Prepare the environment

Create the users

We need to create suitable groups and users to run the different services to avoid the security issues inherent in running them as "root"
groupadd www     #Add a group for the apache server if one doesn't already exist.
useradd -g www apache2     #Add an Apache server account
groupadd mysql     #Add a group for the mysql server if one doesn't already exist.
useradd -g mysql mysql     #Add the MySQL server account

Download the source files

I prefer to download directly from the vendors, and the latest versions.
MySQL has a commercial version as well as the GPL version, "so pick wisely". Remember to check the download using the checksums povided.
MySQL "MySQL Community Server" is the free version. Version 5.0.86 is the release I use.
Apache2 Version 2.2.14 is the release I use.
PHP Version 5.3.1 is the release I use.

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Install MySQL

Installation

Extract the files from the download.
tar -xzf mysql-5.0.86.tar.gz     #Creates a source directory
cd mysql-5.0.86/     #Change to the new directory

Now we`ve got to configure the compile, compile and install the software.
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql-5.0.86 --with-charset=utf8 --with-collation=utf8_general_ci
# This tells the compiler where we want it installed --prefix=/usr/local/mysql-5.0.86   We are using the full name of the version for the install. Later we will link to it using a "soft link", this is because MySQL expects its software to be installed in /usr/local/mysql.
# and configures it with a default charset of utf-8 and default collation of utf8_general_ci. Discussions of charsets and collation are outside the scope of these instructions. Suffice it to say this default configuration works, for a basic server.
# There are many options that can be specified, so try ./configure --help to show them all.

Now we compile and install.
make     #Compile - be patient, this may take some time. Go away, make a coffee, take a bath, grow a tree...
Don`t worry what it all means, just keep an eye open for any error messages when it stops
make install     #Installs the software into the specified location

If you`re really curious about the output, you can redirect all output to a file using
> /tmp/outputfile 2>&1 and peruse it at your leisure, but the output from my "make" exceeded 1MB so it is rather large (and boring).

Configuration

MySQL is basically now installed, but we have to configure it, and get it running.

Create a symbolic link to the software ln -s /usr/local/mysql-version /usr/local/mysql

To get it up and running we first create an administration database (where mysql will store details about its databases and privileges)
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql     # This is a script supplied with the distribution to create this initial database.

Now we`re ready to start the server for the first time /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe &
The "safe" mode will restart the daemon if it crashes, and the ampersand (&) runs it in the background

But you`ll probably want it to start automatically at machine startup

• Create a config file. This is /etc/my.cnf

  Fortunately, a template is provided for us with the distribution
  cp /usr/local/src/mysql-5.0.86/support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf
  There are several templates to choose from, read the comments at the top of each one, and pick the one that is most suitable for your server. "small" or "medium" will normally suffice.

  Change the ownership of the file chown root:root /etc/my.cnf, then edit it in whatever way you want, and insert user = mysql immediately below the line that says [mysqld]

• Copy the startup script into /etc/init.d
  

  Again this is provided
  cp /usr/local/src/mysql-5.0.86/support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql
  Then change the ownership chown root:root /etc/init.d/mysql
  and make it executable chmod 700 /etc/init.d/mysql

• Set the system to start it automatically at boot

  chkconfig --add mysql

You may want to add the path for the mysql binary to you $PATH

A few post-installation tasks

Let`s first secure the server
Log on to the server as root (usr/local/mysql/bin/) mysql -u root -p, Initially there is no password set, so just press "enter". This is one of the things we are going to fix, unless you want to risk anybody messing up your databases

At the mysql prompt mysql> SELECT user, host FROM mysql.user;     # mysql is not case sensitive with its syntax, but it is with items in databases

This will return something like:

 
              +------+-----------+
	      | user | host      |
	      +------+-----------+
	      | root | 127.0.0.1 | 
	      |      | server    | 
	      | root | server    | 
	      |      | localhost | 
	      | root | localhost | 
	      +------+-----------+
	

The first thing we need to do is remove the "guest" users
mysql> DELETE FROM mysql.user WHERE user="";

Now we`ll set the password for the "root" user
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'127.0.0.1'=PASSWORD('newpassword');     # newpassword is the password you want to set
Then we need to repeat this for the other 2 "root" users. MySQL treats each as separate entities.
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'server'=PASSWORD('newpassword');
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost'=PASSWORD('newpassword');
mysql> quit     # Will get you out of mysql

And that's it, all ready to go. While you can use MySQL now, it's much more fun with a webserver running PHP, So now it starts to get interesting...

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Install the Apache web server

Installation

The process is basically the same as for the MySQL install, so I won`t repeat myself too much.

tar -xzf http-2.2.14.tar.gz     #Creates a source directory
cd http-2.2.14/

One really useful feature, is the "Layout" feature. Basically, you can use a layout that matches your system, or customize a layout. This has the advantage that most of the configuration work will be done for you. In the installation directory is a file called config.layout. This file has predefined layouts for most Linux systems, but I use one of these to produce a "custom" layout, that fits my requirements. I use this to set the path for the web documents, logs, installation files etc. E.g.

	  #   Custom layout
	  <Layout Custom>
	    prefix:        /usr/local/apache2		# The installation directory
	    exec_prefix:   ${prefix}
	    bindir:        ${prefix}/bin
	    sbindir:       ${prefix}/sbin
	    libdir:        ${prefix}/lib
	    libexecdir:    ${prefix}/lib/apache
	    mandir:        ${prefix}/share/man
	    sysconfdir:    /etc/httpd			# The path to the configuration file
	    datadir:       /srv/www			# The path to the web files
	    installbuilddir: ${datadir}/build
	    errordir:      ${logfiledir}/error
	    iconsdir:      ${datadir}/icons
	    htdocsdir:     ${datadir}/htdocs
	    manualdir:     ${datadir}/manual
	    cgidir:        ${datadir}/cgi-bin
	    includedir:    ${prefix}/include/apache
	    localstatedir: /var/lib/httpd
	    runtimedir:    /var/run
	    logfiledir:    /var/log/httpd		# The path to the log files
	    proxycachedir: /var/cache/httpd
	  </Layout>
	 

The comments are just for clarification and were omitted from the file during the "configure".

./configure --enable-so --with-included-apr --enable-layout=Custom
make     #This seems to be a lot quicker than the MySQL compile, or maybe I'm just becoming more tolerant?
make install

Initial configuration

At this point you can configure the web server to run, although I will have to change this after PHP has been installed. Here I will just perform sufficient to check the server works, and prepare it for automatic startup at server boot.

The configuration file will have the changes from the "Layout" already included, but you still need to make a few changes. The config file used by the server is /etc/httpd/httpd.conf. How you make them is up to you.
Find the lines that start with the following User and Group, and change them to the user and group created earlier
User apache2
Group www

ServerAdmin add your own email address

This server is a development server, so I am not overly concerned with Security, therefore I remove a good chunk of it by changing the entry for the "directory" directive.
Find the lines that starts with <Directory>, and amend them to
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
By removing the last 2 lines

Now all we need to do is start the server, for which we use /usr/local/apache2/sbin/apachectl, with start, stop or restart as the parameter.
/usr/local/apache2/sbin/apachectl start     # And off you go.
Check it using ps -ef|grep http     # This should show multiple processes, 1 owned by root and the rest owned by your apache2 user.

To make the webserver start automatically at boot
Copy apachectl to /etc/init.d cp /usr/local/apache2/sbin/apachectl /etc/init.d
Then chkconfig --add apachectl to add it to the startup.

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Install PHP

Installation

The process is basically the same as for the previous installs.

tar -xjf php-5.3.1.tar.bz2
cd php-5.3.1/
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/sbin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysqli=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config --with-pear=/usr/local/php/lib/php
There are many options that can be installed in PHP, use ./configure --help to see them all, but I have chosen the ones that are most relevant to LAMP. I.e. Apache and MySQL. PEAR is a repository of re-useable code written by others that you may find useful
make
make install

Update the Apache configuration

PHP runs as part of the Apache web server, so we have to change the webserver to use PHP. Hopefully the installation will have made some of the changes for you, but you need to check
Check /etc/httpd/httpd.conf for the following (and add them if they`re missing):
LoadModule php5_module       lib/apache/libphp5.so
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
You may also want to update your DirectoryIndex to put PHP first
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

PHP also has a configuration file. Fortunately default files are provided. It is up to you which you choose but in the source directory you have 2 options php.ini-development or php.ini-production. Read the comments at the top of each file, and pick which one you want, then copy it to the lib directory of the installation.
E.g.cp php.ini-development /usr/local/php/lib/php.ini

Then all you need to do is restart the webserver /etc/init.d/apachectl restart

Test PHP is working

Create a file in your website home directory and add the following:
<?php
  phpinfo();
?>
Then point your web browser at it   http://localhost/test.php
This should show a web page detailing the PHP installation. If it doesn`t, recheck the configuration changes above.

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