Elxis is a free and open source content management software application. It is simple, powerful, flexible, easy to use and free for use under the GNU/GPL license.

It comes with lots of features, some of them are listed below:

1. Responsive design.
2. Multi-level menus.
3. Contact Forms.
4. Image galleries
5. Built-in commentary system.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Elxis CMS on CentOS 7 server.

Requirements

• A server running Ubuntu CentOS 7 server.
• A non root user with sudo privileges setup on your server.

Update the System

Before installing any packages, it is recommended to update your system with the latest version. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo yum update -y

Once your system is up to date, you can proceed to the next step.

Install Apache Web Server

First, you will need to install Apache web server on your server. You can install it by just running the following command:

sudo yum install httpd -y

Once Apache is installed, start the web server and set it to start automatically on system start up with the following command:

sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd

Install PHP

Elxis is written in PHP language, so you will need to install PHP and other require modules on your system. You can install all of them with the following command:

sudo yum install php php-mysql php-common php-pdo php-gd php-xml php-xmlrpc php-mcrypt php-mbstring

Once installation is completed, you can proceed to install MariaDB server.

Install and Configure MariaDB Server

Elxis store it’s content in database, so you will need to install MariaDB on your server. You can install it with the following command:

sudo yum install mariadb mariadb-server -y

Once the installation is completed start the database server and set it to start on start up

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

By default, MariaDB is not secured, so you will also need to secure it first. You can secure it by running the mysql_secure_installation script:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Answer all the questions as below:

Set root password? [Y/n] n
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y

Once MariaDB is secured, log in to the MariaDB console with the following command:

mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password when prompt, then create a database for Elxis with the following command:

MariaDB [(none)]>CREATE DATABASE elxisdb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Next, create a username and password for Elxis with the following command:

MariaDB [(none)]>CREATE USER 'elxisuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Next, grant privileges to the elxis database with the following command:

MariaDB [(none)]>GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON elxisdb.* TO 'elxisuser'@'localhost';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Next, you will need to run the FLUSH PRIVILEGES command so that the privileges table will be reloaded by MariaDB and we can use new credential:

MariaDB [(none)]>FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Next, exit from the MariaDB console with the following command:

MariaDB [(none)]>\q

Once you are done, you can proceed to the next step.

Install Elxis

Before starting, you will need to download the latest stable version of the Elxis from their official website. Once the download is completed extract the downloaded file with the following command:

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/elxis/
sudo unzip elxis_4.5_typhon_rev1909.zip -d /var/www/html/elxis/

Next, you will also need to make some permission changes. You can do this with the following command:

sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/elxis

Once you are done, you can proceed to the next step.

Configure Apache for Elxis

Next, you will need to create a apache virtual host directive for Elxis. You can do this by creating elxis.conf file inside /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/elxis.conf

Add the following lines:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@yourdomain.com
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/elxis"
ServerName 192.168.15.193
ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd/elxis-error_log"
CustomLog "/var/log/httpd/elxis-access_log" combined

<Directory "/var/www/html/elxis/">
DirectoryIndex index.php
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save the file once you are finished and restart the Apache web server for the changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Once you are done, you can proceed to access Elxis web interface.

Access Elxis Web Interface

Before accessing Elxis web interface, you will need to set firewall rules for Pimcore to work properly.

You can do this by running the following command:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp

Next, reload the firewalld with the following command:

sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Finally, open your web browser and type the URL http://yourdomain.com/, you should see the following installation page :

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Here, click on Continue button, you should see the following licence agreement page:

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Here, accept the licence agreement and click on the Continue button, you should see the following page:

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Here, you will need to provide your site name, site IP address, database name, Username, Password, etc. Once you have done. Click on the Submit button, you should see the following page:

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Here, provide your new administrator user details like, first name, last name, email address, username and password, then click on the Submit button, you should see the following page:

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Now, click on Visit your new web site, you should see the Elxis default home page as shown in below image:

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Next, click on administration button, you should see the Elxis login screen in following image:

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Here, provide your admin user credential then click on Login button, you should see the Elxis control panel in following image:

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Congratulations! You have successfully installed Elxis CMS on your CentOS 7 server. You can easily create your own website using Elxis control panel.