Setup Atlantic CMS on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install Atlantis CMS on Ubuntu 18.04 | 16.04 with Nginx HTTP server.

Our previous post showed you how to install and configure Atlantis CMS on Ubuntu with Apache2 HTTP server. This one shows you how to do install and do it with Nginx instead.

Atlantis CMS is an open-source, Laravel based CMS that offers features that may not be available to other PHP based content management systems, like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and others.

It helps webmasters and creators simplify the process of building and maintaining a website for businesses or individuals.

When you use Composer to install Atlantis CMS packages, you can easily upgrade from the command line with Composer, which is much simpler.

Atlantis CMS also has built-in modules that extend its functionality, including adding Google Analytics and others.

For more about Atlantis CMS, please check its homepage

To get started with installing Atlantis CMS, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Nginx HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it since Atlantis CMS needs it.

To install Nginx HTTP on Ubuntu server, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

To test Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Nginx default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx is working as expected.


Install MariaDB Database Server

Atlantis CMS also needs a database server to store its content. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Atlantis CMS.

To install MariaDB run the commands below.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

  • Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
  • Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
  • New password: Enter password
  • Re-enter new password: Repeat password
  • Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
  • Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
  • Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
  • Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB server

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules

PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. in order to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2-FPM, run the commands below to open PHP default config file for Nginx.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below are great settings to apply in your environments.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
max_input_vars = 1500
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, save the file and close out.

Create Atlantis CMS Database

Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First create a Atlantis CMS database.

Run the commands below to logon to MariaDB. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called atlantis

CREATE DATABASE atlantis;

Create a database user called atlantisuser with new password

CREATE USER 'atlantisuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the atlantis database.

GRANT ALL ON atlantis.* TO 'atlantisuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Nginx to reload PHP configurations.

To restart Nginx, run the commands below

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Download Atlantis CMS Latest Release

To get Atlantis CMS latest release you may want to use Github repository. Install Composer, Curl and other dependencies to get started.

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sS  | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download Atlantis CMS packages from Github.

cd /var/www
sudo composer create-project atlantis-labs/atlantis3 --prefer-dist atlantis
cd /var/www/atlantis
************Please run***************
sudo php artisan atlantis:set:db
sudo php artisan atlantis:install

When you run the lines above, you’ll be prompted to enter the database hostname, database and the database user name. please provide that info using the info created above.

Do you want to set database credential? (yes/no) [no]:
> y
Host:
> localhost
Database name:
> atlantis
Username:
> atlantisuser
Password:
>

Next, choose to migrate:

 Do you want to run migrations? (yes/no) [no]:
 > yes
Migrations complete.
 Do you want to run seeds? (yes/no) [no]:
 > yes
Seeds complete.
Installation complete.

After that, run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Atlantis to function.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/atlantis/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/atlantis/

Configure Nginx

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Atlantis CMS. This file will control how users access Atlantis CMS content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called atlantis.conf

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/atlantis

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/atlantis;
    index  index.php;
    
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

    location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
      }

    location ~ \.php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         include fastcgi_params;
         fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
    }
}

Save the file and exit.

Enable the Atlantis CMS

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/atlantis /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Atlantis CMS setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.


Now to access the admin portal, go to:

admin

Username: admin
Password: admin123

Start building your site

Conclusion:

You have learned how to install Atlantis CMS on Ubuntu with Nginx HTTP server. If you find any error above, please leave a comment below

Thanks,

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