INSTALL PHYMYADMIN

Installing phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu Server

This guide assumes a working LAMP stack (Apache, MySQL, PHP) is already installed.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu Server with Apache2, MySQL, and PHP installed
• A user with sudo privileges

Installation

1. Install the packages

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sudo apt update sudo apt install -y phpmyadmin php-mbstring php-zip php-gd php-json php-curl </syntaxhighlight>

2. Answer the installer prompts

Prompt	Action
Web server to configure	Press Space to select apache2, then Tab and Enter
Configure database with dbconfig-common	Choose Yes
Password for the phpmyadmin user	Set a password, or leave blank for a random one

3. Enable mbstring and restart Apache

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sudo phpenmod mbstring sudo systemctl restart apache2 </syntaxhighlight>

phpMyAdmin is now available at http://your-server-ip/phpmyadmin.

Creating an admin user

On Ubuntu, MySQL's root account uses socket authentication, so logging in as root with a password through phpMyAdmin will fail. Create a dedicated admin user instead:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> sudo mysql </syntaxhighlight>

<syntaxhighlight lang="sql"> CREATE USER 'pmaadmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-strong-password'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'pmaadmin'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT; </syntaxhighlight>

Log in to phpMyAdmin as pmaadmin.

Security hardening

phpMyAdmin is a frequent target for bots. If the server is reachable from the internet, apply the following.

Restrict access by IP

Edit /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf and add this inside the <Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin> block:

<syntaxhighlight