Installing Laravel with HostsNix

Installing Laravel#

Laravel is the most popular PHP framework for building modern web applications, and HostsNix supports automated Laravel project creation with everything configured correctly out of the box — Nginx routing, Composer dependencies, environment configuration, and database setup.

Creating a Laravel Project#

1. Navigate to Websites from the sidebar
2. Click “+ Add New Website”
3. Enter your domain name
4. Select PHP 8.2 or 8.3 — Laravel 11 requires PHP 8.2 or higher. PHP 8.3 is recommended for the best performance with latest Laravel
5. Choose “Laravel” as the framework
6. Enable “Create Database” (recommended) — This creates a MySQL database and automatically configures the .env file with the correct credentials
7. Click “Create”

HostsNix will handle the entire setup process:

• Creates a fresh Laravel project using composer create-project
• Installs all Composer dependencies
• Configures the .env file with your database credentials, app URL, and application key
• Generates the application encryption key (php artisan key:generate)
• Sets proper file permissions (writable storage/ and bootstrap/cache/)
• Configures Nginx to serve from the public/ directory with proper rewrite rules for Laravel routing

Nginx Configuration#

The Nginx virtual host is automatically configured with Laravel-optimized settings:

• Document root points to /rknix/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/public (Laravel’s public directory)
• try_files directive routes all requests through index.php for Laravel’s routing
• Static files (CSS, JS, images) are served directly by Nginx for best performance
• Common security headers are pre-configured

If you need to customize the Nginx configuration (e.g., for API rate limiting or custom headers), use the Vhost Configuration option in Website Settings.

Running Artisan Commands#

For Laravel development tasks like migrations, seeding, and queue management, you’ll need SSH access. Connect to your server and navigate to your project directory:

cd /rknix/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Seed the database
php artisan db:seed

# Clear all caches
php artisan optimize:clear

# Start the queue worker
php artisan queue:work

Environment Configuration#

You can edit the .env file directly from the HostsNix File Manager. Common settings you might want to adjust:

• APP_ENV — Set to production for live sites
• APP_DEBUG — Set to false in production (never leave debugging enabled on a public site)
• APP_URL — Your full domain URL including https://
• MAIL_* — Configure email settings for password resets and notifications
• CACHE_DRIVER — Use file or redis for caching
• SESSION_DRIVER — Use file, database, or redis

Troubleshooting#

“Permission denied” errors in storage: Laravel needs write access to storage/ and bootstrap/cache/. Set permissions to 775 for these directories using the File Manager.

Routes returning 404: The Nginx configuration may not be routing properly. Check Website Settings → Vhost Configuration and ensure the try_files directive includes /index.php?$query_string.

Composer memory errors: Large Laravel projects with many dependencies may need more PHP memory. Increase memory_limit in PHP Settings to 512M or higher.