Installation Guide (SSH / Command Line)

Overview

This guide covers installing Larapen via the command line (SSH) on a VPS, dedicated server, or any environment with terminal access. This is the recommended method for developers and technical users.

Prerequisites

• SSH access to your server
• PHP 8.3+ with required extensions installed
• Composer 2.x installed globally
• Node.js 18+ (for Vite asset builds)
• MySQL 8.0+ server running
• A web server (Apache or Nginx) configured
• The Larapen ZIP file from CodeCanyon

Step 1: Create the database

Connect to MySQL and create the database and user:

mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE larapen CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'larapen_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_strong_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON larapen.* TO 'larapen_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 2: Upload and extract the files

Transfer the Larapen ZIP to your server and extract it:

# Upload via SCP (from your local machine)
scp larapen.zip user@yourserver:/tmp/

# On the server, extract to the web root
cd /var/www
unzip /tmp/larapen.zip -d larapen
cd larapen

Step 3: Set directory permissions

# Set ownership to the web server user (www-data for Apache/Nginx on Ubuntu)
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/larapen

# Set directory permissions
sudo find /var/www/larapen -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/larapen -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

# Make storage and cache writable
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

Step 4: Configure the web server

Apache

Create a virtual host configuration:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/larapen.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/larapen/public

    <Directory /var/www/larapen/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

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

# Enable the site and rewrite module
sudo a2ensite larapen.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Nginx

Create a server block configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/larapen

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/larapen/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;

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

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

# Enable the site
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/larapen /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 5: Run the web installer

1. Open your browser and go to: https://yourdomain.com/install
2. The Larapen web installation wizard will launch automatically.
3. Follow the wizard steps: requirements check, permissions check, database setup, admin account creation, and site settings.
4. Click "Install" and wait for the process to complete.

Step 6: Set up SSL

# Install Certbot (if not already installed)
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache   # for Apache
# OR
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx     # for Nginx

# Obtain and install SSL certificate
sudo certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
# OR
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Update APP_URL in .env to use https://.

Step 7: Set up the cron job

sudo crontab -e -u www-data

Add this line:

* * * * * cd /var/www/larapen && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Step 8: Optimize for production

# Cache configuration, routes, and views
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

# Optional: set up the queue worker (for background jobs)
php artisan queue:work --daemon

Step 9: Verify the installation

• Visit https://yourdomain.com — your website should display.
• Visit https://yourdomain.com/admin — log in with your admin credentials.