Today's Deep-Dive: Lamp Stack

Have you ever thought about like all the stuff that happens when you click a link

or you open an app?

I mean like all the stuff that's going on behind the scenes. Yeah, it's amazing how

it just works. Yeah, it's like magic

It is yeah, but it's not magic

No a technology and a lot of that comes down to something that's actually pretty

straightforward

Right, and we're gonna take a deep dive into that today. Absolutely. We're gonna

demystify one of the big ones

Yes, the LAMP stack the LAMP stack. It's a it's kind of like a secret recipe behind

a lot of the internet

Yeah. Yeah, and the term LMP might sound a little bit technical

But it's basically just a way to describe four essential open source tools that

work together to build and run websites and web applications

Yes

So our mission is to break it down and make it clear why it's such a foundational

piece of the web make it nice and simple

Yeah, and before we dive in yes a big thank you to safe server

Yes, our supporter for this deep dive. They are the experts in hosting this kind of

software that we're talking about

Yeah

And if you are trying to get your head around digital transformation, they can help

you with that, too

Absolutely, if you want to find out more about safe server head over to

www.safeserver.de

All right

So for this deep dive we've looked at a couple of helpful sources the wikipedia

page on LMP and some really user-friendly

documentation from cloud gen

Yeah cloud gen is a platform that's designed to make it much easier to manage web

applications

Okay, so we've got LMP and we've said it stands for a few things, right?

And so our goal is to give you a clear picture of what the LMP stack is and why it's

so important

It's everywhere these days. Yes. So LMP is an acronym, which basically means

It's a word made up of the first letters of other words, right? And so each letter

Represents a key piece of open-source software that all works together. So they're

four main ingredients or ingredients and they all work together kind of seamlessly

so the L stands for Linux and

You can think of Linux as the bedrock the underlying operating system. Everything

sits on Linux everything runs from Linux

So it's like the foundation of a house. Yeah, exactly like the foundation of a

house. Okay

What's interesting is most Linux distributions and by that?

I mean different versions of Linux can be set up to run a complete LMP stack. Okay.

Yeah

historically certain versions of Linux like Debian and Ubuntu became really popular

choices for web servers and back in

2013 they had a significant chunk of the market along with other versions like RHEL

fedora and sent to us

Okay, got it. So Linux is the operating system. That's the L

What about the a the a is for Apache and Apache is the web server. Its job is to

take requests from users

You know when you type a website address into your browser and deliver the web

pages the images and other content back to you

Okay, so it's kind of like the delivery guy. Yeah, it's developed and looked after

by the Apache software foundation

Okay, and just like Linux it's open source meaning it's free to use and can be

modified by anyone. Exactly

Yeah, open source software fosters a huge community of developers who are

constantly improving and contributing to the technology

Yeah, and that's a really powerful thing. What's really neat about Apache is that

it's modular so you can think of it like

Building with Lego bricks. You can add different components or modules to give it

extra abilities

Okay, like supporting different programming languages or handling secure

connections

And while Apache is the traditional a in Lampi, it's worth knowing that other web

servers like in jinx

Pronounce engine X. Yeah can also do this job, which leads us to some variations

that we'll discuss later on

Okay, so L is for Linux the foundation a is for Apache the delivery guy for web

pages

What's next next up is the M which stands for my sequel my sequel and this is the

relational database management system

It might sound a little bit complicated

Yeah

But think of it as a super organized filing cabinet where all of the important data

for a website or application is stored

So if you have a blog all your posts and comments would be stored in my sequel

exactly

Yeah, my sequel lets you structure your data and tables a bit like spreadsheets,

and you can link those tables together

Okay, this makes it really efficient to search for retrieve and update information

Now while my sequel is the original M in lamb air there are other popular database

systems

Murray DB for example was created by the original developers of my sequel

And then you've got post dress school another strong relational database, okay

And even different types of databases like MongoDB which handle data in a more

flexible way

It's interesting to note that my sequel has been owned by a couple of different

companies over the years, right?

And that's influenced its development. Okay, and then we are on to the final letter

P

The P what does that stand for so the P and lamb P traditionally stands for php?

Okay, and this is a programming language that adds a dynamic and interactive

elements to websites

Okay, so instead of just static text and images

Php allows for things like user logins contact forms shopping carts all the things

that make the modern web interactive

So php is what makes the website do things rather than just show things exactly php

is a server-side scripting language

Which means the code runs on the web server itself and it generates the HTML that

your browser then displays

It's often embedded directly within the HTML code

Historically pearl was really popular for this kind of web development, and it's

known for its strong abilities and working with text

Python is another very versatile language that can be used for many different

things including web development, okay?

So how did this particular combination of Linux apache my sequel and php?

How did it become so popular in the first place right so the term LMP itself was

coined back in 1998?

Okay, by a guy called Michael Coons in a German computer magazine and he put it

forward as a way to highlight a powerful set

Of free and open source tools that could be a real alternative to the expensive

commercial software that was available at the time

So it was about having a cost-effective and open solution exactly yeah

And the idea really took off

Thanks in part to the promotion by companies like O'Reilly media and the developers

of my circle LMP became one of the first really

Successful open source stacks for building websites. Yeah, and it's ease of use and

the fact that it was free

Made it incredibly attractive to developers even today lots and popular web

applications like WordPress and Drupal

Can be easily hosted on a LMP stack

So it's amazing how these core technologies have stuck around for so long well

Yeah, the underlying principles are still very relevant serving web content

managing data and making websites interactive, right?

It's fundamental stuff and because Lampy is open source

It's constantly being updated and improved by a huge community of developers

Yeah, this adaptability has also led to some interesting variations of the original

Lampy stack variations

So like swapping out one component for another exactly because the core idea of Lampy

is about having interchangeable components that work

Well together. Yeah people started mixing and matching based on their specific

needs

Okay, for example, if you're using a Windows computer as your server you might use

WAMP, which is the same as Lampy

But with Windows instead of Linux that makes perfect sense

Then you have Limp which we touched on earlier which replaces Apache with Nginx

Which is a web server often praised for its speed and efficiency, especially when

handling lots of traffic

You might also see LAPP sometimes still called Lampy where MySQL is swapped out for

Postgresql as a database

And there's even WIMP which uses Windows, Microsoft's web server called ICE,

Internet information services

Yeah, MySQL and then PHP, Perl or Python and for those using Macos

There's DAMP with Darwin as the operating system. So it's all about picking the

right tools for the job

Exactly, but the fundamental concepts remain the same. Okay. Now to really see how

Lampy works in the real world

It's helpful to look at how it's managed in a hosting environment

And this is where a platform like Cloudran comes in. Their documentation shows how

they simplify running Lampy applications

Especially if you're just starting out

So if someone's new to this and wants to get a website or a web app up and running

using Lampy

How does a platform like Cloudran make it easier?

Well, the initial setup can often be the trickiest part for beginners and Cloudran

automates a lot of the technical details

okay, for example, it takes care of configuring your domain name with the right DNS

settings and

Automatically sets up and renews those all important SSL certificates using let's

encrypt. Okay

So your website can use that secure HTTPS protocol. That sounds like a huge weight

off your shoulders

If you're not a tech expert, absolutely and Cloudran also gives you easy access to

essential services like MySQL a

Caching system called Redis and the ability to send emails directly, right?

You don't have to install and configure each of these separately

Plus things like creating backups of your apps and your server

Restoring them if something goes wrong and keeping the software up-to-date are all

managed by the Cloudran platform

So you can focus on building your website rather than the nitty-gritty server admin

stuff. Exactly

Yeah

And if you want to run multiple websites or applications Cloudran makes it simple

to host them separately on the same server

So they don't interfere with each other

It even supports different versions of PHP and you can switch between them easily

if your different apps have different requirements

That's really convenient. What about getting your website files onto the server?

Yeah, Cloudran gives you a couple of options. You can use SFTP, which is a secure

way to

Transfer files from your computer to the server

Okay

Or you can even use their built-in file manager right through your web browser

And what if you need to make some specific tweaks to how PHP or Apache are working?

Cloudran allows for some customization

You can often use a file called .htaccess in your website's directory to adjust

certain Apache settings

Okay

For more in-depth changes to PHP or Apache, you can usually find specific

configuration files within the app settings on Cloudran

Okay, so what about those extra bits of PHP code called extensions that some

websites need?

Right, Cloudran's LMP app comes with lots of commonly used PHP extensions already

installed

Covering most needs like connecting to databases or working with images and if your

application needs something specific that's not included

You can often install it yourself. Got it. What about managing the MySQL database?

Is there an easy way to do that? Yes, Cloudran includes a tool called phpmyadmin

It's a web-based interface that makes it much easier to work with your MySQL

databases

Okay, you can access it through a specific link for your app

But for security reasons, it's generally a good idea to disable it when you're not

actively using it

Security first. Absolutely

Cloudran also handles your database and email login details securely, providing

them to your application as environment variables

This makes things more secure and also easier if you ever need to move your app to

a different server

One thing to keep in mind with Cloudran is that the standard PHP function for

sending emails mail isn't automatically set up

So they recommend using a library like phpmailer instead, which is a really common

solution for sending emails through PHP

Are there any other helpful tools that come with Cloudran's LMP setup?

Yeah, it also includes tools like Composer for managing PHP libraries and NPM for

managing JavaScript packages

Which can be really useful if you're doing more advanced web development

Finally if you're running applications like WordPress behind Cloudran's reverse

proxy, which is a security and performance feature

You might need to make a few small adjustments in your WordPress settings to make

sure everything works correctly

so to bring it all together the LMP stack is this incredibly powerful and popular

combination of

Linux Apache MySQL and PHP or similar languages

And it's the engine behind so many websites and apps that we use every day exactly

And by understanding what each component does and how they all work together

You gain a really fundamental insight into how the internet actually functions,

right? It's fascinating

It's pretty amazing that these open source technologies which started as this kind

of alternative have become such a dominant force on the web

Absolutely, and they continue to evolve it makes you wonder what the next big

shifts in this foundational technology might be

That's a great thought for the listeners to consider as open source technology

continues to advance

How might stacks like LMP adapt and what new possibilities could emerge from these

essential building blocks of the internet?

Yeah, it's definitely something to think about and that brings us to the end of our

deep dive into the LMP stack

I hope that was useful. Yes big

Thank you once again to safe server for their support in bringing this explanation

to you

If you're interested in learning more about their hosting solutions and how they

can help with your digital transformation

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