This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install BookStack on Ubuntu 16.04 / 17.10 and 18.04. If you currently using an antiquated documentation creator or platform, you may want to give BookStack a try.  it’s a great alternative to other documentation software and platform. when you’re looking for help installing BookStack, then this post is a great place to start. BookStack interface is easy and simple. The page editor has a simple WYSIWYG interface, and all content is broken into three simple real-world groups: For more on BookStack, please visit its home page When you’re ready to get BookStack working on Ubuntu, please continue with the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Nginx HTTP Server is the second most popular web server in use. so install it, since BookStack needs it. To install Nginx HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below. After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots. To test the Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see the Nginx default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx is working as expected.

Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with Magento. To install MariaDB run the commands below. After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots. Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access. When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter Set root password? [Y/n]: Y New password: Enter the password Re-enter new password: Repeat password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y Remove the test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon into MariaDB server Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

PHP 7.1 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories. Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.1-FPM Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.1-FPM Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.1-FPM and related modules. After installing PHP 7.1, run the commands below to open the PHP default config file for Nginx. Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is great settings to apply in your environments. After making the change above, save the file and closeout. After installing PHP and related modules, all you have to do is restart Nginx to reload PHP configurations. To restart Nginx, run the commands below

Create Magento Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for BookStack to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank Magento database. To log on to MariaDB database server, run the commands below. Then create a database called bookstack Create a database user called bookstackuser with a new password Then grant the user full access to the database. Finally, save your changes and exit.

Download and Install BookStack

Run the commands below to install Composer and use it to download BookStack content. Next, create the environment configuration file from the example file. and configure the database connection info and enter the database connection info you created above Save and exit. After that, run the commands below in the BookStack directory to create the application’s unique key and migrate the database Next, run the commands below to change the root folder permissions.

Configure the Nginx BookStack Site

Finally, configure the Nginx configuration file for BookStack. This file will control how users access BookStack content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called bookstack Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location. Save the file and exit. After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

Enable the BookStack Site

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below, then restart the Nginx server. Next, open your browser and go to the URL. and continue with the installation…. Restart Nginx Now open your browser and browse to the server URL or hostname… Type default admin user ‘admin@admin.com‘ with password ‘password‘, and then press the ‘Login’ button. Log in and begin using BookStack. ~Enjoy! You may also like the post below: