This guide documents a clean, modern baseline for building reusable AlmaLinux 10 server templates. It is designed to serve as the shared foundation for both WordPress (PHP) and ColdFusion (Lucee or Adobe CF) environments.

1. Update and Prepare the System

dnf update -y
dnf install iproute -y
ip addr

This ensures the system is fully patched and provides the modern ip networking tools used for interface and routing inspection.

2. Install and Configure Apache

dnf install httpd -y
systemctl enable --now httpd
systemctl status httpd

Create directories for modular site configuration:

mkdir /etc/httpd/sites-available
mkdir /etc/httpd/sites-enabled

For cleaner configuration management, add the following line to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

3. Install Useful Apache Tools

dnf install -y httpd-tools

• ab – load testing and benchmarking
• htpasswd – basic authentication management
• logresolve – resolve IPs in access logs

4. Install and Secure MariaDB

dnf install mariadb-server -y
systemctl enable --now mariadb
mysql_secure_installation

Recommended responses during setup:

• Press Enter for no root password on first run
• Answer n to reconfiguring unix_socket authentication
• Remove anonymous users
• Disallow remote root login
• Reload privilege tables

5. Basic Firewall Configuration

systemctl status firewalld

Open standard web ports:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --reload

Verify:

firewall-cmd --list-all

6. Open Application Port Range (Optional)

If your environment requires internal services or application ports:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=5000-6000/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload

Note: Keep ports internal unless external access is explicitly required.

7. Optional Database Setup

mysql -u root -p

SHOW DATABASES;
CREATE DATABASE myapp;
CREATE USER 'myuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strongpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON myapp.* TO 'myuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

8. Template Variations

9. Verification

systemctl status httpd
systemctl status mariadb
firewall-cmd --list-all

10. Maintenance Notes

• Run dnf update -y regularly
• Back up /etc/httpd and /etc/my.cnf.d
• Verify SELinux contexts after service changes
• Create VM snapshots before cloning templates