🚀 How to Deploy a Symfony Project on Amazon Lightsail – Step-by-Step Guide (2025)

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the exact steps I followed to deploy a Symfony project (app.danieluxury.top) on an Apache-based Ubuntu server using Amazon Lightsail. This tutorial covers everything from DNS and SSL to Symfony installation and permissions — with real-world errors and how we fixed them.

🧱 Prerequisites

• A registered domain (e.g. via Hostinger)
• An Amazon Lightsail instance (Ubuntu + Apache)
• A Symfony project on Git (private or public)
• SSH access to your server

📦 1. Create a Lightsail Instance

1. Go to the Lightsail Console
2. Create an Ubuntu-based instance (e.g., Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
3. Choose your instance size and region
4. Name it something like symfony-server
5. Wait for it to boot, then connect via SSH

⚙️ 2. Install LAMP Stack (Apache, PHP, MariaDB, Composer)

Use this script to automate installation:

curl -O https://yourdomain.com/scripts/install-lamp.sh
chmod +x install-lamp.sh
sudo ./install-lamp.sh

Script contents:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-mysql \
php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-intl php-bcmath php-soap acl

systemctl enable apache2 mariadb
systemctl start apache2 mariadb
mysql_secure_installation

a2enmod rewrite
systemctl restart apache2

apt install -y git unzip curl
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

💾 2.1. Add Swap Space (Optional but Recommended)

For small instances, adding swap prevents memory issues during composer operations:

sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Verify swap is active:

sudo swapon --show
free -h

🌐 3. Set Up DNS for Your Domain

Update A records in your domain provider (e.g. Hostinger):

🔐 4. Set Up Apache Virtual Hosts + SSL

HTTP redirect:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName app.danieluxury.top
    Redirect permanent / https://app.danieluxury.top/
</VirtualHost>

HTTPS site:

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName app.danieluxury.top
    DocumentRoot /home/ubuntu/Projects/SD-Sy7/public

    <Directory /home/ubuntu/Projects/SD-Sy7/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/app.danieluxury.top/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/app.danieluxury.top/privkey.pem

    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/app.danieluxury.top-error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/app.danieluxury.top-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable and reload Apache:

sudo a2ensite app.danieluxury.top.conf
sudo a2ensite app.danieluxury.top-le-ssl.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite ssl
sudo systemctl reload apache2

🔐 5. Install SSL Certificate

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y
sudo certbot --apache -d app.danieluxury.top

🧙 6. Clone Symfony Project & Setup

cd ~/Projects
git clone https://github.com/youruser/yourrepo.git SD-Sy7
cd SD-Sy7
composer install

Create .env.local:

APP_ENV=prod
APP_DEBUG=0
APP_SECRET=your_secret
DATABASE_URL="mysql://symfony:your_password@127.0.0.1:3306/sd_sy7?serverVersion=10.11.2-MariaDB&charset=utf8mb4"

🧰 7. Set Up Database

sudo mysql

CREATE DATABASE sd_sy7 CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'symfony'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON sd_sy7.* TO 'symfony'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Run:

php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate --no-interaction

🧼 8. Set Permissions

sudo mkdir -p var/log var/cache/prod
sudo chown -R ubuntu:www-data var
sudo chmod -R 775 var

Or use ACL:

sudo setfacl -R -m u:www-data:rwX -m u:ubuntu:rwX var
sudo setfacl -dR -m u:www-data:rwX -m u:ubuntu:rwX var

🧯 9. Clear Cache & Restart Apache

php bin/console cache:clear --env=prod
php bin/console cache:warmup --env=prod
sudo systemctl restart apache2

🔐 10. Fix File Access Permissions

sudo chmod o+x /home
sudo chmod o+x /home/ubuntu
sudo chmod o+x /home/ubuntu/Projects
sudo chmod o+x /home/ubuntu/Projects/SD-Sy7
sudo chmod -R o+rx /home/ubuntu/Projects/SD-Sy7/public

🧪 11. Test & Debug Logs

Check Symfony logs:

tail -n 50 var/log/prod.log

Apache error logs:

tail -n 50 /var/log/apache2/app.danieluxury.top-error.log

🎉 Result

👉 Visit: https://app.danieluxury.top — You did it!

This setup is now production-ready with HTTPS, structured logging, correct file permissions, and DNS redirection.

📌 Extras

Use this to collect system info (optional script):

./system-info.sh

#!/bin/bash

echo "===== 🖥️ SYSTEM INFORMATION ====="
echo "Hostname       : $(hostname)"
echo "User           : $(whoami)"
echo "Uptime         : $(uptime -p)"
echo "Date & Time    : $(date)"

echo -e "\n===== 🧠 MEMORY ====="
free -h

echo -e "\n===== 💾 DISK USAGE ====="
df -h /

echo -e "\n===== ⚙️ OS & KERNEL ====="
echo "OS             : $(lsb_release -d | cut -f2)"
echo "Architecture   : $(uname -m)"
echo "Kernel         : $(uname -r)"

echo -e "\n===== 🔢 CPU ====="
lscpu | grep -E '^Model name|^CPU\(s\)|^Thread|^Core|^Socket'

echo -e "\n===== 🌐 NETWORK ====="
echo "IP Address     : $(hostname -I)"
ip a | grep inet

echo -e "\n===== 🔐 OPEN PORTS ====="
sudo ss -tuln

echo -e "\n===== 📦 INSTALLED PACKAGES ====="
echo "APT packages   : $(dpkg --get-selections | wc -l)"

echo -e "\n===== ✅ DONE ====="