• VPS / VDS servers
• Application catalog for installation on VPS / VDS servers
• Installing phpbb on Debian 12 VPS

In this guide, we will install the phpBB application on a virtual server, so as not to do the same work every time, we will take the assembly Web stack on Debian 12. This assembly is specially designed to quickly deploy web applications requiring php and mariadb. Download the latest version from the official site, install through the browser. All necessary services are already installed and configured. You can also order a vps server with pre-installed phpBB, you will only need to specify a login and password for administration.

Version 3.3.10

apt update && apt upgrade
wget https://download.phpbb.com/pub/release/3.3/3.3.10/phpBB-3.3.10.zip
unzip phpBB-3.3.10.zip -d /var/www/
mv /var/www/phpBB3 /var/www/domain.tld
apt install php8.2-intl

2. Create a database and write in the settings

mariadb -u root
	
create database phpbb3;
grant all privileges on phpbb3.* to user@localhost identified by 'your-password';
flush privileges;
exit;

3. Web service setup

Assign rights and create a configuration file for our domain:

chown www-data:www-data /var/www/domain.tld/ -R
mv /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/domain.tld.conf

Configuration file:

/etc/nginx/conf.d/domain.tld.conf

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  server_name _;
  root /var/www/domain.tld;
  index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

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

  location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
  }

location /phpmyadmin {
        auth_basic "Admin Login";
        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/pma_access;
    }

# 
For PHPBB insert this block -Begin-


location @rewriteapp {
                rewrite ^(.*)$ /app.php/$1 last;
        }

   location /install/ {
        try_files $uri $uri/ @rewrite_installapp =404;

      location ~ \.php(/|$) {
	fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
	fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
	include fastcgi_params;
	include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
      }
   }

        location @rewrite_installapp {
                rewrite ^(.*)$ /install/app.php/$1 last;
   }

# 
For PHPBB insert this block -End-


 # A long browser cache lifetime can speed up repeat visits to your page
  location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|webp|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|css|js|ico|xml)$ {
       access_log        off;
       log_not_found     off;
       expires           360d;
  }

  # disable access to hidden files
  location ~ /\.ht {
      access_log off;
      log_not_found off;
      deny all;
  }
}

Change the ftp user's home directory to ours:

/etc/passwd

ftpuser:x:1000:1000:,,,:/var/www/domain.tld:/bin/bash

Let's change the path to phpMyAdmin for our configuration:

ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/domain.tld/
service nginx restart

Change domain.tld to your already configured in the DNS editor to the ip address of the VPS server. Thus, you can add several sites by analogy. Go to the browser using the configured http://domain.tld/ domain and complete the installation in the browser. You will be prompted to enter an administrator username and password. This completes the installation. In case of site transfer, you can place existing files and import the database.

4. To complete the installation, you must specify a username and password and enter the database data, follow the link:

http://
server-ip
/install/app.php

Administrative section.

phpBB installation is complete.