phpMyAdmin Installation on Ubuntu for Easy MySQL Management (Part 3)

phpMyAdmin is a popular web-based database management tool for MySQL and MariaDB. Below is a detailed guide to installing and configuring phpMyAdmin on a Linux server.

This is the third article in the series on setting up web hosting on Google Cloud (GCP) for free.
You can find the first article here and the second article here.

Step 1: Install phpMyAdmin

To begin, run the following command to install phpMyAdmin:

sudo apt install phpmyadmin

During the installation process, you will encounter two prompts:

1. Server Selection Prompt: Do not select any web server; simply press OK to proceed.
2. Password Prompt: Provide your MySQL root password. This will allow phpMyAdmin to connect to your MySQL server and create the required database.

Step 2: Resolve Installation Errors (Optional)

If you encounter an error due to the validate_password component, follow these steps:

1. Abort the Installation: If the installation fails, cancel it.
2. Log into MySQL: mysql -u root -p
3. Uninstall the validate_password Component: UNINSTALL COMPONENT 'file://component_validate_password';
4. Exit MySQL and Reinstall phpMyAdmin:
   • exit
   • sudo apt install phpmyadmin
   This time, the installation should complete successfully.
5. Re-enable the validate_password Component (Optional): If needed, you can re-enable it using: INSTALL COMPONENT 'file://component_validate_password';

Step 3: Create a Symbolic Link

To make phpMyAdmin accessible from your default web directory, create a symbolic link:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/html/phpmyadmin

Step 4: Access phpMyAdmin

You can now access phpMyAdmin by navigating to the following URL in your browser:

http://<server_ip>/phpmyadmin

Log in using the following credentials:

• Username: root
• Password: The root password you set earlier for your MySQL account.

Step 5: Configure a Server Block for phpMyAdmin

To make phpMyAdmin accessible through a custom domain or subdomain:

1. Add a DNS Record: In your domain’s DNS management, create an A record pointing to your server’s IP address. Use database as the subdomain (e.g., database.example.com).
2. Create an Nginx Configuration File:
   
   
   • Open a new configuration file for your domain:
     sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/<domain_name>.conf
   
   
   • Paste the following code into the file:
     server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name database.<domain_name>; root /var/www/html/phpmyadmin/; index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html; access_log /var/log/nginx/phpmyadmin_access.log; error_log /var/log/nginx/phpmyadmin_error.log; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php; } location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; include fastcgi_params; include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf; } location ~ /\.ht { deny all; } }
   
   
   • Replace <domain_name> with your domain name, e.g., example.com.
3. Enable the Configuration and Restart Nginx: Run the following commands to enable your configuration, test for errors, and restart Nginx: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/<domain_name>.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo nginx -t sudo systemctl restart nginx

If these commands run successfully, you can now access phpMyAdmin using:

http://database.<domain_name>

Conclusion

You have successfully installed and configured phpMyAdmin for managing your databases. In the next tutorial, we will cover securing your server and applications with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.