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Md Abu Musa
Md Abu Musa

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Deploy Laravel on AWS EC2 with RDS MySQL and NGINX

#aws #ec2 #rds #nginx

Setting up a Laravel application on AWS is a powerful way to scale your web applications in a secure and cloud-native environment. This guide walks you through deploying Laravel on an Ubuntu-based EC2 instance, connecting it to an Amazon RDS MySQL database, and using NGINX as the web server.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following:

  • ✅ AWS EC2 instance (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
  • ✅ Amazon RDS MySQL database (accessible to EC2)
  • ✅ Security Groups properly configured (EC2 <-> RDS: port 3306)
  • ✅ NGINX installed on EC2
  • ✅ SSH terminal access to EC2 (e.g., Termius)
  • ✅ Laravel knowledge (Composer installed)

Step 1: Update Your Server & Install PHP and Required Extensions 

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install php php-fpm php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip unzip curl git -y
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Step 2: Install Composer (PHP Dependency Manager) 

cd ~
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
composer --version
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Step 3: Create Laravel Project 

cd /var/www/
sudo composer create-project laravel/laravel myapp
sudo chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu myapp
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Tip: Replace myapp with your desired app folder name.

Step 4: Configure Laravel to Use Amazon RDS

Edit the .env file:

nano /var/www/myapp/.env
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Update the DB connection settings:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=your-rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=yourdbname
DB_USERNAME=yourdbuser
DB_PASSWORD=yourdbpassword
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Step 5: Generate Laravel App Key & Run Migration

Ensure the Laravel CLI (artisan) has permission to write logs:

sudo chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /var/www/myapp
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Then run:

cd /var/www/myapp
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate
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✅ You should see success messages for both.

Step 6: Stop Apache (If Installed) & Configure NGINX

Apache often comes pre-installed — stop and disable it:

sudo systemctl stop apache2
sudo systemctl disable apache2
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Create a new NGINX config:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel
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Paste the following (replace <your-ip> and php8.3 if needed):

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <your-ec2-public-ip>;

    root /var/www/myapp/public;

    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}
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Enable the Laravel site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
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Test and restart NGINX:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx
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Step 7: Set Folder Permissions for Runtime 

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/myapp
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/myapp/storage
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/myapp/bootstrap/cache
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Step 8: Visit Your Application

Go to your EC2 public IP in a browser:

http://<your-ec2-public-ip>
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You should see the Laravel welcome page.

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