How to host Joomla on Digitalocean Droplet - ServerAvatar

Create Server in Digitalocean

Digitalocean is one of the most popular cloud platform right now. It offers on-demand cloud computing for various use cases as well as some managed solutions. We can deploy any PHP based applications on Digitalocean Droplets. Droplets are the servers or cloud computing instances in Digitalocean. If you want to learn everything about droplet management in Digitalocean in-depth, We recommend you to read our Digitalocean guide.

To deploy any application on Digitalocean, We first need a Droplet. So, we will first create a droplet and perform the initial set up.

Step 1: Go to the Create Droplets page.

Log in to your Digitalocean account and click on the Create button given on the top-right corner of the page. From the drop down menu, click on the Droplets option to see a droplet creation form.

Step 2: Choose Region

On the Droplet creation page, You will see lots of sections to select lots of things. We will go step by step.

The first thing you have to do is select the region for your droplet. Digitalocean provides lots of options when it comes to selecting the location. The general rule is to select the region that is closest to your audience. It means that for majority of your audience, Your sites will load faster due to lower latency.

Step 3: Choose an Image or an OS

In this step, you have to select the operating system for your droplet. We recommend you to use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS x64 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS x64. Ubuntu is easy to configure and manage. If you are using ServerAvatar to manage your droplets, These operating systems are requirement.

Step 4: Choose the size of the Droplet

Here you have to choose the size of your Droplet. As we mentioned above, Digitalocean provides many different types of droplets. Select the one that fits best for your project.

If your site is brand new and does not have much traffic, start with a small plan. Once the project starts getting traction, you can upgrade the plan to handle more visitors on the site.

Step 5: Choose Authentication Method

Now you have to select the authentication method. There are two types of authentication methods. They are:

1. Authentication via SSH Keys
2. Authentication via Password

If you are using SSH keys for authentication, It is the best option. If you do not know what is SSH keys, You can go with the password method. Make sure to set the strong password for your root user, which is the most powerful user with all the privileges on Linux OS.

Step 6: Selecting Additional Options

There are three additional options you can choose. They are optional but important in different use cases. The additional options are:

1. Monitoring: It is a free feature by Digitalocean. It allows you to see additional monitoring data for your server.
2. Backups: We recommend you to enable full server backups if you are going to deploy in production environment. The cost of the backups depends on the size of the droplet.
3. Managed Database: You do not need a Managed database if you are using ServerAvatar to manage sites on a droplet. A managed database is a pre-configured MySQL Droplet.

Step 7: Finalise Details

In the last step of this process, We have to enter the name of the droplet, number of droplets you want to create, Define any tags, and select the project. Enter all the details and click on the Create Droplet button to create a droplet.

In a few minutes, You will have the Droplet up and running. Now, We have to perform the initial configuration on the Droplet to host PHP based frameworks and software.

Initial Server Configuration

Right now, the Droplet just has an operating system. To host a PHP based site on a droplet, We have to install and configure Apache, PHP, MySQL and other services on the droplet. There are two ways to do it.

1. Manual Server Configuration: In this case, You have to manually install and configure services on the server using command-line interface. Basically, writing commands, correct commands. You also have to deal with more configuration files and commands to install SSL and add new site on the droplet. If you know what you are doing, You can manually configure your droplet.
2. Automatic Server Configuration: If you do not want to deal with terminal, commands and configuration files, Use Automatic server configuration with ServerAvatar. This method is fast, it only takes 6-8 minutes for full server configuration. After the droplet is ready to host sites, You also get easy-to-use interface to click and perform tasks on your droplet as well as manage more droplets or servers.

Automatic Server Configuration with ServerAvatar

If you have never used ServerAvatar before, The first month of management is totally free. No CC info required.

It is very easy to install ServerAvatar and configure the optimised LAMP(Apache), LEMP(Nginx) or OLS stack on your droplet. Just connect with your droplet with SSH as a "root" user and execute the following commands to start server inspection.

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

You will get an option to select the web browser for your droplet. You can select from Apache, Nginx or OpenLiteSpeed.

Once the installation is started, You will see a link in the terminal to claim server panel for your server in ServerAvatar. Follow the link to see the installation status in detail and the server panel to manage your sites on the droplet.

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 Joomla database

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 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 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.