Description

Bitnami LAPP Stack provides a complete PHP, PostgreSQL and Apache development environment for Linux that can be launched in one click. It also bundles phpPgAdmin and more.

First steps with the Bitnami LAPP Stack

Welcome to your new Bitnami application! Here are a few questions (and answers!) you might need when first starting with your application.

What are the system requirements?

Before you download and install your application, check that your system meets these requirements.

How do I install the Bitnami LAPP Stack?

Windows, OS X and Linux installer

• Download the executable file for the Bitnami LAPP Stack from the Bitnami website.

• Run the downloaded file:

  • On Linux, give the installer executable permissions and run the installation file in the console.
  • On other platforms, double-click the installer and follow the instructions shown.

Check the FAQ for instructions on how to download and install a Bitnami Stack for more details.

The application will be installed to the following default directories:

OS X VM

• Download the OS X VM file for the Bitnami LAPP Stack from the Bitnami website.
• Begin the installation process by double-clicking the image file and dragging the WordPress OS X VM icon to the Applications folder.
• Launch the VM by double-clicking the icon in the Applications folder.

What credentials do I need?

You need application credentials, consisting of a password. This will allow you to log in to the services of the Bitnami stack.

What is the administrator password?

• For Windows, Linux and OS X installers, the password was configured by you when you first installed the application.
• For OS X VMs, the password can be obtained by clicking the Bitnami badge at the bottom right corner of the application welcome page.

How to start or stop the services?

Bitnami native installers include a graphical tool to manage services. This tool is named manager-linux-x64.run on Linux and is located in the installation directory. To use this tool, double-click the file and then use the graphical interface to start, stop or restart services. Server log messages can be checked in the "Server Events" tab.

The native installer also includes a command-line script to start, stop and restart applications, named ctlscript.sh. This script can be found in the installation directory and accepts the options start, stop, restart, and status. To use it, log in to the server console and execute it following the examples below:

• Call it without any service names to start all services:

    $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh start
  

• Use it to restart a specific service only by passing the service name as argument - for example, mysql, postgresql or apache:

    $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart mysql
    $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart postgresql
    $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart apache
  

• Obtain current status of all services:

    $ installdir/ctlscript.sh status
  

The list of available services varies depending on the required components for each application.

How can I get started with LAPP?

Once the deployment finishes, you can access the welcome page from your browser: http://localhost/.

Regardless of how you access it, you should see a page similar to the examples below:

To get started with Bitnami AMP stacks, we suggest the following steps:

Step 1. Deploy your PHP application.

The main directory to deploy your PHP application is installdir/apache2/htdocs. You can copy your PHP application files to that directory and access the application via your browser. If you do not have a PHP application yet, we suggest deploying the PHP info example.

Do you have issues trying to connect to your server? Check our FAQ.

Step 2. Add a Bitnami application on top of the AMP stack.

You can install additional Bitnami applications on top of an AMP stack using module installers. You can download WordPress, Drupal, Magento, Moodle among other applications from the Bitnami website and extend the functionality of your server.

You can see more info in our step-by-step guide.

Step 3. Access phpMyAdmin.

phpMyAdmin is a PHP-based application intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Find more information on how to access phpMyAdmin.

How to find the database credentials?

• Database username: postgres.
• Database password: The password entered during the installation process.

How to connect to the PostgreSQL database?

You can connect to the PostgreSQL database from the same computer where it is installed with the psql client tool.

$ psql -U postgres

You will be prompted to enter the *postgres* user password. This is the same as the [application password](/installer/faq#how-to-find-application-credentials).

How to connect to LAPP from a different machine?

For security reasons, the LAPP ports in this solution cannot be accessed over a public IP address. To connect to LAPP from a different machine, you must open port 80, 443 for remote access. Refer to the FAQ for more information on this.

IMPORTANT: Bitnami Native Installers do not modify the firewall configuration of your computer, therefore the LAPP ports could be open which is a significant security risk. You are strongly advised to close the LAPP ports (refer to the FAQ for more information on this).

How to access phpPgAdmin?

You should be able to access phpPgAdmin directly, by browsing to http://127.0.0.1:8080/phppgadmin (Linux or Mac OS X) or http://127.0.0.1/phppgadmin (Windows).

The username is postgres for phpPgAdmin, and the password is the one specified by you during the installation process.

How to reset the MariaDB root password?

If you don't remember your MariaDB root password, you can follow the steps below to reset it to a new value:

• Create a file in /home/bitnami/mysql-init with the content shown below (replace NEW_PASSWORD with the password you wish to use):

   UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('NEW_PASSWORD') WHERE User='root';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
  

• Stop the MariaDB server:

   $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh stop mariadb
  

• Start MariaDB with the following command:

   $ sudo installdir/mariadb/bin/mysqld_safe --defaults-file=installdir/mariadb/my.cnf --pid-file=installdir/mariadb/data/mysqld.pid --init-file=/home/bitnami/mysql-init 2> /dev/null &
  

• Restart the MariaDB server:

   $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart mariadb
  

• Remove the init script

   $ rm /home/bitnami/mysql-init
  

How to change the MariaDB root password?

You can modify the MariaDB password using the following command at the shell prompt:

$ installdir/mariadb/bin/mysqladmin -p -u root password NEW_PASSWORD

How can I run a command in the Bitnami LAPP Stack?

Load the Bitnami Console and then run the command as usual.

Which components are included in LAPP?

The Bitnami LAPP Stack ships the components listed below. If you want to know which specific version of each component is bundled in the stack you are downloading, check the README.txt file in the download page or in the installdir directory. You can also find more information about each component using the links below.

Main components:

• PHP scripting language
• Apache Web server
• PostgreSQL database server
• phpPgAdmin web application management tool for PostgreSQL database

Frameworks for development (included in stacks with PHP 5.6 and lower):

• Zend Framework
• Symfony
• CodeIgniter
• CakePHP
• Smarty
• Laravel

Dependencies and additional components:

• Varnish proxy cache server
• ImageMagick tool
• SQLite database
• ModSecurity module
• XDebug module
• Xcache module
• OAuth module
• Memcache module
• FastCGI module
• APC module
• GD library
• OpenSSL library
• CURL library
• OpenLDAP library
• PEAR and PECL package manager tools

How can I check the PHP configuration with phpinfo?

Some versions of the Bitnami LAPP Stack include a docs/ folder in the installation directory that contains some PHP examples. Among these is a phpinfo.php script that shows the current PHP configuration and is typically used to check that PHP was installed correctly. In order to be able to access it, follow these steps below:

• Copy the phpinfo.php script from the installation directory to a publicly accessible location under the Web server document root.

   $ cp installdir/docs/phpinfo.php installdir/apache2/htdocs
  

• Browse to http://localhost/phpinfo.php.

You should see something like the page below, which contains detailed information on your PHP deployment.

How to create a custom PHP application?

Many users run a Bitnami stack as a development environment for their own PHP projects (as opposed to running third-party applications such as Joomla! or WordPress). To deploy your PHP application in this environment, you have two options:

• To make a single PHP application accessible at the root URL of the Web server (for example, http://localhost), simply copy the PHP files into the installdir/apache2/htdocs folder. For an example, take a look at the phpinfo example.

• To have several applications running, create the same structure used by Bitnami when installing Bitnami PHP applications. Recent versions of Bitnami stacks ship a demo application with this structure to help you get started. To use this, follow the steps below:

  • Copy the installdir/docs/demo folder into the installdir/apps directory.

    $ sudo cp -r installdir/docs/demo installdir/apps
    

  • Add the following line to the end of the installdir/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami-apps-prefix.conf file:

    Include "installdir/apps/demo/conf/httpd-prefix.conf"
    

  • Restart the Apache server using the command-line tool.

    $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart apache
    

  You should now be able to access the demo application at http://localhost/demo. You should see a "Hello world" message in your browser.

• If your stack does not include a demo application, or if you prefer to create a custom PHP application from scratch, follow the steps below. These steps assume that your application will live in the installdir/apps/myapp/ directory:

  • Run the following commands to create the directories:

    $ sudo mkdir installdir/apps/myapp
    $ sudo mkdir installdir/apps/myapp/htdocs/
    $ sudo mkdir installdir/apps/myapp/conf
    

  • Create and edit the installdir/apps/myapp/conf/httpd-prefix.conf file and add the line below to it:

    Alias /myapp/ "installdir/apps/myapp/htdocs/"
    Alias /myapp "installdir/apps/myapp/htdocs/"
    Include "installdir/apps/myapp/conf/httpd-app.conf"
    

  • Create and edit the installdir/apps/myapp/conf/httpd-app.conf file and add the content below to it. This is the main configuration file for your application, so modify it further depending on your application's requirements.

    <Directory installdir/apps/myapp/htdocs/>
        Options +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        <IfVersion < 2.3 >
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        </IfVersion>
        <IfVersion >= 2.3>
        Require all granted
        </IfVersion>
    </Directory>
    

    NOTE: If your application uses .htaccess files, you should change the AllowOverride None option to AllowOverride All. Find out how to move the .htaccess file content to the main server configuration file.

  • Once you have created the files and directories above, add the following line to the end of the main Apache configuration file at installdir/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami-apps-prefix.conf, as shown below:

    Include "installdir/apps/myapp/conf/httpd-prefix.conf"
    

  • Restart the Apache server:

    $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart apache
    

    You should now be able to access the application at http://localhost/myapp.

How can I deploy my PHP application?

The main directory to deploy your PHP application is installdir/apache2/htdocs. You can copy your PHP application files to that directory and access the application via your browser at http://localhost/.

How can I run a custom PHP script?

Add your PHP script to the installdir/apache2/htdocs/ directory, then browse to it via the URL http://localhost/FILENAME.php, where FILENAME is the name of the PHP script.

For an example, refer to the section on using phpinfo.

What are the "development" and "production" modes for applications?

Some applications can be configured in either "development" or "production" mode:

• Production mode: File permissions and configuration settings are set with security and performance in mind. Installing certain plugins, themes and updates may require manual changes or installation of additional services like FTP.

Applications are configured using production mode for cloud servers by default.

If you install a module or stack and select production mode, these applications will request an FTP account in order to download their extensions. If you already have an FTP server on your machine, use this mode.

• Development mode: File permissions and configuration settings are not optimal from a security standpoint but make it easy to install plugins, themes and updates for certain applications.

How to disable the cache in the server?

If you are developing on top of an AMP Stack or customizing any Bitnami Stack, your files (like JavaScript files) may be cached by the server and even you modify them your changes will not appear to be applied.

In order to disable the cache in the server and let the files be served each time, disable PageSpeed for Apache and OPCache, enabled by default in PHP.

To disable PageSpeed, comment out the following lines in your httpd.conf (installdir/apache2/conf/httpd.conf)

#Include conf/pagespeed.conf

#Include conf/pagespeed_libraries.conf

To disable OPCache, change opcache.enable in your php.ini file and set it to 0 (installdir/php/etc/php.ini)

How to create a full backup of LAPP?

The Bitnami LAPP Stack is self-contained and the simplest option for performing a backup is to copy or compress the Bitnami stack installation directory. To do so in a safe manner, you will need to stop all servers, so this method may not be appropriate if you have people accessing the application continuously.

Backup on Linux and Mac OS X

Follow these steps:

• Change to the directory in which you wish to save your backup.

   $ cd /your/directory
  

• Stop all servers.

   $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh stop
  

• Create a compressed file with the stack contents.

   $ sudo tar -pczvf application-backup.tar.gz installdir
  

• Start all servers.

   $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh start
  

• Download or transfer the application-backup.tar.gz file to a safe location.

You should now download or transfer the application-backup.tar.gz file to a safe location.

Backup on Windows

Follow these steps:

• Stop all servers using the shortcuts in the Start Menu or the graphical manager tool.

• Create a compressed file with the stack contents. You can use a graphical tool like 7-Zip or WinZip or just right-click the folder, click "Send to", and select the "Compressed (zipped) folder" option.

• Download or transfer the compressed file to a safe location.

• Start all servers using the shortcuts in the Start Menu or the graphical manager tool.

Restore on Linux and Mac OS X

Follow these steps:

• Change to the directory containing your backup:

  $ cd /your/directory
  

• Stop all servers.

  $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh stop
  

• Move the current stack to a different location:

  $ sudo mv installdir /tmp/bitnami-backup
  

• Uncompress the backup file to the original directory:

  $ sudo tar -pxzvf application-backup.tar.gz -C /
  

• Start all servers.

  $ sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh start
  

Restore on Windows

• Change to the directory containing your backup:

     $ cd /your/directory
  

• Stop all servers using the shortcuts in the Start Menu or the graphical manager tool.

• Uninstall the previous services by executing the following command:

      $ serviceinstall.bat
  

• Create a safe folder named Backups in the desktop and move the current stack to it. Remember to replace PATH with the right location of your folder:

      $ move installdir \PATH\Backups
  

• Uncompress the backup file using a tool like 7-Zip or Winzip or just double-click the .zip file to uncompress it, and move it to the original directory.

• Install services by running the following commands from an elevated command prompt:

    $ cd installdir
    $ serviceinstall.bat INSTALL
  

• Start all servers using the shortcuts in the Start Menu or the graphical manager tool.

How to configure NetBeans with Bitnami LAMP, MAMP or WAMP stacks?

To configure NetBeans with Bitnami LAMP, MAMP or WAMP stacks, refer to this page.