Setup Zenario CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 | 18.10 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP 7.2-FPM

If you want to run Zanerio CMS on Ubuntu with Nginx and PHP 7.2-FPM support, the steps below should be a great place to start. Our previous post showed you how to run it with Apache2, then one uses Nginx instead.

Zenario, an enterprise CMS developed by Tribal Systems is great for secure extranet portals, online databases, e-commerce and multilingual sites.

If you want a Content Management System (CMS) that has enterprise-class features, scalable, and performs at a high level, then Zenario CMS is a good place to start. Zenario CMS is built on an open source core with support for open standards, which might be very useful in helping you run your digital content.

This CMS platform is designed for ease of use to allow enterprises and business owners to collaborate and automate engaging experiences with users across multiple devices, including mobile.

For more about Zenario CMS, please check their Homepage

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Zenario CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.10 and 18.04 LTS.

To get started with installing Zenario, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Nginx HTTP Server on Ubuntu

Nginx HTTP Server is probably the second most popular web server in use. so install it since Zenario needs it.

To install Nginx HTTP on Ubuntu server, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

To test Nginx setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Nginx default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Nginx is working as expected.

Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server

MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Zenario. 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

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

Run these on Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.10 LTS

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

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

Restart MariaDB server

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB server

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

mariadb welcome

Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules

PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. in order 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 7.2

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

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-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mongodb php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

After installing PHP 7.2, run the commands below to open PHP default config file for Nginx.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

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.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, save the file and close out.

Step 3: Restart Nginx

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

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Step 4: Create Zenario Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Zenario to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Zenario database.

To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called zenario

CREATE DATABASE zenario;

Create a database user called zenariouser with new password

CREATE USER 'zenariouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Then grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON zenario.* TO 'zenariouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 5: Download Zenario Latest Release

To get Zenario latest release you may want to use Github repository. Install Composer, Curl and other dependencies to get started.

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sS  | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

After installing curl and Composer above, change into the Nginx root directory and download Zenario packages from Github. Always replace the branch number with the latest branch.

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/zenario
cd /var/www/html/zenario
sudo composer create-project tribalsystems/zenario -sdev .

Next, create these two folders.

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/backup
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/docstore

Then give the web server access to them.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/docstore
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/backup

Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Zenario to function.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/zenario/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/zenario/

Step 6: Configure Nginx

Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Zenario. This file will control how users access Zenario content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called zenario

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/zenario

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.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/html/zenario;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;

     client_max_body_size 100M;

     autoindex off;

     location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
          }

    location ~ \.php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Save the file and exit.

Step 7: Enable the Zenario and Rewrite Module

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/zenario /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Step 8 : Restart Nginx

To load all the settings above, restart Nginx by running the commands below.

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Zenario setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.

Then follow the on-screen instructions and select the installation language here and continue with the setup wizard.

zenario Ubuntu install

Next, accept the licensing terms and click Fresh Install

zenario ubuntu setup

On the next screen, enter the database connection info you created above and continue.

Ubuntu zenario setup

Next, select to install with default theme.

zenario ubuntu setup

After that, create an admin account and continue.

Zenario ubuntu setup

Finally, Zenario should be installed and ready to use.

Zenario ubuntu setup

That’s it!

Ubuntu zenario setup

Congratulation! You have successfully installed Zenario CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10.

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