Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on an AWS EC2 t2.micro instance with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS for a DevOps project.

Prerequisites:

AWS account
SSH key pair for EC2 access (created during the EC2 instance setup)
Terminal

Step 1: Launch an EC2 Instance

Sign in to AWS Management Console and go to the EC2 Dashboard.
Click on Launch Instance.
Configure instance:
- Name: Give your instance a name (e.g., "LAMP Server").
- AMI: Select Ubuntu 24.04 LTS HVM (64-bit architecture).
- Instance type: Choose t2.micro (eligible for free tier).
Key pair: If you have one, choose it. Otherwise, create a new key pair and download the .pem file.
Security group: Create a new security group or use an existing one. Ensure that the following ports are allowed:
- SSH (port 22) – for remote access
- HTTP (port 80) – for web traffic
- HTTPS (port 443) – for secure web traffic (optional)
Launch the instance.

Step 2: Connect to the EC2 Instance

Open a terminal (or use VSCode Terminal if preferred).
Connect to your instance using SSH:
```
 cd /path/to/your-key.pem
```
```
 ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@<your-ec2-public-ip>
```
Replace /path/to/your-key.pem with the actual path to your key pair and <your-ec2-public-ip> with the EC2 instance public IP.

Error:

I used the default Security Group that is yet to open Port 22 for SSH connection.

Solution:

I editted the inbound rule to allow all traffic, which includes port 22, 80, 443 etc, and connection from anywhere. (You could specify the specific ports instead of allowing all traffic.)

Now we are able to successfully connect to the instance.

Step 3: Update the Server

Run the following commands to update your server:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 4: Install Apache

Install Apache:
```
 sudo apt install apache2 -y
```
Verify Apache is running:
```
 sudo systemctl status apache2
```

Open your browser and navigate to your EC2 public IP. You should see the Apache default page. Or curl http://localhost:80

Step 5: Install MySQL

Install MySQL:
```
 sudo apt install mysql-server -y
```

Secure MySQL installation:
```
 sudo mysql
```

Follow the prompts to set up the root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and more.

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'PassWord.1';

sudo mysql_secure_installation
Log in to MySQL to ensure it works:
```
 sudo mysql -p
```
Enter the root password you created, and you should have access to the MySQL shell.

Step 6: Install PHP

Install PHP and necessary PHP extensions for Apache and MySQL:

 sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli -y

Check PHP Version
```
 php -v
```

Restart Apache to load PHP:
```
 sudo systemctl restart apache2
```

Step 7: Set Up Virtual Hosts

Create a new directory for your website:
```
 sudo mkdir /var/www/lampproject
```
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/lampproject

Create a new virtual host file:

 sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/lampproject.conf

Add the following content to configure the virtual host:

 <VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName lampproject
     ServerAlias www.lampproject
     ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
     DocumentRoot /var/www/lampproject
     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
 </VirtualHost>

Enable the virtual host:

 sudo a2ensite lampproject
 sudo a2dissite 000-default
 sudo apache2ctl configtest

   sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 8: Test with HTML scripts

Navigate to the project path
```
 cd /var/www/lampproject
```
Create an index.html file
```
 touch index.html
```

Open and edit the file, then paste the html contents below.

 nano index.html

 <!DOCTYPE html>
 <html lang="en">
   <head>
       <meta charset="UTF-8">
       <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
       <title>Test Page</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Welcome to Your Test Page</h1>
        <p>This is a simple HTML file for testing purposes.</p>
    </body>
 </html>

To view the index.html file contents.

 cat index.html

Open the browser to view http://34.239.0.90/ http://ec2-34-239-0-90.compute-1.amazonaws.com/:80

Step 9: Enable PHP on the website

sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf

<IfModule mod_dir.c>
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm
</IfModule>

sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 10: Test PHP Installation

Create a PHP test file:
```
 nano /var/www/lampproject/index.php
```
Add the following content:
```
 <?php
 phpinfo();
 ?>
```
Save and exit (Ctrl+X, Y, then Enter).
In your browser, go to http://<your-ec2-public-ip>/info.php. You should see a PHP information page.
Remove PHP info page: For security reasons, delete the PHP info page after testing:
```
 rm index.php
```

Setting Up a LAMP Stack on AWS EC2 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS)

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