How To Install Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack On CentOS 6

About LAMP

LAMP stack is a group of open source software used to get web servers up and running. The acronym stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Since the server is already running CentOS, the linux part is taken care of. Here is how to install the rest.

Step One—Install Apache

Apache is a free open source software which runs over 50% of the world’s web servers.
To install apache, open terminal and type in this command:

sudo yum install httpd

Once it installs, you can start apache running on your VPS:

 sudo service httpd start

That’s it. To check if Apache is installed, direct your browser to your server’s IP address (eg. http://12.34.56.789).

How to find your Server’s IP address

You can run the following command to reveal your server’s IP address.

ifconfig eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2 }'

Step Two—Install MySQL

MySQL is a powerful database management system used for organizing and retrieving data on a virtual server
To install MySQL, open terminal and type in these commands:

sudo yum install mysql-server
sudo service mysqld start 

During the installation, MySQL will ask you for your permission twice. After you say Yes to both, MySQL will install.
Once it is done installing, you can set a root MySQL password:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the instructions....

Step Three—Install PHP

PHP is an open source web scripting language that is widely used to build dynamic webpages.
To install PHP on your virtual private server, open terminal and type in this command:

sudo yum install php php-mysql

Once you answer yes to the PHP prompt, PHP will be installed.

PHP Modules

PHP also has a variety of useful libraries and modules that you can add onto your server. You can see the libraries that are available by typing:

yum search php-

Terminal then will display the list of possible modules. The beginning looks like this:

php-bcmath.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the bcmath library
php-cli.x86_64 : Command-line interface for PHP
php-common.x86_64 : Common files for PHP
php-dba.x86_64 : A database abstraction layer module for PHP applications
php-devel.x86_64 : Files needed for building PHP extensions
php-embedded.x86_64 : PHP library for embedding in applications
php-enchant.x86_64 : Human Language and Character Encoding Support
php-gd.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the gd graphics library
php-imap.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use IMAP

To see more details about what each module does, type the following command into terminal, replacing the name of the module with whatever library you want to learn about.

yum info name of the module

Once you decide to install the module, type:

sudo yum install name of the module

You can install multiple libraries at once by separating the name of each module with a space.
Congratulations! You now have LAMP stack on your droplet!
We should also set the processes to run automatically when the server boots (php will run automatically once Apache starts):

sudo chkconfig httpd on
sudo chkconfig mysqld on

Step Four—RESULTS: See PHP on your Server

Although LAMP is installed on your virtual server, we can still take a look and see the components online by creating a quick php info page
To set this up, first create a new file:

sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php

Add in the following line:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Then Save and Exit.
Restart apache so that all of the changes take effect on your virtual server:

sudo service httpd restart

Finish up by visiting your php info page (make sure you replace the example ip address with your correct one): http://12.34.56.789/info.php