How to Install and Configure October CMS 2 on a Ubuntu 20.04 Server

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October CMS 2 is a simple and reliable content management system with features like Twig templating, extendable functionality via Plugins, built-in image cropping and advanced file management. This guide explains how to install October CMS on a Ubuntu 20.04 LAMP server.

Prerequisites

Before starting this guide:

• Deploy a new Vultr Ubuntu 20.04 server instance
• Create a non-root sudo user
• Create a DNS "A" record with a fully-qualified domain name pointed to your server
• Purchase an October CMS license key
• Install a LAMP stack.

1. Edit Apache Configuration

Edit the Apache default site configuration file to make changes that will allow October CMS to run smoothly on your server.

1. Edit the file.

   $ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf 
   

   Find the line:

   DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
   

   Edit the document root entry to include the rules below.

   <Directory /var/www/html/>
       Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
       AllowOverride All
       Order allow,deny
       allow from all
   </Directory>
   

2. Save and close the file

3. Enable the mod_rewrite Apache module.

   $ sudo a2enmod rewrite
   

4. Enable and start Apache at boot time.

   $ sudo systemctl enable apache2
   $ sudo systemctl start apache2
   

5. Restart the service to reload the new changes.

   $ sudo systemctl restart apache2
   

6. Verify Apache is running.

   $ sudo systemctl status apache2
   

7. October CMS 2 requires PHP 7.2.9 or higher and several PHP extensions. To install PHP and all required extensions:

   $ sudo apt -y install php php-ctype php-curl php-xml php-fileinfo php-gd php-json php-mbstring php-mysql php-sqlite3 php-zip libapache2-mod-php
   

2. Create an October CMS Database

1. Log in to MySQL as root and enter your password.

   $ sudo mysql -u root -p
   

2. Create the October CMS database.

   > CREATE DATABASE october_db CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
   

3. Create a new database user and assign it a strong password.

   > CREATE USER 'october_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR_STRONG_PASSSWORD';
   

4. Grant the new user full rights to the October CMS database.

   > GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON october_db.* TO 'october_user'@'localhost';
   

5. Refresh MySQL user privileges and exit.

   > FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   > EXIT;
   

6. Test that your newly created user has rights to the database.

   $ mysql -u october_user - p
   

7. Enter the user password and display databases assigned to the user.

   > SHOW DATABASES;
   

8. Enable MySQL server to start at boot time, and restart the service to apply changes.

   $ sudo systemctl enable mysql
   $ sudo systemctl restart mysql   
   

3. Install Composer

October CMS 2 uses Composer to manage its dependencies, the CMS does not have a direct installation candidate, and composer is used to download all necessary CMS files required to create projects.

1. To install Composer, re-update your system and install the Composer PHP extensions.

   $ sudo apt update
   $ sudo apt install wget php-cli php-zip unzip curl
   

2. Download Composer

   $ curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
   

3. Move the downloaded file to /usr/local/bin to make it a system wide application on your server.

   $ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
   

4. Verify your installation and see the version.

   $ composer
   

4. Install October CMS 2

1. Create a new October CMS project directory named myexample.

   $ composer create-project october/october myexample
   

2. Move the new project to Apache's web root.

   $ sudo mv -R myexample/ /var/www/html/
   

3. Grant Apache permissions to October CMS.

   $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data  /var/www/html/myexample/
   

4. Change the Apache 2 configuration to point to your October CMS Installation directory.

   $ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf 
   

   Find this line:

   DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/”
   

   Change it to:

   DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/myexample"
   

5. Save and exit the file.

6. Restart Apache.

   $ sudo systemctl restart apache2
   

7. Change to the October CMS working directory.

   $ cd /var/www/html/myexample
   

8. Run PHP Artisan.

   $ sudo php artisan october:install
   

9. Choose your preferred October CMS language, English is the default.

10. Enter your domain name, then choose a custom access URL.

    Application URL [http://localhost]:
        > 
    

11. Select a custom backend URI for administration.

    Backend URI [/backend]:
        > 
    

12. Select MySQL database server.

    Database Engine [SQLite]:
        [0] SQLite
        [1] MySQL
        [2] Postgres
        [3] SQL Server
        > 
    

13. Use the default value of 127.0.0.1 for Database Host.

    Database Host [127.0.0.1]:
    > 
    

14. Enter 3306 for database port.

    Database Port [3306] 
    > 
    

15. Enter your database name, user, and password.

    Database Name [database]:
    > 
    Database Login [root]:
    >
    Database Password []:
    >
    

16. Enter your October CMS license key.

    License Key:
        >
    

17. Installation will continue.

18. When finished, migrate the database to initialise the tables.

    $ sudo php artisan october:migrate
    

19. Complete your October CMS configuration from a web browser. Connect to the backend URL with your domain name or server's IP address. For example:

    http://YOUR_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS/backend 
    http://YOUR_DOMAIN/backend
    

Next Steps

• You must create a user account to access the administration area.
• If you receive a connection not secure prompt, install a free Let’s encrypt SSL certificate to access your October CMS Dashboard.
• See the October CMS documentation for more information.