How to Manually Install Phabricator on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

This guide explains how to manually install and configure Phabricator on an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server.

The instructions are intended for beginners and show the commands that can be manually executed in the Ubuntu terminal.

Important: Make sure you have root or sudo access to your Ubuntu 24.04 server before starting.

1. Requirements

Before installing Phabricator, you should have:

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
A server with at least 2 GB RAM
SSH access
A user account with sudo privileges
A server IP address
A domain name is recommended but not required

Example server:

102.202.44.175

2. Connect to the Ubuntu Server

From your local computer, connect to the Ubuntu server using SSH.

ssh username@SERVER_IP

Example:

ssh eeewnsfl@102.202.44.175

Replace eeewnsfl and 102.202.44.175 with your actual Ubuntu username and server IP address.

3. Update Ubuntu

The first step is to update the Ubuntu package lists and install available updates.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

4. Install Required Packages

Install the basic packages required to download and build Phabricator.

sudo apt install -y \
git \
curl \
wget \
unzip \
vim \
nano \
ca-certificates \
software-properties-common

5. Install Apache

Apache will be used as the web server that allows users to access Phabricator through a browser.

sudo apt install -y apache2

Start Apache:

sudo systemctl enable --now apache2

Check the Apache service:

sudo systemctl status apache2

If Apache is working, you should see:

Active: active (running)

6. Install MySQL/MariaDB

Phabricator requires a MySQL-compatible database server. Ubuntu 24.04 can use MariaDB.

sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client

Enable and start MariaDB:

sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

Check MariaDB:

sudo systemctl status mariadb

7. Secure MariaDB

Run the MariaDB security configuration tool:

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

Follow the questions shown on the screen. For a new installation, you can normally:

Set a database root password
Remove anonymous users
Disable remote root login
Remove the test database
Reload privilege tables

Important: Save your database password somewhere secure. Do not lose it.

8. Configure MariaDB for Phabricator

Create a MariaDB configuration file for Phabricator:

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/99-phabricator.cnf

Paste the following:

[mysqld]
max_allowed_packet=128M
sql_mode=""
innodb_file_per_table=ON
innodb_buffer_pool_size=1G

Save the file:

Press CTRL + O
Press ENTER
Press CTRL + X

Restart MariaDB:

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

9. Install PHP

Install PHP and the extensions commonly required by Phabricator.

sudo apt install -y \
php \
php-cli \
php-mysql \
php-curl \
php-gd \
php-json \
php-mbstring \
php-xml \
php-zip \
php-intl \
php-bcmath

Check PHP:

php -v

10. Install Git and Download Phabricator

Create a directory for the Phabricator installation:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/phabricator

Move into the directory:

cd /opt/phabricator

Clone the Phabricator repository:

sudo git clone https://github.com/phacility/phabricator.git

Clone libphutil:

sudo git clone https://github.com/phacility/libphutil.git

Clone arcanist:

sudo git clone https://github.com/phacility/arcanist.git

The directory should now contain:

/opt/phabricator/phabricator
/opt/phabricator/libphutil
/opt/phabricator/arcanist

11. Create the Phabricator User

Create a dedicated Linux user for running Phabricator.

sudo useradd -r -m -d /opt/phabricator -s /bin/bash phabricator

Change ownership of the installation:

sudo chown -R phabricator:phabricator /opt/phabricator

12. Configure Phabricator

Switch to the Phabricator user:

sudo -u phabricator -H bash

Move into the Phabricator directory:

cd /opt/phabricator/phabricator

Check that the Phabricator command-line tool is available:

./bin/config

13. Configure the Phabricator Base URI

Set the URL that users will use to access Phabricator.

If you are using the server IP:

./bin/config set phabricator.base-uri http://102.202.44.175:8080/

If you have a domain, replace the IP address with your domain.

14. Configure the Database

Configure the MySQL/MariaDB connection.

./bin/config set mysql.host localhost
./bin/config set mysql.port 3306

Configure the database username:

./bin/config set mysql.user root

Phabricator may request the database password during setup. Enter the MariaDB password you created earlier.

15. Configure Apache

Create an Apache virtual host configuration:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/phabricator.conf

Paste:

<VirtualHost *:8080>

    ServerName 102.202.44.175

    DocumentRoot /opt/phabricator/phabricator/webroot

    <Directory /opt/phabricator/phabricator/webroot>
        Require all granted
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /index.php?__path__=/$1 [B,L,QSA]

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/phabricator_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/phabricator_access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and exit Nano.

16. Enable Apache Port 8080

Ubuntu Apache normally listens on port 80. If Phabricator should use port 8080, edit the Apache ports configuration:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Make sure the following line exists:

Listen 8080

Save and exit.

17. Enable the Phabricator Apache Site

Enable the required Apache modules:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Enable the Phabricator site:

sudo a2ensite phabricator.conf

Test the Apache configuration:

sudo apache2ctl configtest

You should see:

Syntax OK

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

18. Check That Apache Is Listening on Port 8080

Run:

sudo ss -ltnp | grep ':8080'

You should see Apache listening on port 8080.

19. Configure the Firewall

If UFW is enabled, allow SSH and HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp
sudo ufw --force enable

Check the firewall:

sudo ufw status

20. Test Phabricator

From the Ubuntu server, test the Phabricator web server:

curl -I http://127.0.0.1:8080

You can also test using the public server IP:

curl -I http://102.202.44.175:8080

A successful installation should return an HTTP response such as:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

or a redirect such as:

HTTP/1.1 302 Found

21. Open Phabricator in Your Browser

Open a web browser on your computer and enter:

http://102.202.44.175:8080

Replace the IP address with your own server IP address if necessary.

22. Useful Phabricator Commands

Phabricator provides command-line utilities that can be used for troubleshooting and configuration.

Check configuration

cd /opt/phabricator/phabricator
./bin/config

Check Phabricator status

./bin/phd status

Check Apache status

sudo systemctl status apache2

Check MariaDB status

sudo systemctl status mariadb

View Apache error logs

sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/phabricator_error.log

23. Troubleshooting

Port 8080 is already in use

If you receive:

Address already in use

check which application is using port 8080:

sudo ss -ltnp | grep ':8080'

You can also use:

sudo lsof -i :8080

Do not stop the application using the port until you understand what it is being used for.

Apache configuration error