LAMP / LEMP Install Walkthrough #

A complete, copy-pasteable walkthrough for installing standalone
Bizuno directly on a Linux + Apache (or Nginx) + MySQL/MariaDB + PHP
host. No Docker, no WordPress — just the core library served by your
own web server. This is the right path when:

• You have a VPS, dedicated server, or shared-hosting account and
  want Bizuno running on its own (sub)domain.
• You’re comfortable creating a database and pointing a vhost at a
  directory, or your host gives you cPanel/Plesk to do it.
• You don’t also run WordPress on the same site (if you do, the
  WordPress plugin path is
  less work — single login, shared DB).

End state: https://your.hostname/ serves Bizuno, PHP-FPM behind
Apache or Nginx, schema created in MySQL/MariaDB, TLS terminated by
the web server. Roughly 20 minutes on a fresh box.

Note on the installer: you do not hand-edit a config file in
this path. You create an empty database + user, then the browser-based
installer writes portalCFG.php for you — generating a unique
BIZUNO_KEY and BIZUNO_BIZID and storing your DB credentials. Skip
ahead to Phase 5 to see it.

What you’ll need before you start #

1. A Linux host with shell access — Debian/Ubuntu used below;
   RHEL/Rocky/Alma work the same with dnf instead of apt. Shared
   hosting with cPanel/Plesk works too — skip the package-install
   phases and use the panel’s UI for the vhost + database.
2. PHP 8.2+ (8.0 is the hard floor the app enforces, but Composer
   resolves dependencies against 8.2). PHP-FPM recommended.
3. MySQL 5.6+ / MariaDB 10.2+.
4. Composer — or use a pre-bundled release zip (see Phase 3B).
5. A hostname with DNS pointed at the server, and a TLS cert
   (Let’s Encrypt via certbot is fine).

Phase 1 — Install the stack #

1.1 Apache + PHP-FPM (the “LAMP” path) #

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y apache2 \
    php php-fpm php-mysql php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-gd \
    php-xml php-bcmath \
    mariadb-server unzip git curl

The PHP extensions above match what Bizuno’s pre-flight check
requires — mbstring, pdo_mysql, json, curl, openssl,
zip, gd. (json and openssl are compiled into modern PHP, so
they aren’t separate packages.) If any are missing the installer
shows a friendly “setup required” page listing exactly which.

Enable the Apache modules Bizuno’s .htaccess and PHP-FPM need:

sudo a2enmod rewrite proxy_fcgi setenvif
sudo a2enconf php8.2-fpm        # adjust version to your PHP
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Nginx (LEMP) instead? Install nginx + php-fpm rather than
apache2, and translate the .htaccess HTTPS redirect into a
server block (see the Nginx note
at the end). Everything else is identical.

1.2 Secure MariaDB #

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Set a root password, remove anonymous users and the test database,
disallow remote root. Defaults are fine for the rest.

Phase 2 — Create the database #

Bizuno needs an empty database and a user with full rights on it.
The installer creates all tables; you just provision the shell.

sudo mysql

CREATE DATABASE bizuno CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'bizuno'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'use-a-strong-password-here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bizuno.* TO 'bizuno'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Keep the database name, user, and password handy — you’ll type them
into the installer in Phase 5.

utf8mb4 matters: Bizuno stores user-entered names, notes, and
product descriptions that routinely include emoji and non-Latin
characters. The older utf8 (3-byte) charset truncates them.

Phase 3 — Get the Bizuno code + dependencies #

Pick one of A or B.

3A. Composer (recommended — always current) #

cd /var/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/phreesoft/bizuno.git
cd bizuno
sudo composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

composer install fetches vendor/ (PHPMailer, phpseclib, FPDI/tFPDF,
picqer/php-barcode-generator, webauthn-lib, authorizenet). The
--no-dev flag skips the docs-only Parsedown dependency.

Don’t have Composer? curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
then sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer. Or use 3B.

3B. Pre-built release zip (no Composer) #

Download a release from
github.com/phreesoft/bizuno/releases —
these bundle vendor/ already — and unzip into /var/www/bizuno.

3.1 Ownership + permissions #

Apache/PHP-FPM needs to read the tree, write portalCFG.php once
during install, and read/write the data directory:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/bizuno
sudo find /var/www/bizuno -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/bizuno -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

The installer writes portalCFG.php into the web root on first run,
so that directory must be writable by the PHP user at install
time. After install you can tighten it back to 644 /
non-writable — the file is only rewritten on re-install.

Phase 4 — Web server vhost + TLS #

4.1 Apache vhost #

# /etc/apache2/sites-available/bizuno.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName bizuno.your-domain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/bizuno

    <Directory /var/www/bizuno>
        AllowOverride All        # required — Bizuno ships an .htaccess
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog  ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/bizuno-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/bizuno-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

sudo a2ensite bizuno
sudo apache2ctl configtest && sudo systemctl reload apache2

AllowOverride All is required so Bizuno’s shipped .htaccess
(the HTTPS-redirect rules) is honored.

4.2 TLS via Let’s Encrypt #

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d bizuno.your-domain.com

Certbot rewrites the vhost to add the :443 block and an
http→https redirect. Combined with Bizuno’s own .htaccess
redirect, every request lands on HTTPS.

Phase 5 — Run the browser installer #

Open https://bizuno.your-domain.com/ in a browser.

Because no portalCFG.php exists yet, Bizuno boots from
portalCFG-sample.php, detects it can’t connect to a real database,
and serves the install wizard:

1. Database — name, user, password (the ones you created in
   Phase 2). The wizard tests the connection before proceeding.
2. Admin user — email + password. This becomes your first login
   (role: admin).
3. Business title and base currency.
4. Click Install.

On submit, Bizuno:

• Tests the DB credentials.
• Writes portalCFG.php to the web root, generating a unique
  BIZUNO_KEY (PII/password encryption) and BIZUNO_BIZID, and
  recording your DB creds. The shipped default key is never used.
• Creates the full schema in your database.
• Creates the admin contact + login and logs you in.
• Reloads to the Bizuno dashboard.

You’re now running standalone Bizuno.

Back up BIZUNO_KEY immediately. Open the freshly written
/var/www/bizuno/portalCFG.php and copy the BIZUNO_KEY value into
a password manager. It encrypts stored PII — lose it and encrypted
data can’t be recovered.

5.1 Lock the data directory out of the webroot (recommended) #

By default BIZUNO_DATA is DOCUMENT_ROOT/data/ — uploads, cache, and
backups sit under the web root. For a hardened install, move it (and
optionally the PHP source) outside any directory Apache serves, then
point the path constants at the new location in portalCFG.php:

define('BIZUNO_DATA', '/var/www/bizuno-private/data/');

See the path-constant comments at the top of portalCFG-sample.php
(BIZUNO_FS_LIBRARY / BIZUNO_FS_ASSETS / BIZUNO_DATA) for the full
out-of-webroot pattern.

Common gotchas #

Symptom	Cause	Fix
“Setup required” page listing missing PHP extensions	A required ext isn’t loaded	sudo apt install php-mbstring php-mysql php-curl php-zip php-gd && sudo systemctl restart php8.2-fpm apache2
“Dependencies not installed” page	vendor/ is missing — you skipped Composer	Run composer install --no-dev in the web root, or use a pre-bundled release zip (Phase 3B)
Installer errors: config file not writable	PHP user can’t write portalCFG.php	sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/bizuno and ensure the dir is writable during install
“Invalid DB credentials” in the wizard	DB user lacks rights, or wrong host	Re-check the GRANT; host is localhost for a same-box MariaDB
.htaccess rules ignored, no HTTPS redirect	AllowOverride not set	Set AllowOverride All in the <Directory> block and reload Apache
Infinite http↔https redirect loop behind a proxy/LB	Apache sees HTTPS=off from the proxy	Bizuno’s .htaccess already checks X-Forwarded-Proto; make sure your proxy sets it to https
Blank white page, 500 error	PHP-FPM not wired to Apache, or a fatal in the error log	sudo a2enconf php8.2-fpm; check /var/log/apache2/bizuno-error.log

Day-2: backups + updates #

Back up the three things that matter #

# 1. The database
mysqldump -u bizuno -p bizuno | gzip > bizuno-db-$(date +%F).sql.gz

# 2. The data directory (uploads, attachments, biz-instance-key.php)
tar -czf bizuno-data-$(date +%F).tar.gz -C /var/www/bizuno data

# 3. portalCFG.php (contains BIZUNO_KEY — guard it)
cp /var/www/bizuno/portalCFG.php ~/bizuno-portalCFG-$(date +%F).php

biz-instance-key.php inside the data directory signs session
cookies; BIZUNO_KEY in portalCFG.php encrypts PII. Back up both.

Update Bizuno #

cd /var/www/bizuno
sudo -u www-data git pull
sudo -u www-data composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

If the new version changes the schema, Bizuno runs migrations
automatically on the next request. portalCFG.php is left untouched.

Appendix: Nginx server block #

For LEMP, replace the .htaccess HTTPS redirect with a server block
and pass PHP to FPM:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name bizuno.your-domain.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name bizuno.your-domain.com;
    root /var/www/bizuno;
    index index.php;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/bizuno.your-domain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/bizuno.your-domain.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO https;   # so Bizuno emits https URLs
    }
}

The HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO https param is the Nginx equivalent of
the .htaccess proxy check — without it Bizuno emits http:// URLs
behind TLS and redirects break.

See also #

• Three Ways to Run It — pick the right path
• Docker Install Walkthrough — containerized alternative
• WordPress Install Walkthrough — run inside WP admin instead
• First-hour walkthrough — what to do once you’re logged in
• Administration → Backup and Restore