pdo_mysql.so

Save and exit the file.

Disable the defafult configuration and enable the new site configuration using the following command,

a2dissite 000-default.conf

a2ensite dev.domainhere.info.conf

Now Restart the Apache service and check the status,

systemctl restart apache2

systemctl status apache2

Enable Firewall:

ufw allow 80/tcp

ufw allow 443/tcp

Configuring Matomo

Now open the URL from your browser, this will redirect you to configuring the final parts of the Matomo installation.

https://dev.domainhere.info

Replace the dev.domainhere.info with the actual IP or domain configured on the server.

Input the Database details which was configured earlier. Follow the below steps:

Now you have successfully installed Matomo with LAMP Stack on Debian 12.

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Docker On Debian 12

What is docker?

Docker is basically a container engine that uses the Linux Kernel in order to create containers on top of an operating system. Which is used to create, deploy and run the applications.

Install Docker

Install the docker using the apt package manager.

apt install docker.io docker-compose

Start and enable the docker

systemctl enable --now docker

Check Docker service

systemctl status docker

Output:

root@vps:~# systemctl status docker
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; preset: enabl>
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2023-06-13 16:20:51 UTC; 20s ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 5345 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 8
     Memory: 28.0M
        CPU: 930ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
             └─5345 /usr/sbin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/con>

Create a group called docker,

groupadd docker

To add a user to the docker user group

usermod -aG docker $USER

If you want to add a different user, replace $USER with an existing username.

Check the docker version,

docker --version

Output:

root@vps:~# docker --version
Docker version 20.10.24+dfsg1, build 297e128

Test docker using the hello-world container.

docker run hello-world

Output:

root@vps:~# docker run hello-world

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    (amd64)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
    executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
    to your terminal.

To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
 $ docker run -it ubuntu bash

Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
 https://hub.docker.com/

For more examples and ideas, visit:
 https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install LAMP Stack on Debian 12

A LAMP stack is a group of open-source software that is typically installed together to enable a server to host dynamic websites and web apps. This term is actually an acronym which represents the Linux operating system, with the Apache web server. The site data is stored in a MariaDB database, and dynamic content is processed by PHP.

Update Debian 12

apt update && apt -y upgrade

Install MariaDB Database Server

To get started with MariaDB installation, follow the below steps:

apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client

Check the status of mariaDB database server

systemctl status mariadb

Output:

root@vps:~# systemctl status mariadb
● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.11.3 database server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-06-12 22:47:03 UTC; 10s ago
       Docs: man:mariadbd(8)
             https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
   Main PID: 53736 (mariadbd)
     Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..."
      Tasks: 18 (limit: 4675)
     Memory: 192.1M
        CPU: 1.019s
     CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
             └─53736 /usr/sbin/mariadbd
root@vps:~# 

Run the command below to secure your database server,

mysql_secure_installation

Using the above command, you can do the following,

• Set root password.
• Remove anonymous users.
• Disable remote login for root user.
• Remove test database and access to it.

You can log in as your root user and set up a regular user and a database.

mysql -u root -p

Output:

root@vps:~# mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 39
Server version: 10.11.3-MariaDB-1 Debian 12

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> 

And to exit from the Database, just run the following:

EXIT

Install Apache Web Server

Apache is one of the most commonly used web server. You can install by running the below command,

apt install -y apache2 apache2-utils

Output:

root@vps:~# apt install -y apache2 apache2-utils
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  apache2-bin apache2-data libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap libcurl4 liblua5.3-0 ssl-cert

Check apache build and version

apache2 -v

Output:

root@vps:~# apache2 -v
Server version: Apache/2.4.57 (Debian)
Server built:   2023-04-13T03:26:51
root@vps:~# 

Check service status.

systemctl status apache2

Output:

root@vps:~# systemctl status apache2
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-06-12 22:51:38 UTC; 1min 0s ago
       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
   Main PID: 54351 (apache2)
      Tasks: 55 (limit: 4675)
     Memory: 21.0M
        CPU: 110ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
             ├─54351 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─54353 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             └─54354 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root@vps:~# 

Enable/allow HTTP and HTTPS ports ( 80/443 ):

To enable http and https, you need to install UFW firewall,

apt install ufw -y

Output:

root@vps:~# apt install ufw
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  iptables libip6tc2 libnetfilter-conntrack3 libnfnetlink0
Suggested packages:
  firewalld

Enable HTTP and HTTPS connection through firewall, follow the commads:

And since this is the first time, we’ve installed UFW and allowing ports, we would also need to allow SSH port for SSH connections.

ufw allow http
ufw allow https
ufw allow ssh

Enable and reload the firewall using below command,

ufw enable

ufw reload

Output:

root@vps:~# ufw enable
Command may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)? y
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup
root@vps:~# ufw reload
Firewall reloaded
root@vps:~# 

Restart service when a change is made && enable the service to start at boot.

systemctl reload apache2
systemctl enable apache2

Open server IP address on your browser(http://) to see default Apache page.

Example:

Install PHP

Follow the below steps to install PHP on the server,

apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-fpm php-json php-pdo php-mysql php-zip php-gd  php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath

Output:

root@vps:~# apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-fpm php-json php-pdo php-mysql php-zip php-gd  php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'php8.2-common' instead of 'php-pdo'
The following additional packages will be installed:
  fontconfig-config fonts-dejavu-core libabsl20220623 libaom3 libapache2-mod-php8.2 libavif15 libdav1d6 libde265-0 libdeflate0
  libfontconfig1 libgav1-1 libgd3 libheif1 libjbig0 libjpeg62-turbo liblerc4 libonig5 librav1e0 libsodium23 libsvtav1enc1 libtiff6
  libwebp7 libx265-199 libxpm4 libxslt1.1 libyuv0 libzip4 php-common php8.2 php8.2-bcmath php8.2-cli php8.2-curl php8.2-fpm php8.2-gd
  php8.2-mbstring php8.2-mysql php8.2-opcache php8.2-readline php8.2-xml php8.2-zip

Enable Apache module if not already enabled then restart the Web Server.

a2enmod php8.2

Output:

root@vps:~# a2enmod php8.2
Considering dependency mpm_prefork for php8.2:
Considering conflict mpm_event for mpm_prefork:
Considering conflict mpm_worker for mpm_prefork:
Module mpm_prefork already enabled
Considering conflict php5 for php8.2:
Module php8.2 already enabled
root@vps:~# 

Confirm the PHP version

php -v

Output:

root@vps:~# php -v
PHP 8.2.5 (cli) (built: Apr 27 2023 08:13:47) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.2.5, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.2.5, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies
root@vps:~# 

In order to test the PHP is working on the server, we will create a small file that will list out all the PHP information available.

Run the below command which will create a file,

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/info.php

To view the PHP info on your browser, http://IP_address/info.php

Example:

Once you confirmed that the PHP has been installed and working, remove the info.php file for security reasons.

rm /var/www/html/info.php

Done! This concludes our topic of installing LAMP Stack on a Debian 12 System.