Deploying phpBB on Ubuntu 22.04
phpBB is an open-source forum application for building discussion communities — user registration, moderation, permissions, and multiple boards in one interface. This guide deploys phpBB on Ubuntu 22.04 with an external MySQL database, an Apache virtual host, and Let's Encrypt TLS. Prerequisites: an Ubuntu 22.04 server with the LAMP stack installed, non-root sudo user, an external MySQL database, a subdomain A record (e.g. phpbb.example.com ). Create the Database $ mysql -h your-db-host -P 3306 -u dbadmin -p mysql > CREATE DATABASE phpbbdb ; mysql > USE phpbbdb ; mysql > CREATE USER 'phpbbuser' @ 'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'securepassword' ; mysql > GRANT ALL ON phpbbdb . * to 'phpbbuser' @ 'localhost' ; mysql > FLUSH PRIVILEGES ; mysql > EXIT ; Install phpBB 1. Install PHP modules: $ sudo apt install php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring -y 2. Download and extract — check the releases page for the current version: $ wget -O phpbb.zip https://download.phpbb.com/pub/release/3.3/3.3.11/phpBB-3.3.11.zip $ unzip phpbb.zip $ sudo mv phpBB3 /var/www/html/phpbb 3. Set ownership and permissions: $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/phpbb $ sudo find /var/www/html/phpbb -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \; $ sudo find /var/www/html/phpbb -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \; Configure Apache $ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/phpbb.conf < VirtualHost *:80 > ServerAdmin admin@example.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/phpbb ServerName phpbb.example.com < Directory /var/www/html/phpbb > Options FollowSymlinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </ Directory > ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/phpbb_error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/phpbb_access.log combined </ VirtualHost > $ sudo a2ensite phpbb $ sudo a2enmod rewrite $ sudo systemctl restart apache2 Secure phpBB 1. Firewall: $ sudo ufw status $ sudo ufw allow 22 && sudo ufw enable $ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp $ sudo ufw allow 443/tcp $ sudo ufw reload 2. TLS via Let's Encrypt: $ sudo apt install snapd -y $ sudo snap install --classic certbot