Apache httpd LAMP Stack Setup

⚡ Quick Start - Complete LAMP Stack

                    # Install everything for a complete LAMP stack
sudo dnf install -y httpd mod_ssl php php-mysqlnd php-fpm php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-json php-opcache python3-mod_wsgi mod_perl mod_perl-devel && sudo systemctl enable --now httpd php-fpm && sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db on && sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service={http,https} && sudo firewall-cmd --reload
                

📋 System Information

Target Systems

Oracle Enterprise Linux 8 (OEL8)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL8)
CentOS 8 / Rocky Linux 8 / AlmaLinux 8
Apache httpd 2.4.x (default in RHEL8)
PHP 7.x / 8.x (from AppStream)

📘 Database Compatibility Note

Good News: The PHP configuration works identically for both MariaDB and MySQL!

Socket path is the same: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
php-mysqlnd driver works with both databases
PDO and MySQLi connections are identical
No special configuration needed to switch between them

📦 Required Packages

Apache Core

httpd Apache HTTP Server 2.4

httpd-tools Tools: htpasswd, ab (benchmarking), etc.

mod_ssl SSL/TLS module for HTTPS

httpd-manual Apache documentation (optional)

PHP Integration (FastCGI/PHP-FPM)

php PHP scripting language

php-fpm FastCGI Process Manager (preferred over mod_php)

php-cli Command-line PHP interpreter

php-common Common files for PHP

php-mysqlnd MySQL Native Driver (works with MySQL & MariaDB!)

php-pdo PHP Data Objects abstraction layer

php-gd GD graphics library

php-mbstring Multi-byte string support

php-xml XML support

php-json JSON support

php-opcache OPcache accelerator for performance

php-intl Internationalization extension

php-bcmath BC Math (arbitrary precision)

php-zip ZIP archive support

php-curl cURL support for HTTP requests

Python Integration (mod_wsgi)

python3-mod_wsgi Apache module for Python 3 WSGI apps

python3 Python 3 interpreter

python3-pip Python package installer

Perl Integration (mod_perl)

mod_perl Embedded Perl interpreter for Apache

mod_perl-devel Development files for mod_perl

perl Perl interpreter (pre-installed)

🔧 Installation Steps

Complete Installation

One Command Install - Full LAMP Stack

                        sudo dnf install -y \
    httpd \
    httpd-tools \
    mod_ssl \
    php \
    php-fpm \
    php-cli \
    php-common \
    php-mysqlnd \
    php-pdo \
    php-gd \
    php-mbstring \
    php-xml \
    php-json \
    php-opcache \
    php-intl \
    php-bcmath \
    php-zip \
    php-curl \
    python3-mod_wsgi \
    python3-pip \
    mod_perl \
    mod_perl-devel
                    

Enable and Start Services

Service Management
# Enable Apache and PHP-FPM to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl enable php-fpm

# Start both services
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl start php-fpm

# Check status
sudo systemctl status httpd
sudo systemctl status php-fpm

# Verify Apache is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep httpd
sudo ss -tlnp | grep php-fpm

Configure Firewall

Firewall Configuration
# Allow HTTP and HTTPS
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

Configure SELinux (CRITICAL!)

SELinux Configuration
# Allow httpd to connect to databases (MySQL/MariaDB)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db on

# Allow httpd to send email (if needed)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail on

# For custom document root
# sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/custom/path(/.*)?"
# sudo restorecon -Rv /custom/path

# For writable directories (uploads, cache)
# sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/html/uploads(/.*)?"
# sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/html/uploads

# Check status
getenforce
getsebool -a | grep httpd

⚠️ #1 LAMP Stack Problem: SELinux

If PHP can't connect to your database, it's almost always because httpd_can_network_connect_db is not enabled. This is THE most common issue at 2 AM. Enable it!

⚙️ Apache httpd Configuration

Main Apache Configuration (Key Settings) /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

                    # Apache httpd.conf - Essential Settings
# Full file is longer - these are the key edits

ServerRoot "/etc/httpd"
Listen 80

### Performance Tuning ###
Timeout 60
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 5

### MPM Event (default - best performance) ###
<IfModule mpm_event_module>
    ServerLimit              16
    StartServers              3
    MinSpareThreads          75
    MaxSpareThreads         250
    ThreadsPerChild          25
    MaxRequestWorkers       400
    MaxConnectionsPerChild 1000
</IfModule>

### Security ###
ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off
TraceEnable Off

### User/Group ###
User apache
Group apache

### Server Info ###
ServerAdmin root@localhost
ServerName localhost:80
# Change to your domain: ServerName www.example.com:80

### Document Root ###
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

### Directory Permissions ###
<Directory />
    AllowOverride none
    Require all denied
</Directory>

<Directory "/var/www/html">
    Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

### Directory Index ###
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.py index.pl
</IfModule>

### Logging ###
ErrorLog "logs/error_log"
LogLevel warn
CustomLog "logs/access_log" combined

### Include Additional Config Files ###
IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf
                

🐘 PHP-FPM Configuration

PHP-FPM Pool Configuration /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

                    ; PHP-FPM www Pool - Key Settings

[www]
user = apache
group = apache

; Unix socket (best performance)
listen = /run/php-fpm/www.sock
listen.owner = apache
listen.group = apache
listen.mode = 0660

; Process Management
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 50
pm.start_servers = 5
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 35
pm.max_requests = 500

; Monitoring
pm.status_path = /php-fpm-status
ping.path = /php-fpm-ping

; Slow log
slowlog = /var/log/php-fpm/www-slow.log
request_slowlog_timeout = 3s
                

Apache PHP-FPM Proxy Config /etc/httpd/conf.d/php-fpm.conf

                    # Proxy PHP requests to PHP-FPM

<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock|fcgi://localhost"
</FilesMatch>

# Status pages (monitoring)
<LocationMatch "^/(php-fpm-(status|ping))$">
    SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    Require local
</LocationMatch>

# Security: Deny PHP in uploads
<Directory "/var/www/html/uploads">
    <FilesMatch "\.php$">
        Require all denied
    </FilesMatch>
</Directory>
                

PHP Configuration (Essential Settings) /etc/php.ini

                    ; PHP Configuration - Key Settings Only

; Error Handling
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
error_log = /var/log/php-fpm/error.log

; Resource Limits
max_execution_time = 30
max_input_time = 60
memory_limit = 128M

; File Uploads
file_uploads = On
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_file_uploads = 20

; Database - Works for MySQL AND MariaDB!
mysqli.default_socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
pdo_mysql.default_socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

; Timezone (CHANGE THIS!)
date.timezone = America/New_York

; OPcache (Performance)
opcache.enable = 1
opcache.memory_consumption = 128
opcache.max_accelerated_files = 4000

; Security
expose_php = Off
allow_url_include = Off

default_charset = "UTF-8"
                

🐍 Python WSGI Configuration

mod_wsgi Configuration /etc/httpd/conf.d/wsgi.conf

                    # Python WSGI Configuration

LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi_python3.so

# Simple test application
WSGIScriptAlias /python /var/www/wsgi-scripts/test.wsgi

<Directory /var/www/wsgi-scripts>
    Require all granted
</Directory>
                

Example Python WSGI Script /var/www/wsgi-scripts/test.wsgi

                    #!/usr/bin/python3
# Simple WSGI test with database

def application(environ, start_response):
    status = '200 OK'
    output = b'Python WSGI Test\n'
    
    import sys
    output += f'Python: {sys.version}\n'.encode()
    
    # Test database (works with MySQL or MariaDB!)
    try:
        import pymysql
        conn = pymysql.connect(
            host='localhost',
            user='webapp_user',
            password='YourPassword',
            database='webapp_db'
        )
        cursor = conn.cursor()
        cursor.execute("SELECT VERSION()")
        ver = cursor.fetchone()
        output += f'Database: {ver[0]}\n'.encode()
        conn.close()
    except Exception as e:
        output += f'DB Error: {e}\n'.encode()
    
    headers = [('Content-Type', 'text/plain')]
    start_response(status, headers)
    return [output]
                

🐪 Perl mod_perl Configuration

mod_perl Configuration /etc/httpd/conf.d/perl.conf

                    # Perl mod_perl Configuration

LoadModule perl_module modules/mod_perl.so

Alias /perl /var/www/perl
<Directory /var/www/perl>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::Registry
    PerlOptions +ParseHeaders
    Options +ExecCGI
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<FilesMatch "\.pl$">
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlResponseHandler ModPerl::Registry
    PerlOptions +ParseHeaders
    Options +ExecCGI
</FilesMatch>
                

Example Perl CGI Script /var/www/perl/test.pl

                    #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use DBI;

my $q = CGI->new;
print $q->header('text/plain');
print "Perl mod_perl Test\n";
print "Perl: $]\n\n";

# Test database (works with MySQL or MariaDB!)
eval {
    my $dbh = DBI->connect(
        "DBI:mysql:database=webapp_db;host=localhost",
        "webapp_user",
        "YourPassword",
        {RaiseError=>1}
    );
    my $ver = $dbh->selectrow_array("SELECT VERSION()");
    print "Database: $ver\n";
    $dbh->disconnect();
};
print "DB Error: $@\n" if $@;
                

🧪 Testing the Stack

Create Test Files

Setup Test Environment
# Create directories
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/{wsgi-scripts,perl}
sudo chmod 755 /var/www/{wsgi-scripts,perl}

# PHP test (with database check)
cat << 'EOF' | sudo tee /var/www/html/test.php
<?php
echo "PHP Version: " . phpversion() . "\n";

// Test database connection (MySQL or MariaDB!)
$conn = new mysqli('localhost', 'webapp_user', 'YourPass', 'webapp_db');
if ($conn->connect_error) die("Failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
echo "Database: Connected!\n";
$result = $conn->query("SELECT VERSION()");
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
echo "DB Version: " . $row['VERSION()'] . "\n";
$conn->close();
?>
EOF

# Python WSGI test (see example above)
sudo vi /var/www/wsgi-scripts/test.wsgi
sudo chmod 755 /var/www/wsgi-scripts/test.wsgi

# Perl test (see example above)
sudo vi /var/www/perl/test.pl
sudo chmod 755 /var/www/perl/test.pl

# Set SELinux contexts
sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www

# Test in browser:
# http://your-server/test.php
# http://your-server/python
# http://your-server/perl/test.pl

🔍 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Problem	Solution
PHP files download instead of execute	PHP-FPM not configured `sudo systemctl restart httpd php-fpm`
PHP can't connect to database	SELinux! `sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db on`
Permission denied errors	`sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html` `sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www`
403 Forbidden	Check Directory permissions in httpd.conf Check SELinux contexts
Apache won't start	`sudo apachectl configtest` `sudo tail /var/log/httpd/error_log`

Useful Commands

                    # Test Apache configuration
sudo apachectl configtest

# View loaded modules
httpd -M

# Check syntax of individual conf files
sudo apachectl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS

# Restart services
sudo systemctl restart httpd php-fpm

# View logs in real-time
sudo tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log
sudo tail -f /var/log/php-fpm/error.log

# Check SELinux denials
sudo ausearch -m avc -ts recent | grep httpd

# List SELinux booleans for httpd
getsebool -a | grep httpd

# Check file contexts
ls -Z /var/www/html
                

⚡ Performance & Security

Enable Compression /etc/httpd/conf.d/compression.conf

                    <IfModule mod_deflate.c>
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css text/javascript
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript application/json
</IfModule>
                

Security Headers /etc/httpd/conf.d/security.conf

                    # Security headers
Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"

# HSTS (only after SSL is working!)
# Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
                

✅ Best Practices Summary

💡 LAMP Stack Best Practices

SELinux: Configure it, don't disable it!
PHP-FPM: Use Unix sockets, not TCP (better performance)
Database: php-mysqlnd works with both MySQL and MariaDB
OPcache: Always enable it for PHP performance
SSL/TLS: Use Let's Encrypt (free, automated)
Firewall: Only open ports 80/443
Logs: Monitor them regularly
Updates: Keep everything patched
Backups: Automate them!
Security: Disable directory listing, hide PHP version

⚠️ Don't Forget!

Enable httpd_can_network_connect_db SELinux boolean
Start both httpd AND php-fpm services
Open firewall ports (80, 443)
Set correct file ownership (apache:apache)
Test configuration before reloading: apachectl configtest

📄 Important Files & Logs

Configuration Files

                    /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf           # Main Apache config
/etc/httpd/conf.d/*.conf            # Additional configs
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/*.conf    # Module configs
/etc/php.ini                        # PHP config
/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf             # PHP-FPM pool config
                

Log Files

                    /var/log/httpd/access_log          # Apache access log
/var/log/httpd/error_log           # Apache error log
/var/log/httpd/ssl_access_log      # SSL access log
/var/log/httpd/ssl_error_log       # SSL error log
/var/log/php-fpm/error.log         # PHP-FPM errors
/var/log/php-fpm/www-slow.log      # Slow PHP scripts
                