Complete LNMP Guide: Deploy WordPress and Forums Step‑by‑Step

What is LNMP?

LNMP = Linux + Nginx + MySQL + PHP. Compared with LAMP (Apache), Nginx uses an event‑driven architecture, delivering 2‑3× higher throughput, >50% lower memory usage, native reverse‑proxy and load‑balancing, and faster static‑file handling.

System preparation

CPU: 2 cores (4 cores recommended)

Memory: 2 GB (4 GB recommended)

Disk: 40 GB SSD

OS: CentOS 7/8/9 or Ubuntu 20.04/22.04

yum update -y</code>
<code>apt update && apt upgrade -y</code>
<code>setenforce 0</code>
<code>sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/' /etc/selinux/config</code>
<code>firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=http --permanent</code>
<code>firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=https --permanent</code>
<code>firewall-cmd --reload

Install Nginx

CentOS

yum install epel-release -y</code>
<code>yum install nginx -y</code>
<code>systemctl start nginx</code>
<code>systemctl enable nginx</code>
<code>nginx -v

Ubuntu

apt install nginx -y</code>
<code>systemctl start nginx</code>
<code>systemctl enable nginx</code>
<code>nginx -v

Visit the server IP; the Nginx welcome page confirms a successful install.

Install MySQL

CentOS (MySQL 8.0)

wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql80-community-release-el9-3.noarch.rpm</code>
<code>rpm -ivh mysql80-community-release-el9-3.noarch.rpm</code>
<code>yum install mysql-community-server -y</code>
<code>systemctl start mysqld</code>
<code>systemctl enable mysqld

Ubuntu

apt install mysql-server -y</code>
<code>systemctl start mysql</code>
<code>systemctl enable mysql

Run mysql_secure_installation to set the root password, remove anonymous users, disable remote root login, delete the test database and reload privileges.

Install PHP (WordPress‑compatible)

CentOS (PHP 8.2)

yum install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm -y</code>
<code>yum module enable php:remi-8.2 -y</code>
<code>yum install php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-gd php-xml php-mbstring php-json php-zip php-curl php-intl php-bcmath php-opcache -y</code>
<code>systemctl start php-fpm</code>
<code>systemctl enable php-fpm</code>
<code>php -v

Ubuntu (PHP 8.2)

add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y</code>
<code>apt update</code>
<code>apt install php8.2 php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql php8.2-gd php8.2-xml php8.2-mbstring php8.2-zip php8.2-curl php8.2-intl php8.2-bcmath -y</code>
<code>systemctl start php8.2-fpm</code>
<code>systemctl enable php8.2-fpm

Configure Nginx to serve PHP

vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf</code>
<code>server {</code>
<code>    listen 80;</code>
<code>    server_name localhost;</code>
<code>    root /usr/share/nginx/html;</code>
<code>    index index.php index.html index.htm;</code>
<code>    location / {</code>
<code>        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;</code>
<code>    }</code>
<code>    location ~ \.php$ {</code>
<code>        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/www.sock;  # CentOS</code>
<code>        # fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;  # Ubuntu</code>
<code>        fastcgi_index index.php;</code>
<code>        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;</code>
<code>        include fastcgi_params;</code>
<code>    }</code>
<code>}</code>
<code>nginx -t</code>
<code>systemctl reload nginx

Test PHP

echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' > /usr/share/nginx/html/phpinfo.php</code>
<code># Browse to http://<em>server_ip</em>/phpinfo.php

If the PHP information page appears, PHP‑FPM is correctly configured.

WordPress installation

Create database and user

mysql -u root -p</code>
<code>CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;</code>
<code>CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_strong_password';</code>
<code>GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';</code>
<code>FLUSH PRIVILEGES;</code>
<code>EXIT;

Download and deploy WordPress

wget https://cn.wordpress.org/latest-zh_CN.tar.gz</code>
<code>tar xzf latest-zh_CN.tar.gz</code>
<code>mv wordpress/* /usr/share/nginx/html/</code>
<code>chown -R nginx:nginx /usr/share/nginx/html/   # CentOS</code>
<code># chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/nginx/html/   # Ubuntu</code>
<code>chmod -R 755 /usr/share/nginx/html/</code>
<code>chmod -R 644 /usr/share/nginx/html/wp-content/

Configure wp-config.php

cd /usr/share/nginx/html/</code>
<code>cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php</code>
<code>vim wp-config.php</code>
<code>define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');</code>
<code>define('DB_USER', 'wpuser');</code>
<code>define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_strong_password');</code>
<code>define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');</code>
<code>define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4');</code>
<code># Replace SALT placeholders with values from https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/

Complete the web‑based wizard at http://your_domain_or_ip to set site title, admin credentials, etc.

WordPress plugin installation (WP‑CLI)

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar</code>
<code>chmod +x wp-cli.phar</code>
<code>mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp</code>
<code>cd /usr/share/nginx/html/</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install wordfence --activate</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install seo-by-rank-math --activate</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install wp-super-cache --activate</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install updraftplus --activate</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install wp-smushit --activate</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install contact-form-7 --activate</code>
<code>sudo -u nginx wp plugin install classic-editor --activate

WordPress security hardening

Hide WordPress version

# Add to theme's functions.php</code>
<code>remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

Protect wp-config.php

chmod 600 wp-config.php</code>
<code># Nginx block</code>
<code>location = /wp-config.php { deny all; }

Disable directory listing

autoindex off;

Block XML‑RPC

location = /xmlrpc.php { deny all; access_log off; log_not_found off; }

Enable HTTPS

Obtain a Let’s Encrypt certificate and configure SSL in Nginx.

Forum systems deployment

phpBB (classic PHP forum)

# Database</code>
<code>mysql -u root -p</code>
<code>CREATE DATABASE phpbb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;</code>
<code>CREATE USER 'phpbbuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';</code>
<code>GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON phpbb.* TO 'phpbbuser'@'localhost';</code>
<code>FLUSH PRIVILEGES;</code>
<code>EXIT;</code>
<code># Download and extract</code>
<code>wget https://download.phpbb.com/pub/release/3.3/3.3.11/phpBB-3.3.11.zip</code>
<code>unzip phpBB-3.3.11.zip</code>
<code>mv phpBB3 /usr/share/nginx/html/phpbb</code>
<code>chown -R nginx:nginx /usr/share/nginx/html/phpbb/</code>
<code>chmod 755 /usr/share/nginx/html/phpbb/cache/</code>
<code># Access http://your_domain/phpbb/install to finish setup (1 CPU + 2 GB RAM sufficient)

Flarum (modern lightweight forum)

# Install Composer</code>
<code>php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"</code>
<code>php composer-setup.php</code>
<code>mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer</code>
<code># Create directory and install</code>
<code>mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/html/forum</code>
<code>cd /usr/share/nginx/html/forum</code>
<code>composer create-project flarum/flarum . --stability=beta</code>
<code>chown -R nginx:nginx /usr/share/nginx/html/forum/</code>
<code>chmod -R 755 /usr/share/nginx/html/forum/</code>
<code># Nginx URL rewrite (add to server block)</code>
<code>location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string; }</code>
<code># Visit http://your_domain/forum to complete installation (ensure php‑fileinfo extension is present)

Discourse (resource‑heavy Ruby on Rails forum, Docker‑based)

# Install Docker</code>
<code>curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh</code>
<code>sh get-docker.sh</code>
<code>systemctl start docker && systemctl enable docker</code>
<code># Install Git</code>
<code>yum install git -y   # CentOS</code>
<code>apt install git -y   # Ubuntu</code>
<code># Clone Discourse Docker repo</code>
<code>mkdir -p /var/discourse</code>
<code>git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker.git /var/discourse</code>
<code>cd /var/discourse</code>
<code># Run setup wizard</code>
<code>./discourse-setup</code>
<code># Provide domain, admin email, SMTP, and Let’s Encrypt details as prompted</code>
<code># Installation takes 10‑30 minutes depending on hardware

Selection guidance

Limited budget, few users, stability needed → phpBB

Modern UI, moderate traffic → Flarum

Ample budget, large community, best experience → Discourse

Performance tuning

PHP tuning (php.ini)

memory_limit = 256M</code>
<code>upload_max_filesize = 64M</code>
<code>post_max_size = 64M</code>
<code>max_execution_time = 180</code>
<code>max_input_time = 180</code>
<code>opcache.enable = 1</code>
<code>opcache.memory_consumption = 128</code>
<code>opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 8</code>
<code>opcache.max_accelerated_files = 10000</code>
<code>opcache.revalidate_freq = 2

Nginx tuning (nginx.conf)

worker_processes auto;</code>
<code>events { worker_connections 10240; use epoll; multi_accept on; }</code>
<code>gzip on;</code>
<code>gzip_vary on;</code>
<code>gzip_min_length 1024;</code>
<code>gzip_types text/plain text/css text/xml application/json application/javascript application/xml+rss;</code>
<code>location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ { expires 30d; add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable"; }

MySQL tuning (my.cnf or mysqld.cnf)

[mysqld]</code>
<code>innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1G   # 50‑70% of RAM</code>
<code>innodb_log_file_size = 256M</code>
<code>innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2</code>
<code>query_cache_size = 64M</code>
<code>query_cache_limit = 2M</code>
<code>max_connections = 200</code>
<code>key_buffer_size = 64M