Installing the Webserver, Webhosting and VIMP on CentOS 8

This article explains how to install the complete server software (Apache, MariaDB, php7.2, php-cli, postfix etc.) for VIMP and how to configure the webhosting.

We install Apache and PHP:

dnf update
dnf install httpd mariadb-server php php-gd php-json php-mysqlnd php-mbstring php-process php-xmlrpc php-xml libxslt 

We install postfix as MTA (Mail Transport Agent). Other MTAs like sendmail can be used, too, but please take care that it is configured to send e-mails by PHP scripts.

dnf install postfix

Apache Konfiguration:

We install VIMP into the "default"-hosting. Its configuration was created automatically with the apache installation. We need some configuration changes and use "vi" as editor. Feel free to use any other editor of your choice:

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

First we change the DocumentRoot like this:

DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/web"

And we change the corresponding block. Please don't forget to adapt the path within the Directoy tag:

# Further relax access to the default document root:
<Directory "/var/www/html/web">
    #
    # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
    # or any combination of:
    #   Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks 
    #
    # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
    # doesn't give it to you.
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    Options FollowSymLinks

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride All

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Require all granted
</Directory>

We create the new configured DocumentRoot and set owner and group:

# mkdir /var/www/html/web
# chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/

We reload the configuration later. First we have to...

Configure Firewall

We open Port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) of the firewalld:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
# And reload the firewall configuration:
# firewall-cmd --reload

PHP configuration

There's just one php.ini file that configures PHP for Apache and the CLI (cli=command line interface).

joe /etc/php.ini

Modify the following lines:

upload_max_filesize = 2047M
post_max_size = 2047M
memory_limit = 2047M
max_execution_time = 60
max_input_time = 120

Save and restart Apache.

systemctl enable httpd
systemctl enable php-fpm
systemctl enable mariadb
service mariadb start
service httpd restart
service php-fpm restart

Create database and database user:

Now log in to mysql and create VIMP database and db-user:

# mysql

MariaDB [(none)]> create database DATABASENAME default character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci;
MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on DATABASENAME.* to 'DATABASEUSER'@'localhost' identified by 'PASSWORD';
MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
MariaDB [(none)]> exit;

Install the transcoding tools

Now install the transcoding-tools like here described.

Uploading and Installing the VIMP package

Upload and installation of the VIMP installer is described here.

In case you´re using SELinux, please check this article for the SELinux configuration.

Basic usage

Now the installation is finished. Enter the URL of your portal in your web browser.

During installation three users with the corresponding user roles are created:

• "admin" (Password: "admin") as administrator
• "moderator" (Password: "moderator") as moderator
• "user" (Password: "user") as standard user

Change all passwords as soon as possible after installation. If you don't need those standard users you can delete each of them in the administration backend.