Deploying Laravel in production with Apache and Let’s Encrypt

Introduction

Deploying a Laravel application in production requires a few crucial steps to ensure that your web application is secure, efficient, and scalable. Among these steps are configuring the web server, in this case, Apache, and securing your application with SSL certificates (https) provided by Let’s Encrypt.

In this tutorial, we’ll go through a step-by-step guide on how to deploy a Laravel application with Apache on a Linux server and secure it using Let’s Encrypt. We will cover everything from uploading your Laravel application to configuring virtual hosts in Apache and setting up encrypted communication with SSL certificates.

Prerequisites

• A Laravel application is ready to be deployed.
• Basic knowledge of SSH.
• A Linux server (Ubuntu or Centos is recommended) with Apache installed.
• Access to your server with root privileges.
• A domain name configured to point to your server’s public IP address.

Deployment Flow

Step 1: Upload Your Laravel Application

Use an SSLH client (OpenSSH, PuTTY, MacOS built-in terminal, etc) and:

1. Connect to your server using SSH (with password authentication or non-password authentication) :

   ssh [email protected]

2. Navigate to the ‘/var/www’ directory:

   cd /var/www

3. Upload your Laravel application using SCP or your preferred method:

Make sure the owner of the ‘/var/www/your-laravel-app’ is the web server user, commonly ‘www-data’ for Apache on Ubuntu/Debian systems:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/your-laravel-app

Step 2: Configure Apache Virtual Host for Laravel

Create a new configuration file for your application:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/your-laravel-app.conf

Insert the following virtual host configuration, making sure to replace ‘your-domain.com’ with your actual domain:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName your-domain.com
    ServerAlias www.your-domain.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/your-laravel-app/public

    <Directory /var/www/your-laravel-app/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the new site and rewrite module:

sudo a2ensite your-laravel-app
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 3: Install Let’s Encrypt and Obtain SSL Certificates

Install the Certbot tool and Apache plugin:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache

Run Certbot to obtain an SSL certificate:

sudo certbot --apache -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com

Follow the prompt and choose the option to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS to secure your site.

Certbot will automatically renew the SSL certificates before they expire, ensuring that your site remains secure.

Step 4: Laravel Configuration and Optimization

Configure your .env file with the correct database settings and other environment variables:

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_KEY=SomeRandomString

Optimize your Laravel application for production:

php artisan optimize
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Make sure to set the proper permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/your-laravel-app
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/your-laravel-app
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/your-laravel-app/storage
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/your-laravel-app/bootstrap/cache

Advanced Configuration

If you need more complex configurations such as load balancing, reverse proxy configuration, or additional security measures, here are some snippets:

For setting up a reverse proxy with Apache:

<IfModule mod_proxy.c>
    <Proxy *>
        Require all granted
    </Proxy>
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8000/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8000/
</IfModule>

To add additional headers for security:

Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff

Enable these headers using:

sudo a2enmod headers
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Conclusion

You have successfully deployed and secured your Laravel application with Apache and Let’s Encrypt. Your application is now running on a production server with an SSL certificate, ensuring that all communications are encrypted and secure.