Setting up LAMP Stack with Laravel 10 on domainindia.com VPS

This guide builds a production LAMP server for a Laravel application on your own VPS running AlmaLinux 9: Apache, MariaDB, PHP-FPM from the Remi repository, Composer, a virtual host, SELinux-correct permissions and free HTTPS. It applies to a VPS you manage yourself, not to shared hosting, where the server is already set up and you can't install system packages.

1. Prepare the VPS

Log in as root with the details from your VPS welcome email, then update and create a normal user for daily work:

dnf -y update
adduser deploy
passwd deploy
usermod -aG wheel deploy

Copy your public key to the new user from your own computer (ssh-copy-id deploy@your-server-ip), confirm you can log in with it, and only then disable root and password logins in /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no

Files in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/ are read first and win, so check them for a PasswordAuthentication yes line. Run sudo sshd -t to test the configuration, then sudo systemctl reload sshd. Keep your current session open until a new login works. More hardening is in our SSH security hardening checklist.

2. Firewall

firewalld is the standard firewall on AlmaLinux. Make sure it runs and allow web traffic:

sudo dnf -y install firewalld
sudo systemctl enable --now firewalld
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

SSH is allowed by default. Do not open port 3306: Laravel talks to MariaDB on the same server.

3. Apache

sudo dnf -y install httpd mod_ssl
sudo systemctl enable --now httpd

Browse to http://your-server-ip and you should see the AlmaLinux test page. mod_rewrite, which Laravel's .htaccess needs, is loaded by default.

4. MariaDB

sudo dnf -y install mariadb-server
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb
sudo mariadb-secure-installation

Answer yes to removing anonymous users, the test database and remote root login. Then create a database and a user for Laravel:

CREATE DATABASE laravel_db CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'laravel_user'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-long-random-password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON laravel_db.* TO 'laravel_user'@'127.0.0.1';

Run these in sudo mariadb. No FLUSH PRIVILEGES is needed after CREATE USER and GRANT.

5. PHP from the Remi repository

AlmaLinux's own PHP streams lag behind; Remi provides current, maintained builds. Enable EPEL and Remi, then pick a PHP stream that your Laravel version supports:

sudo dnf -y install epel-release
sudo dnf -y install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm
sudo dnf module list php
sudo dnf -y module reset php
sudo dnf -y module enable php:remi-8.4
sudo dnf -y install php php-cli php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-mbstring php-xml \
  php-bcmath php-intl php-zip php-gd php-opcache php-process git unzip
sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm
sudo systemctl restart httpd

Replace remi-8.4 with the stream you chose from dnf module list php. On AlmaLinux, installing php-fpm also installs an Apache config that sends .php files to PHP-FPM, so you don't add a handler by hand. Check with php -v.

Adjust /etc/php.ini for your app, for example memory_limit, upload_max_filesize, post_max_size and date.timezone = Asia/Kolkata, then sudo systemctl restart php-fpm.

6. Composer

Install Composer as a normal user with the verified installer commands from the official download page (getcomposer.org/download), which check the installer's hash before running it. Then move it into your path:

sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
composer --version

7. Create the Laravel project

Work as the deploy user in /var/www, where SELinux already expects web content:

sudo mkdir /var/www/myapp
sudo chown deploy:deploy /var/www/myapp
cd /var/www
composer create-project laravel/laravel myapp

For an existing app, git clone it into /var/www/myapp and run composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader, then cp .env.example .env and php artisan key:generate.

Edit /var/www/myapp/.env. Recent Laravel versions default to SQLite, so set MariaDB explicitly:

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://example.com
DB_CONNECTION=mariadb
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel_db
DB_USERNAME=laravel_user
DB_PASSWORD=a-long-random-password

On older Laravel versions without the mariadb driver, use DB_CONNECTION=mysql. Then run php artisan migrate --force.

8. Permissions and SELinux

Apache runs as the apache user on AlmaLinux (not www-data, which is Debian and Ubuntu). Only two folders need to be writable by the web server:

cd /var/www/myapp
sudo chgrp -R apache storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chmod -R ug+rwX storage bootstrap/cache
sudo find storage bootstrap/cache -type d -exec chmod g+s {} +
sudo dnf -y install policycoreutils-python-utils
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/myapp/storage(/.*)?"
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/myapp/bootstrap/cache(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/myapp
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db 1

The last line lets Apache and PHP-FPM connect to the database over TCP. If your app calls outside APIs (payment gateways, mail services), also run sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1. Keep SELinux enforcing; switching it off with setenforce 0 hides problems rather than fixing them.

9. The Apache virtual host

Create /etc/httpd/conf.d/myapp.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/myapp/public

    <Directory /var/www/myapp/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/myapp-error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/httpd/myapp-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

The document root is the public folder only, so .env and your code are never served. Check and reload:

sudo apachectl configtest
sudo systemctl reload httpd

Point your domain's A record at the VPS IP address (see how to change your domain's DNS settings) and open the site; you should see the Laravel welcome page.

10. HTTPS with Let's Encrypt

sudo dnf -y install certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com
sudo systemctl list-timers | grep certbot

Certbot creates the HTTPS virtual host and a renewal timer. Test renewal with sudo certbot renew --dry-run.

11. Production finishing touches

• Cache configuration and routes: php artisan optimize after every deploy.
• Scheduler: add * * * * * cd /var/www/myapp && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1 to the deploy user's crontab.
• Queue workers: run php artisan queue:work under a systemd service with Restart=always, and restart it after each deploy.
• Updates: apply sudo dnf update regularly, and keep Laravel and Composer packages patched.
• Backups: dump the database (mariadb-dump) and copy it off the server on a schedule.
• A web application firewall such as ModSecurity is optional; it needs tuning for your app, or it blocks legitimate requests.

12. Running this on Domain India

Domain India VPS plans are KVM servers with full root access and a choice of Linux operating system, including AlmaLinux. They are self-managed by default, so the steps above, updates and security are yours to run. cPanel is not offered on our VPS plans.

The cards show live list prices, excluding 18% GST. If you would rather not run a server, a standard Laravel app with a cron-driven scheduler can run on shared hosting, built locally and uploaded or with Composer over jailed SSH; queue workers, Redis and Octane need a VPS. See Laravel on cPanel and DirectAdmin.

Ready to build? Compare VPS plans, read Laravel on cPanel and DirectAdmin if shared hosting may be enough, or ask us through a support ticket.