How to deploy a Laravel application with ISPConfig

Procédure

Deploying a Laravel application on a VPS with ISPConfig is done by configuring your domain and the website in the management panel, then installing the project from the command line with a dedicated account. Laravel is an open source web framework in PHP designed to create robust and modern web applications thanks to a clear and elegant architecture. This complete procedure guides you step by step all the way to displaying the secure HTTPS home page, without needing to use the server's root privileges.

Steps

1. Create the DNS record for your domain or subdomain

   Go to the management section for your domain, open the DNS Zone tab, then create a new entry. Choose the A type, enter the desired subdomain (for example laravel for laravel.learnlws.fr), enter your VPS server's IP address (e.g. 203.0.113.10), then click Add.

   

2. Access the ISPConfig interface from the customer area

   From your LWS VPS customer area, locate the Server Administration block and click the Administration Panel button to log in to ISPConfig.

   

3. Add the website with PHP-FPM and Let's Encrypt

   In ISPConfig, navigate to the Sites menu then click Add new website. Enter your full domain (e.g. laravel.learnlws.fr), select the Auto-Subdomain alias if needed, make sure to check the SSL and Let's Encrypt SSL boxes, set the PHP field to PHP-FPM, choose a recent PHP version, then click Save.

   

4. Create a Shell user for the project

   In the left-hand menu, go to the Command Line section and click SSH/SFTP-User, then Add new SSH-User. Select your website, enter the username (which will be preceded by an automatic prefix such as defaultlaravelapp), provide a secure password, leave the Chroot Shell setting on None to allow the global execution of PHP tools, then click Save.

   

5. Create the MySQL database and its user

   In the left-hand menu under Databases, first add a MySQL user via Database Users and assign it a strong password. Then go to Databases, click Add new Database, select your site, name the database, and attach the MySQL user you just defined before validating.

6. Connect via SSH and deploy the project with Composer

   Open your terminal and connect using your shell user: ssh defaultlaravelapp@203.0.113.10. Check that Composer (the standard dependency manager for PHP) is available with the composer -V command; if it is not yet present, download its executable directly into your account. Move to your hosting directory and initialize the project with composer create-project laravel/laravel . (or clone your Git repository before running composer install).

7. Configure the .env file, generate the key, and migrate the database

   Edit the .env file at the root of your Laravel project with an editor such as nano: set APP_URL=https://laravel.learnlws.fr and complete the MySQL settings (DB_HOST=203.0.113.10, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD). Then run the encryption key generation with php artisan key:generate, followed by the migrations with php artisan migrate to create the tables.

8. Adjust the web public folder and permissions

   Laravel serves its entry point from its public/ subfolder. In ISPConfig, adjust your website's Apache document root directive to point to this public/ folder (or link the web/ folder to public/), then apply the necessary write permissions on the cache and log folders by running chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache.

9. Check that it works in the browser

   Open your web browser and enter your site address (for example https://laravel.learnlws.fr). The default Laravel home page appears with the SSL security padlock active, confirming the installation was completed successfully.

Essential Artisan commands after deployment

After installing your Laravel application, several Artisan console commands make operation and maintenance of the project easier.

• php artisan key:generate — generates the unique encryption key essential to application security
• php artisan migrate — applies the schemas and creates all the tables in your MySQL database
• php artisan config:cache — caches the configuration files to speed up production performance
• php artisan route:cache — optimizes the loading of your application routes for visitor requests

Frequently asked questions

Useful links

• Official Laravel website
• Official Laravel documentation
• Official Composer website