LEMP Stack

The LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP) is a high-performance alternative to the classic LAMP stack. Nginx handles HTTP traffic more efficiently under load than Apache, making it a good choice for production web applications. This image runs the entire stack in Docker Compose for easy management.

Software included

Component	Version
Nginx	Latest stable
MariaDB	Latest stable
PHP-FPM	8.4
Docker	Latest stable
Docker Compose	Latest stable
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS

Environment variables

You can optionally set these when deploying LEMP from the marketplace. Leave any field blank to have a secure random value generated automatically.

Variable	Description
`MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD`	Database root password
`MARIADB_DATABASE`	Name of the application database to create
`MARIADB_USER`	Application database username
`MARIADB_PASSWORD`	Application database user password

Getting started

1. Connect to your VM

ssh ubuntu@<your-vm-ip>

2. Wait for first-boot configuration

On the first boot, a setup script runs automatically. It:

Generates random passwords for the MariaDB root and application users
Writes the environment configuration to /opt/lemp/.env
Saves credentials to /etc/lemp/credentials.txt
Starts the Nginx, PHP-FPM, and MariaDB containers via Docker Compose

This takes under 60 seconds. Track progress:

journalctl -u lemp-first-boot.service -f

3. Retrieve credentials

sudo cat /etc/lemp/credentials.txt

This file contains the MariaDB root password and application database credentials. It is only readable by root.

4. Verify the stack is running

cd /opt/lemp && docker compose ps

Open a browser and navigate to:

http://<your-vm-ip>

Deploying your application

Place your PHP application files in the web root:

sudo cp -r my-app/* /opt/lemp/www/

Connect to MariaDB from within the stack:

cd /opt/lemp && docker compose exec mariadb mariadb -u root -p

Managing the LEMP stack

All management is done via Docker Compose from /opt/lemp:

# Check status
docker compose ps

# Restart all services
docker compose restart

# View Nginx logs
docker compose logs nginx -f

# View PHP-FPM logs
docker compose logs php -f

# View MariaDB logs
docker compose logs mariadb -f

# Stop the stack
docker compose down

# Start the stack
docker compose up -d

Key paths:

Path	Purpose
`/opt/lemp/www/`	Web root
`/opt/lemp/.env`	Environment variables (passwords)
`/opt/lemp/nginx/`	Nginx configuration
`/etc/lemp/credentials.txt`	Credentials reference

Security

Port 80 is open by default. UFW is enabled.

After setting up HTTPS, restrict HTTP traffic:

sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw delete allow 80/tcp