Tested this on a lot of servers already before writing this post. I needed to move from SquareSpace to Vultr VPS, so this post is from that.

This is what I am using…

Server: Ubuntu 14.04

Memory: 512MB

CPU: 1 Core

Disk: SSD

Cost: $2.5 per month

First we install Apache2 & MySql servers.

apt-get install apache2
apt-get install mysql

When prompted add password for root user on your newly added MySql Server.

I prefer PHP-FPM for security and speed. So, this is how we install PHP-FPM.

# Install dependencies

sudo apt-get install -y apache2-mpm-worker
sudo apt-get install -y libapache2-mod-fastcgi php5-fpm

# Disable prefork & Enable fcgi

sudo a2dismod php5 mpm_prefork
sudo a2enmod actions fastcgi alias mpm_worker

# Create fcgi file

sudo touch /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5.fcgi

# Add configuration file

cat > /etc/apache2/conf-available/php5-fpm.conf << EOL
<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
	AddHandler php5.fcgi .php
	Action php5.fcgi /php5.fcgi
	Alias /php5.fcgi /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5.fcgi
	FastCgiExternalServer /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5.fcgi -socket /var/run/php5-fpm.sock -pass-header Authorization -idle-timeout 3600
	<Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
		Require all granted
	</Directory>
</IfModule>
EOL

# Enable PHP-FPM conf

sudo a2enconf php5-fpm

# Restart services

sudo service apache2 restart && sudo service php5-fpm restart

You can change user and group to “anyone” in /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d folder now, File: www.conf”.

Now, enable SSL & REWRITE modules for Apache2.

a2enmod ssl
a2enmod rewrite
service apache2 restart

Please note that you will have to create an SSL certificate on server to configure it with Apache2 virtual host.
If you are going to install WordPress MultiSite and want .htaccess to work, then please look in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and under /var/www files section…

AllowOverride All

Install php5-mysql

apt-get install php5-mysql

Restart Apache2 and MySql servers…

service apache2 restart
service mysql restart

Done!

You can install your websites under /var/www/html (or other folder if you changed) and download adminer.php from https://www.adminer.org/ and create a new database for your new website.

And, here is a little help of you want to reset PHP-FPM threads on server…

pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php
pkill -9 php

rm -rf /var/run/php5-fpm.sock

php5-fpm -y /etc/php5/fpm/php-fpm.conf -R

ps -eaf | grep php

This will close all running PHP processes on server, so please do it carefully if you are doing it on a server with online websites.