Introduction

Joomla is a powerful, open-source content management system (CMS) built with PHP. It’s widely used for creating websites, blogs, e-commerce platforms, forums, and other web-based applications.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up Joomla on an Ubuntu 24.04 server using the LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MariaDB, PHP-FPM). We’ll also configure your Joomla site to use HTTPS for secure communication.

What You’ll Need

Before getting started, make sure you have:

• An Ubuntu 24.04 server instance

• A user with sudo privileges (non-root)

• A domain name pointing to your server’s IP

Step 1: Install Required Packages

Since Joomla runs on PHP, we’ll start by installing the LEMP stack.

Update System Packages

Install Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP with Extensions

Confirm with Y when prompted.

Step 2: Verify Services Are Running

Check Nginx Status

Check MariaDB

Check PHP-FPM

Step 3: Tune PHP-FPM for Joomla

Edit the PHP configuration file:

Update the following values:

Save the file and restart PHP-FPM:

Check the PHP socket:

You should see something like /var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock.

Step 4: Configure the MariaDB Database

Secure the Database Server

Run the built-in security script:

Follow the prompts:

• Press ENTER for no root password (if using default install)

• Say n when asked about unix_socket authentication

• Set a new root password

• Disable remote root login

• Remove the test database and anonymous users

• Reload privileges

Create a Joomla Database and User

In the MariaDB shell:

Confirm the user privileges:

Step 5: Download Joomla

Navigate to your web root:

Download Joomla (replace with the latest version URL):

Extract the archive:

Set the correct permissions:

Step 6: Create an Nginx Server Block

Create a new Nginx configuration file:

Add the following configuration (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain):

server {
listen 80 default_server;
server_name yourdoain or IP;
server_name_in_redirect off;

access_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.access_log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.error_log info;

root /var/www/joomla;
index index.php index.html index.htm default.html default.htm;

# Support API
location /api/ {
try_files $uri $uri/ /api/index.php?$args;
}

# Support Clean (aka Search Engine Friendly) URLs
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}

# add global x-content-type-options header
add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

# deny running scripts inside writable directories
location ~* /(images|cache|media|logs|tmp)/.*\.(php|pl|py|jsp|asp|sh|cgi)$ {
return 403;
error_page 403 /403_error.html;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
}

# caching of files
location ~* \.(ico|pdf|flv)$ {
expires 1y;
}

location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|swf|xml|txt)$ {
expires 14d;
}

}

Save and close the file.

Enable the configuration and check syntax:

Restart Nginx:

Final Step: Complete Joomla Setup via Web Installer

Now open your browser and navigate to:

Conclusion.

Congratulations! Joomla is now installed on your Ubuntu 24.04 server with Nginx, MariaDB, PHP-FPM, and secured with HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt.