How to install Magento in a VPS server

Download and Install Magento

In this step, you will install Magento using Composer, configure the PHP runtime for both the web server and the command line, and set file permissions required for successful deployment and operation.

1. Install prerequisite tools

Install utilities required to fetch dependencies and manage archives:

2. Add the PHP repository

Ubuntu’s default repositories do not include the PHP versions or extensions required by Magento. This third-party PPA provides actively maintained PHP packages:

Then update:

3. Install PHP 8.2 CLI and required extensions

Magento’s installation and maintenance commands are executed via CLI. The following extensions enable functionality such as image processing, SOAP APIs, and internationalization:

This ensures the CLI environment matches the runtime requirements of the application.

4. Point the system’s PHP to version 8.2

Multiple PHP versions may exist on the system. Magento’s installation and maintenance commands (such as bin/magento setup:install or setup:upgrade) rely on the CLI version, not the web server handler.

Register PHP 8.2 as an available alternative for the php command:

Select the active PHP version interactively:

When prompted, choose the entry corresponding to PHP 8.2.

Verify that PHP 8.2 is now the system default for all CLI operations:

Confirm that the web server user (www-data) also invokes PHP 8.2 correctly:

Both must report PHP 8.2.

5. Configure Composer authentication

Magento requires valid Marketplace access keys to download its packages. Obtain keys from:

https://marketplace.magento.com/customer/accessKeys/

Configure Composer for the web server user:

Without authentication, Composer cannot retrieve Magento source packages.

6. Prepare the Web Root and Composer Cache

Before installing Magento, ensure the web root exists and that the web server user (www-data) owns it.

This prevents file ownership conflicts during installation, static deployment, or upgrades.

Create the Magento application directory:

Assign ownership to the web server user:

Apply safe directory permissions so the owner can write, and others can read or execute:

Composer requires a writable cache directory to store package metadata and dependencies.

Without it, installation may fail with “permission denied” or “cache directory not writable” errors.

Create a dedicated Composer cache directory:

Set ownership:

At this point, both directories (/var/www/magento and /var/www/.cache/composer) are ready for a smooth Magento installation.

7. Download the Magento Project

It’s best practice to navigate into the web root before running Composer. Installing into the current directory avoids errors where Composer tries to delete or recreate an existing folder.

Change into the Magento directory:

Download Magento’s source code and dependencies from the official repository:

The download process may take several minutes, depending on your server’s CPU and network performance.

8. Apply Correct File Permissions

Magento needs specific permissions to generate code, static assets, and media files. Improper permissions are one of the most common causes of errors during deployment.

First, ensure all files belong to the web server user:

Next, set appropriate file permissions:

and directory permissions:

Finally, apply Access Control Lists (ACLs) to ensure new files inherit the correct permissions automatically:

These permissions ensure Magento can write to the required directories during upgrades, deployments, and cache regeneration.

9. Verify Magento CLI Installation

Confirm that the Magento command-line interface is correctly installed and functional.

Move into the Magento project directory, if not there already:

Check the Magento CLI version using the web server user:

Expected output:

A successful version response indicates that Composer dependencies were installed correctly and that PHP CLI is properly configured for Magento.

Configure Magento

With Magento downloaded, the next step is to initialize the database, create an admin user, and generate the configuration files.

1. Navigate to the Magento root directory

All Magento CLI commands must run from the Magento root:

2. Create required directories if they don’t exist

This ensures Magento has all the folders it needs to function and prevents 500 errors:

3. Set correct ownership

Assign ownership to the user your web server or PHP processes run as (www-data for Apache/Nginx, nobody for LiteSpeed):

Replace www-data with nobody if using LiteSpeed child processes running as nobody.

4. Set correct permissions

Directories need to be writable; files need to be readable/writable:

5. Run the setup command in one line

Run Magento’s setup command in one line to avoid line continuation issues (\) in Bash:

• If you have a domain:

• If you are using a VPS without a domain:

Explanation of key options:

• --base-url → your site URL (IP + port if no domain)
• --db-* → database credentials you created earlier
• --admin-* → admin account for logging in
• --language, --currency, --timezone → store defaults
• --use-rewrites=1 → enables URL rewrites for SEO-friendly URLs

Running it in one line avoids line continuation errors.

6. Deploy static content

Generates CSS, JS, and other static assets to avoid 404 errors:

7. Clear Magento caches

Ensures no stale cache causes errors:

8. Verify the Admin URL

After installation, check the Magento admin URI using the CLI:

Example output:

This means your admin panel is accessible at:

or, if you have a domain:

Visiting this URL in a browser should load the Magento admin login page.

You should see a login form like in the screenprompting for the admin username and password you set during setup.

Enable and Configure LiteSpeed Cache for Magento

LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) is built into OpenLiteSpeed and provides full-page caching for Magento.

Although the cache module is loaded by default, it is often disabled at the server and virtual host levels, which prevents Magento from benefiting from LSCache.

This step ensures LSCache is properly activated and ready for Magento.

1. Enable LSCache globally

In the WebAdmin console, navigate to: Server Configuration → Modules

You should see a module named cache, scroll through the parameters and find:

Change these values to:

Then Save and perform a Graceful Restart.

2. Enable LSCache for your Magento Virtual Host

Go to: Virtual Hosts → magento → Modules

You will see a section titled Module Configuration, click Add, you will see a dropdown labeled Module *, select cache.

1. Set Enable Module to Yes.
2. Click Save.
3. Perform a Graceful Restart.

Note: This step is required even if LSCache is enabled globally. OpenLiteSpeed requires you to allow caching per Virtual Host for it to take effect.

3. Configure Magento for caching

Now that LSCache is enabled in LiteSpeed, let’s ensure Magento's caches are enabled and cleared. Run the following commands from your Magento root directory:

Navigate to the Magento root directory

Enable all Magento caches

Flush existing caches

4. Verify caching is working

1. Open your Magento admin panel → System → Cache Management
2. Ensure all cache types (Configuration, Page Cache, Layout, etc.) are enabled.

Conclusion

Congratulations! Your Magento store is now fully installed, running on OpenLiteSpeed with PHP 8.2, MariaDB 11.4, Elasticsearch 8.x, and fully configured LiteSpeed Cache. With this setup, your store is optimized for performance, capable of handling higher traffic, and ready for production use. You can now log in to the Magento admin panel, add products, and begin customizing your storefront.

For more in-depth tutorials, visit the BaCloud blog, where you’ll find helpful guides.