Nov 15, 2014 CloudFlare for Joomla! Is a simple plugin that allows Joomla! Websites to fully utilize CloudFlare's free Universal SSL. The plugin does a couple of things: Fixes the infinite redirect issue; Loads all content (images, css and script) via https, whether they are added using relative or absolute URLs; Documentation. How to use HTTPS on Joomla with CloudFlare SSL In recent years it has become best practice to encrypt your site using SSL. This used to be a complicated process but fortunately a lot of tools have popped up to help you with the process. The easiest and cheapest solution today is through CloudFlare 's SSL feature.
Joomla — a free, mobile-ready and open source content management system (CMS) is a great way to build beautiful websites… However, to add extra layer of security and improve your users experience, you may want to add Cloudflare, CDN / SSL and security features..
- Web hosting gratis dengan PHP, MySQL, Website Builder, dan cPanel. Layanan hosting nyaris unlimited dan domain gratis.
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Student or new user who want to take advantage of all the great features Cloudflare offers, the steps below should help you get there…
This brief tutorial will show students and new user a step by step guide on how to setup Joomla websites and use Cloudflare's CDN, free SSL and security features to help improve their website performance and protect their sites against malicious actors..
This setup might take a while to complete and the process below should work on other websites as well… It doesn't have to be Joomla… This setup should work on other CMSs and plain HTML sites out of the box…When you're ready to setup Joomla and Cloudflare, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Sign up for Cloudflare Account…
The first step in this tutorial is to sign up for Cloudflare service… This assumes that you already have registered a domain name.. If you don't, then go and get one before continuing further…
Once you have a domain name, click on the link below to sign up for Cloudflare…
Type in your email address and click Create Account..
Once the account is created and you've verified your email address and logged back into Cloudflare account, click the button or link (Add a Site) to add a site to your account…
Next, type in the domain name you have registered… Cloudflare service will help speed up and protect the site you add…
Next, Cloudflare will begin to query your domain DNS provider for the records in the DNS table… If the domain is online, Cloudflare should find it and import the records into your Cloudflare account…
After that, select the plan you want to use for the site… For this tutorial, we're going to be using Cloudflare free plan…
When you're done, you should see two nameservers provided to you by Cloudflare… What you need to do is logon to your domain provider's portal… where you have your domain… and replace the nameservers with the ones Cloudflare gives you…
For example, our example.com site is hosted with Google Domains.. so we'll logon to our Google Domains account and use custom nameservers… Then we'll use the nameservers provided by Cloudflare and save..
Once you've saved your custom nameservers changes, go back to your Cloudflare account and wait for Cloudflare to see the changes…. Depending on your domain provider, it make take up to an hour for Cloudflare to be visible…
Once all is ready, you'll see your site status as Active..
When everything is done, you should also see your Cloudflare account with DNS entries as shown below… Your DNS records might have more entries then the two below.. but these two are the most important for running your website….
After that, click on Crypto tab and choose to enable Full (strict) SSL.. This should turn on SSL for the site…
Still under Crypto tab, scroll down to Origin Certificates… Then click the button to create certificate…
Use the free TLS certificate signed by Cloudflare to install on your origin server… Origin Certificates are only valid for encryption between Cloudflare and your origin server…
Next, choose to Let Cloudflare generate a private key and a CSR for the domain… Click Next…
Then copy a paste these into a text file on onto your server…
On Ubuntu, run the commands below to create the key, certificate and origin pull files… Copy and paste each content into the respective file.. and save..
For the key file… run this, then copy and paste the key into the file and save…
sudo nano /etc/ssl/private/cloudflare_example.com.pem
For the certificate file, run this and copy and paste the certificate content into the file and save…
sudo /etc/ssl/certs/cloudflare_example.com.pem
You'll also want to download Cloudflare Origin Pull certificate… You can download that from the link below:
Run th commands below to download it..
After that, you should have three files.. The server key, server certificate and the origin-pull certificate..
We will use these file in Nginx config below
After saving the key, certificate and origin pull certificates files… continue below..
Still, under, Crypto enable Always use HTTPS and you may also change settings for HSTS but not necessary…
Next, turn on Authenticated Origin Pulls and Opportunistic Encryption, and continue..
Then, turn on Automatic HTTPSRewrites and continue..
Next, move to the Speed tab, tune on Auto Minify for JavaScript, CSS and HTML.. and continue
Next, move to the Page Rules tab… then create a new rule for the site.. then type URL and choose Always Use HTTPS
http://* example.com/*
Alwyas Use HTTPS
Save your settings and you're done with setting up Cloudflare..
Step 2: Install and Configure Joomla
Now that Cloudflare is configure, logon to your server and configure Joomla… First install Nginx HTTP server since we're using Nginx for this post.. To install Nginx server, run the commands below:
After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots…
Now that Nginx is installed…. to test whether the web server is working, open your browser and browse to the URL below…
If you see the page above, then Nginx is successfully installed…
Step 3: Install MariaDB Database Server
Joomla also requires a database server to store its content… If you're looking for a truly open source database server, then MariaDB is a great place to start… To install MariaDB run the commands below:
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots…
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Run these on Ubuntu 19.04 and 18.04 LTS
Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation…
sudo mysql_secure_installation
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 password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Now that MariaDB is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below…
sudo mysql -u root -p
type the root password when prompted…
If you see a similar screen as shown above, then the server was successfully installed…
Step 4: Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules
Joomla CMS is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required… However, PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories… To run PHP 7.2-FPM on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default configuration file for Nginx…
The lines below is a good settings for most PHP based CMS… Update the configuration file with these and save….
Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Nginx web server… To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it's functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Nginx default root directory…. ( /var/www/html/)
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
Next, open your browser and browse to the server's hostname or IP address followed by phpinfo.php
You should see PHP default test page…
Step 5: Create Joomla Database
Now that you've installed all the packages that are required for Joomla to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Joomla database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called joomla
CREATE DATABASE joomla;
Create a database user called joomlauser with a new password
CREATE USER 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON joomla.* TO 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
Step 6: Download Joomla Latest Release
To get Joomla latest release you will need to go to its official download page and get it from there… The link below is where to find Joomla latest archive versions…
At the time of this writing, the latest version is 3.9.5… Future version will have different links to download from….
Run the commands below to download and extract Joomla version 3.9.5
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Joomla root directory and give Nginx control….
Step 7: Configure Nginx
Finally, configure Nginx site configuration file for Joomla. This file will control how users access Joomla content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called example.com
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
Also make sure to reference the certificate files created above during Cloudflare setup..
Save the file and exit.
Step 8: Enable the Joomla
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
Cloudflare Joomla Extension
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Joomla setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
Then follow the on-screen instructions… Select the installation language and main site configuration and the backend admin account, then click Next to continue….
Next, type in the database info you created above and click Next to continue…
Confirm that the site info is correct and make sure that recommended settings are all marked as green… Then click Install to begin the installation…
After a brief moment, you site should be installed and ready to use…. Click the Remove installation folder to secure your site…
Next, logon to the backend dashboard with the super admin account you created above….
Enjoy!
Don't forget the delete the installer directory if you didn't do it above…
sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/joomla/installation
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Congratulations! You have successfully installed Joomla CMS with Cloudflare support on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04
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Few days ago we showed you how to install Joomla with Nginx and Cloudflare CDN / SSL support.. For those who rather want to run Joomla with Apache2 HTTP server and Cloudflare, the steps below should help them get there…
Joomla — a free, mobile-ready and open source content management system (CMS) is a great way to build beautiful websites… However, to add extra layer of security and improve your users experience, you may want to add Cloudflare, CDN / SSL and security features..
Student or new user who want to take advantage of all the great features Cloudflare offers, the steps below should help you get there…
This brief tutorial will show students and new user a step by step guide on how to setup Joomla websites and use Cloudflare's CDN, free SSL and security features to help improve their website performance and protect their sites against malicious actors..
This setup might take a while to complete and the process below should work on other websites as well… It doesn't have to be Joomla… This setup should work on other CMSs and plain HTML sites out of the box…When you're ready to setup Joomla and Cloudflare, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Sign up for Cloudflare Account…
The first step in this tutorial is to sign up for Cloudflare service… This assumes that you already have registered a domain name.. If you don't, then go and get one before continuing further…
Once you have a domain name, click on the link below to sign up for Cloudflare…
Type in your email address and click Create Account..
Once the account is created and you've verified your email address and logged back into Cloudflare account, click the button or link (Add a Site) to add a site to your account…
Next, type in the domain name you have registered… Cloudflare service will help speed up and protect the site you add…
Next, Cloudflare will begin to query your domain DNS provider for the records in the DNS table… If the domain is online, Cloudflare should find it and import the records into your Cloudflare account…
Cloudflare Joomla Download
After that, select the plan you want to use for the site… For this tutorial, we're going to be using Cloudflare free plan…
When you're done, you should see two nameservers provided to you by Cloudflare… What you need to do is logon to your domain provider's portal… where you have your domain… and replace the nameservers with the ones Cloudflare gives you…
For example, our example.com site is hosted with Google Domains.. so we'll logon to our Google Domains account and use custom nameservers… Then we'll use the nameservers provided by Cloudflare and save..
Once you've saved your custom nameservers changes, go back to your Cloudflare account and wait for Cloudflare to see the changes…. Depending on your domain provider, it make take up to an hour for Cloudflare to be visible…
Once all is ready, you'll see your site status as Active..
When everything is done, you should also see your Cloudflare account with DNS entries as shown below… Your DNS records might have more entries then the two below.. but these two are the most important for running your website….
After that, click on Crypto tab and choose to enable Full (strict) SSL.. This should turn on SSL for the site…
Still under Crypto tab, scroll down to Origin Certificates… Then click the button to create certificate…
Use the free TLS certificate signed by Cloudflare to install on your origin server… Origin Certificates are only valid for encryption between Cloudflare and your origin server…
Next, choose to Let Cloudflare generate a private key and a CSR for the domain… Click Next…
Then copy a paste these into a text file on onto your server…
On Ubuntu, run the commands below to create the key, certificate and origin pull files… Copy and paste each content into the respective file.. and save..
For the key file… run this, then copy and paste the key into the file and save…
sudo nano /etc/ssl/private/cloudflare_example.com.pem
For the certificate file, run this and copy and paste the certificate content into the file and save…
sudo /etc/ssl/certs/cloudflare_example.com.pem
You'll also want to download Cloudflare Origin Pull certificate… You can download that from the link below:
Run th commands below to download it..
After that, you should have three files.. The server key, server certificate and the origin-pull certificate..
We will use these file in Apache2 config below
After saving the key, certificate and origin pull certificates files… continue below..
Still, under, Crypto enable Always use HTTPS and you may also change settings for HSTS but not necessary…
Next, turn on Authenticated Origin Pulls and Opportunistic Encryption, and continue..
Then, turn on Automatic HTTPSRewrites and continue..
Next, move to the Speed tab, tune on Auto Minify for JavaScript, CSS and HTML.. and continue
Next, move to the Page Rules tab… then create a new rule for the site.. then type URL and choose Always Use HTTPS
http://* example.com/*
Alwyas Use HTTPS
Save your settings and you're done with setting up Cloudflare..
Step 2: Install and Configure Joomla
Now that Cloudflare is configure, logon to your server and configure Joomla… First install Apache2 HTTP server since we're using Apache2 for this post.. To install Apache2 server, run the commands below:
After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots…
Now that Apache2 is installed…. to test whether the web server is working, open your browser and browse to the URL below…
If you see the page above, then Apache2 is successfully installed…
Step 3: Install MariaDB Database Server
Joomla also requires a database server to store its content… If you're looking for a truly open source database server, then MariaDB is a great place to start… To install MariaDB run the commands below:
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots…
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Run these on Ubuntu 19.04 and 18.04 LTS
Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation…
sudo mysql_secure_installation
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 password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Now that MariaDB is installed, to test whether the database server was successfully installed, run the commands below…
sudo mysql -u root -p
type the root password when prompted…
If you see a similar screen as shown above, then the server was successfully installed…
Step 4: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
Joomla CMS is a PHP based CMS and PHP is required… However, PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories… To run PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu 16.04 and previous, you may need to run the commands below:
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt update
Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default configuration file for Apache2…
The lines below is a good settings for most PHP based CMS… Update the configuration file with these and save….
Everytime you make changes to PHP configuration file, you should also restart Apache2 web server… To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Now that PHP is installed, to test whether it's functioning, create a test file called phpinfo.php in Apache2 default root directory…. ( /var/www/html/)
sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
Then type the content below and save the file.
Next, open your browser and browse to the server's hostname or IP address followed by phpinfo.php
You should see PHP default test page…
Step 5: Create Joomla Database
Now that you've installed all the packages that are required for Joomla to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Joomla database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called joomla
CREATE DATABASE joomla;
Create a database user called joomlauser with a new password
CREATE USER 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON joomla.* TO 'joomlauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
Step 6: Download Joomla Latest Release
To get Joomla latest release you will need to go to its official download page and get it from there… The link below is where to find Joomla latest archive versions…
At the time of this writing, the latest version is 3.9.5… Future version will have different links to download from….
Run the commands below to download and extract Joomla version 3.9.5
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Joomla root directory and give Apache2 control….
Step 7: Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apache2 site configuration file for Joomla. This file will control how users access Joomla content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called example.com.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
Also make sure to reference the certificate files created above during Cloudflare setup..
Save the file and exit.
Step 8: Enable the Joomla
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Joomla setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
Then follow the on-screen instructions… Select the installation language and main site configuration and the backend admin account, then click Next to continue….
Next, type in the database info you created above and click Next to continue…
Confirm that the site info is correct and make sure that recommended settings are all marked as green… Then click Install to begin the installation…
After a brief moment, you site should be installed and ready to use…. Click the Remove installation folder to secure your site…
Next, logon to the backend dashboard with the super admin account you created above….
Enjoy!
Don't forget the delete the installer directory if you didn't do it above…
sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/joomla/installation
You may also like the post below:
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Joomla CMS with Cloudflare support on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04
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