How to install SilverStripe CMS on Ubuntu 16.04

In this guide we will teach you how to install SilverStripe on an Ubuntu 16.04 VPS with the Apache web-server and a MySQL database.
SilverStripe is a popular and commonly used open source CMS. It uses the SilverSTripe framework (before it was the Sapphire framework). Because of the framework, developers are able to customize and extend the CMS and make it their own.
With SilverStripe you may create websites and applications with ease. It has all the features you require in a CMS. SilverStripe is a popular option when somebody needs something different than WordPress. It s quite simple to install on an Ubuntu 16.04 VPS. The installation procedure should take no more than 10 m inutes if you do the steps below.

Prerequisites

When this guide was made, SilverStripe 3.6.1 is the latest stable version available and it needs:
– Apache web server;
– PHP (5.3.3+, <7.2) along with the mbstring, curl, zip, bcmath, xml, tidy, gd and mcrypt extensions. They are most generally active by default on a standard php installation.
– MySQL(version 5.0 or higher) installed on your Linux VPS;
To begin, login to your Ubuntu 16.04 VPS via SSH as user root by executing the command below:

ssh root@IP_address

For the first session, it is recommended to initiate a screen session by running the command below:

screen -U -S sstripe

Let’s update the system with the command below:

apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade

Ensure that your server is always up to date.

Installing MariaDB 10.0

In order to have MariaDB installed, execute the command below:

apt-get install -y mariadb-server

Now, we have to create a database for our Silverstripe installation.

mysql -uroot -p

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE sstripe;
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON sstripe.* TO 'sstripe'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your-password';
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB [(none)]> \q

Reminder to swap ‘your-password’ with a strong password.

Installing Apache2 web server

In order to install the Apache2 web server, we will need to execute the command below:

[user]$ sudo apt-get install apache2

Install PHP and the needed PHP modules.

To install the latest stable version of PHP version 7 and every module required, execute the following:

[user]$ sudo apt-get install php7.0 libapache2-mod-php7.0 php7.0-mbstring php7.0-curl php7.0-zip php7.0-gd php7.0-mysql php7.0-mcrypt php7.0-bcmath php7.0-xml php7.0-json php7.0-tidy

Enable the Apache2 rewrite module if it isn’t done already:
For the new configuration to activate we will have to restart the Apache web server using the command below:

[user]$ sudo service apache2 restart

Download and Install SilverStripe

Download and extract the latest version of SilverStripe on the server by using the following:

[user]$ sudo cd /opt && wget https://silverstripe-ssorg-releases.s3.amazonaws.com/sssites-ssorg-prod/assets/releases/SilverStripe-cms-v3.6.1.zip
[user]$ sudo unzip SilverStripe-cms-v3.6.1.zip -d sstripe
[user]$ sudo mv sstripe/ /var/www/html/sstripe

Every file has to be readable by the web server, so we have to set proper ownership

[user]$ sudo chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/html/sstripe/

Create a new virtual host directive in Apache. For example, make a new Apache configuration file called ‘sstripe.conf’ on your virtual server:

[user]$ sudo touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/sstripe.conf
[user]$ sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/sstripe.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/sstripe.conf
[user]$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/sstripe.conf

Now append the lines below:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/sstripe/
ServerName your-domain.com
ServerAlias www.your-domain.com
<Directory /var/www/html/sstripe/>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-error_log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>

Let’s restart the apache web server so the changes take effect:

[user]$ sudo service apache2 restart

Use your web browser of choice, then point it to http://your-domain.com/ and if you configured everything as needed, the SilverStripe installer will be initiating. Simply follow the steps on the install screen and provide the information necessary.
This is all, SilverStripe should now be finished.