How to host Joomla on AWS Lightsail VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Joomla is an open-source content management system (CMS) known for its versatility and user-friendly interface. It offers a robust framework that supports various content types, including articles, blogs, and e-commerce solutions. Hosting Joomla on AWS Lightsail offers a reliable and scalable solution, with a range of instance options and straightforward deployment features. ServerAvatar makes the deployment of the Joomla Application on the AWS Lightsail platform straightforward through a simplified process.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail

To create a server in AWS Lightsail, First log in to the AWS Lightsail console. Once you are there, Follow the steps given below.

Step 1: Go to the Instance Creation Form

To access the instance creation form, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the orange button with the Create Instance text. See the following image for reference.

Step 2: Select the Location of your Instance

First of all, You have to select the location for your instance. It is always better to select a location closest to your major traffic source. It will decrease the latency for the majority of your website visitors.

If you want to change the location of your server, You can simply update the current region in your AWS account.

Step 3: Select the OS for your Instance

After selecting the location, Select the operating system for your instance. In this case, First, click on OS Only and then select Ubuntu 20.04 as an operating system just like the following image.

Step 4: Select SSH Key and Launch Script (Optional/Advanced)

This is an optional step. Here you can set the Launch script and the main SSH key for your server. If you don't understand the launch script and SSH keys, Just ignore this step.

Step 5: Select the Plan

In this step, select the size of your VM instance. AWS Lightsail provides lots of different options when it comes to plans and pricing. The plan and pricing selection completely depend on the requirements of your site(s). So, select the plan based on the complexity and traffic of your sites.

The minimum requirements for hosting Joomla are 1GB or more of RAM, depending on the number of users and the scale of usage. Minimum 1GB or more disk space, depending on the size of content, extensions, and user data. You can select another plan of higher configuration as per your requirements and usage.

Step 6: Verify and Create the Instance

Finally, Enter the name of your instance, and the number of instances you want to create and assign the tags accordingly for identification. Once done, click on the Create Instance button to start the instance creation process.

It might take a few minutes to deploy the instance. Once done, follow the below-given step to update the firewall rules for the VM instance.

Step 7: Update Firewall Rules

ServerAvatar requires 43210 port open. In total, You need to keep the following ports open on the instance.

• 22 (SSH): To access your server via SSH.
• 80 (HTTP): To access your sites on HTTP.
• 443 (HTTPS): To access your sites on HTTPS.
• 43210 (ServerAvatar): To allow communication between ServerAvatar and your instance.

To update the firewall rules for a specific instance, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the name of the instance you want to update. Then go to the Networking section and add the missing firewall rules. After updating the firewall rules, the networking section of your Instance should look like the following image.

Initial Server Configuration

The Initial server configuration includes the installation and configuration of various packages required to host your website. Usually, You have to write commands and modify configuration files. Luckily, With ServerAvatar, Your full server configuration and optimization can be automated.

Here are the three ways to automatically configure your server with ServerAvatar.

wget https://srvr.so/install
chmod +x install
./install

Auto-install Joomla with ServerAvatar

Step 1: Create a PHP application

Once you are on the admin panel, access the Application tab from the sidebar and click the Create button.

Now fill up the required details in the application form, as seen in the image below.

Note that:

If you want to host Joomla CMS on your domain, then make sure to point your domain to the current IP address of your server, and for that:

1. Log in to your hosting provider site, where you buy your domain. You can check your domain information with one click.

2. Access DNS Manager to edit your DNS records(contact the support team if you don’t find them)

3. Change the IP address of A Record of your website to the current server’s IP address.

Click the Create Application button.

Step 2: Create a Joomla database

The Joomla installation process takes database credentials. So to create a MySQL database for Joomla, Click on the Databases tab on the server panel.

Enter the details such as Database Name, Username, and Password in the database creation form like the image below.

Click the Create Database button.

Step 3: Auto-install the Joomla application

To install Joomla on a Fresh PHP application, go to your application panel and access the** Auto Deploy** tab from the sidebar.

Click the Joomla Auto Install card on the screen, as shown in the above image.

Select the supported PHP version in the given field and click the Install Now button.

Step 4: Install and Setup Joomla

Now access the site URL from the Application panel to install and set up Joomla CMS.

Joomla Installer

Select a language and Enter your Joomla site name.

Admin Login data

Enter the administrator credentials in the Login Data field like the below image.

Database Configuration

Enter the database credential that we have created above in step 2. Database details include-

• Database Type: Type MySQLi as it supports both procedural and object-oriented interfaces.
• Host Name: leave this field as it is if you host your database on the same server as the application.
• Database Username: Enter your created database username in step 2.
• Database Password: Enter Your database password.
• Database Name: Enter the name of your database.
• Database table Prefix: Set the Joomla database table prefix as your choice.
• Connection Encryption: Set it by default.

Click the Install Joomla button.

Delete the Installation folder

After successfully installing Joomla, deleting the Install directory is required.

To do this, access the File Manager tab from the application panel and go to the public_html directory.

Now Delete the Installation directory like the above image.

Access Joomla admin login

The next screen allows you to access your site and the admin login page.

Click the Open Administrator to access the Joomla admin panel using admin credentials.

That’s it. You can now create a blog, e-commerce, and membership sites with an easy-to-use interface.