Deploying a Laravel Application to a VPS: A Beginner's Guide Using Ubuntu and Nginx

Deploying a Laravel application on a Virtual Private Server (VPS) can be a rewarding experience for developers. This step-by-step guide will walk you through deploying your Laravel project on a VPS, specifically using DigitalOcean, Ubuntu, and Nginx. Additionally, we'll cover setting up a secure environment using Let's Encrypt and Certbot, and as a bonus, how to deploy using Docker.

Setting Up Your Server

1. Creating a Non-Root User

First, ensure your server is secure by creating a non-root user:

# Log in as root
ssh root@your_server_ip

# Create a new user
adduser your_username

# Grant administrative privileges
usermod -aG sudo your_username

2. Setting Up the Firewall

To secure your server, configure the firewall to allow only necessary traffic:

# Allow OpenSSH
ufw allow OpenSSH

# Enable the firewall
ufw enable

# Check the status
ufw status

Installing Required Software

3. Installing Nginx, MySQL, and PHP

Update your package index and install Nginx, MySQL, and PHP:

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install nginx

# Install MySQL
sudo apt install mysql-server

# Secure MySQL installation
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# Install PHP and additional extensions
sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql

4. Installing Composer

Composer is required to manage Laravel dependencies:

# Download and install Composer
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

# Move Composer to a globally accessible location
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Deploying Laravel

5. Cloning Your Laravel Project

Clone your Laravel project from Git:

# Navigate to the web root
cd /var/www/

# Clone the repository
sudo git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-laravel-project.git

# Move into the project directory
cd your-laravel-project

6. Configuring the .env File

Copy the example environment file and configure it:

# Copy the example .env file
cp .env.example .env

# Generate an application key
php artisan key:generate

7. Setting Permissions

Ensure Laravel can read and write necessary files:

# Set the owner to www-data
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/your-laravel-project

# Set permissions
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/your-laravel-project/storage
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/your-laravel-project/bootstrap/cache

8. Setting Up the Database

Create a database and user for your Laravel application:

# Log in to MySQL
sudo mysql -u root -p

# Create a new database
CREATE DATABASE laravel_db;

# Create a new user and grant privileges
CREATE USER 'laravel_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON laravel_db.* TO 'laravel_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

9. Configuring Nginx

Set up Nginx to serve your Laravel application:

# Create a new Nginx server block
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel

Add the following content:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your_domain www.your_domain;
    root /var/www/your-laravel-project/public;

    index index.php index.html index.htm;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the configuration and restart Nginx:

# Enable the configuration
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Test the configuration
sudo nginx -t

# Restart Nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Enabling HTTPS with Let's Encrypt

10. Installing Certbot and Obtaining a Certificate

Secure your application with SSL using Let's Encrypt:

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Obtain a certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d your_domain -d www.your_domain

# Verify renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Bonus: Deploying with Docker

11. Docker Setup

Create Dockerfiles and configuration for PHP, MySQL, and Nginx:

Dockerfile

FROM php:7.4-fpm
WORKDIR /var/www
COPY . .
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql

docker-compose.yml

version: '3.8'
services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www
    networks:
      - app-network

  mysql:
    image: mysql:5.7
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root_password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel_db
      MYSQL_USER: laravel_user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
    networks:
      - app-network

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    networks:
      - app-network

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

default.conf

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name your_domain www.your_domain;

    root /var/www/public;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

12. Running Docker Containers

Start your application with Docker:

# Build and start the containers
sudo docker-compose up -d

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've successfully deployed your Laravel application on a VPS using Nginx and secured it with HTTPS. As a bonus, you've also learned how to deploy using Docker. This setup will serve as a robust foundation for deploying your future Laravel projects.