We use the APT packages of the second-latest Ubuntu LTS release and their default configuration as a reference. We recommend using the second-latest Ubuntu LTS. Alternatively, install and configure a comparable setup.
HTTP Server
nginx 1.x or Apache 2.x (see below)
Valid TLS certificate installed
nginx
Default configuration using PHP-FPM or FastCGI as PHP Integration
Host configuration as prescribed by your Joomla or Wordpress site
Apache
Default configuration using PHP-FPM, FastCGI or mod_php as PHP Integration
Host configuration as prescribed by your Joomla or Wordpress site
Modules: mod_rewrite, mod_headers, mod_expires, mod_deflate, support for .htaccess files in docroot
PHP
Version: 5.6 - 7.3 (latest recommended)
Extensions:
php-cli
php-common
php-fpm
php-gd
php-json
php-bcmath
php-mbstring
php-mcrypt
php-mysql
php-opcache
php-readline
php-soap
php-xml
php-zip
php-curl
php-apcu
php-imagick
Non-standard PHP Extensions
ioncube Loader (minimum version 10.2) (configure the PHP-FPM and CLI SAPI). You find the installation guide on https://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php (see loader wizard for a guided installation process)
Helpful detail PHP.ini settings
Depends on many factors (trust your server administrator), propose these settings to your server administrator:
max_execution_time: 60s minimum
post_max_size: 32MB minimum
upload_max_filesize: 32MB minimum
memory_limit: 512M minimum
max_input_time: 120s minimum
MySQL
MySQL 5.5 - 5.7
Barracuda and InnoDB Support