Setting up Symfony on VM

Today I’d like to describe how I set up Symfony PHP Framework on a Virtual Machine (Ubuntu Server 24.04) with a Database, Apache, private GitHub access and easier SSH access from host to a VM. It’s an unusual topic for me, but since I have been tackling this for my university class, I figured why not write about it, maybe it will help someone.

• P.S. For virtualization, I used VirtualBox, and instructions will be for Mac, but it shouldn’t differ much from other OSs.

First steps

If you want to follow this article, you should have VirtualBox installed as well as have a Symfony project in your GitHub repo.

1. Download Ubuntu Server image
2. Install Ubuntu Server on your virtual machine, set a Bridged Adapter in Network Settings. Give at least 15GB hard drive memory
3. Do a sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade -y if it’s your first time booting up this Ubuntu instance.
4. Install openssh, for operating through your host machine’s terminal instead of VM screen (personal preference):
   • sudo apt install openssh-server
   • sudo systemctl start ssh
   • sudo systemctl enable ssh

Set up SSH key

Now you can ssh through your host machine into VM by:

1. Get VM’s ip address: hostname -I
2. In your host terminal, do a ssh username@ip_addr

However, if you would like to do an automatic sign in without having to provide a password, you can setup ssh key.

On your Host Machine:

1. ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your-email@example.com"

2. ssh-copy-id username@VM-IP-ADDRESS

3. Create SSH config file for easier connections (optional):

   vi ~/.ssh/config

   Host symfony-vm
      HostName VM-IP-ADDRESS
      User your-username

   Then you can connect with: ssh symfony-vm, or ssh username@VM-IP-ADDRESS

Installing necessary PHP packages and cloning GitHub Repo

Install necessary packages (Using MariaDB for database):

sudo apt install apache2 php php-cli php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-intl php-mysql git mariadb-server mariadb-client libapache2-mod-php libapache2-mod-fcgid php-bcmath php-gd -y

Install composer:

• curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
• sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Clone a GitHub Repo

# 1. Generate SSH Key for private repo access (on VM)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your-email@example.com"

# 2. Add the SSH Key to the SSH Agent
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# 3. Copy the Public Key to GitHub
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

# Copy the output.
# Go to GitHub > Settings > SSH and GPG keys.
# Click New SSH Key.
# Paste the key and Save.

# 4. Test the SSH Connection
ssh -T git@github.com

# 5. Configure Git to Use SSH
cd /var/www/html
git pull origin git@github.com:USERNAME/REPO.git

Install packages in a repo, as well as give permissions for Apache

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/PROJECT_NAME
cd /var/www/html/PROJECT_NAME
sudo composer install

Configure Database (MariaDB)

I did it kind of cheaty, probably it can be done without creating and dropping database, but I couldn’t care less if it works this way:)

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE db_name;
# I noticed that symfony expects admin user to have privileges, so we create a user 'admin', maybe it could be done easier
CREATE USER 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'pass';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON db_name.* TO 'admin'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
drop database db_name;
EXIT;

Add a DATABASE_URL to your .env.local

# Format: DATABASE_URL="mysql://USERNAME:PASSWORD@127.0.0.1:3306/DB_NAME?serverVersion=10.11.8-MariaDB"
sudo vi .env.local

Run doctrine commands for database:

php bin/console doctrine:database:create
# If you have migrations
php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate
# If you have fixtures
php bin/console doctrine:fixtures:load

Configure Apache2 with PHP-FPM

Enable apache modules and install php-fpm

sudo a2enmod actions fcgid alias proxy_fcgi
sudo apt install php-fpm -y

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2enmod headers

Set up Apache config:

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/PROJ_NAME.conf

Example config from my Symfony project

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/public

    # Set up directory permissions
    <Directory /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/public>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted

        # URL rewriting for Symfony
        FallbackResource /index.php

        # Disable .htaccess files if you're using them
        <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
            RewriteEngine On
            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}::$0 ^(/.+)/(.*)::\2$
            RewriteRule .* - [E=BASE:%1]
            RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .+
            RewriteRule ^ - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%0]
            RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} =""
            RewriteRule ^index\.php(?:/(.*)|$) %{ENV:BASE}/$1 [R=301,L]
            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
            RewriteRule ^ %{ENV:BASE}/index.php [L]
        </IfModule>
    </Directory>

    # Configure PHP-FPM (See your version)
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    </FilesMatch>

    # Deny access to sensitive directories
    <Directory /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/config>
        Require all denied
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/var>
        Require all denied
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/vendor>
        Require all denied
    </Directory>
    <Directory /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/src>
        Require all denied
    </Directory>

    # Configure logs
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/symfony_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/symfony_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Check your config via sudo apache2ctl configtest

Set permissions:

sudo usermod -a -G www-data $USER
sudo chown -R $USER:www-data /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/var
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/PROJ_NAME/public

Enable site:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo a2ensite PROJ_NAME.conf
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Developing in VS Code

1. Install Remote SSH extension
2. Follow official tutorial on setting up SSH - TUTORIAL

If something’s not working properly, check this troubleshooting guide

The End

That’s it, you should be able to go to a http://VM-IP-ADDRESS in your browser and see your Symfony app.

I hope this post helps someone who is not very familliar with PHP ecosystem, Apache and Virtual Machines. If you have any comments, I’ll be happy to hear them. I am sure this configuration is by no means perfect, but it’s working.