How to Set Up DokuWiki on Ubuntu 22.04 Server

If you like to document your documents using Markdown-like format, you should try out DokuWiki. DokuWiki syntax is similar to Markdown. It has plugins to extend it and requires no database. Let’s jump in and explore how you can set up DokuWiki on an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS server.

If you are going to use a domain, point it to the server’s IP so that an SSL certificate can be retrieved from Let’s Encrypt.

1- Server preparation

Update the server and enable firewall and open only specific ports.

apt update && apt upgrade

ufw default allow outgoing
ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22
ufw allow 80
ufw allow 443
ufw enable
ufw status

We will now install PHP and Apache.

apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php php php-gmp php-bcmath php-gd php-curl php-mbstring php-intl php-xml php-fpm vim

After installation is completed, enable PHP-FPM:

a2enconf php8.1-fpm
a2dismod php8.1
a2dismod mpm_prefork
a2enmod mpm_event

Enable some Apache modules:

a2enmod ssl rewrite headers deflate cache http2

Enable Apache and PHP-FPM at boot:

systemctl enable apache2
systemctl enable php8.1-fpm

systemctl restart apache2

2- Download DokuWiki

We are now ready to download and install DokuWiki.

cd /var/www
wget https://download.dokuwiki.org/src/dokuwiki/dokuwiki-stable.tgz

Extract the files from the archive and move them to the HTML directory.

tar xvf dokuwiki-stable.tgz
rm -r /var/www/html/*
shopt -s dotglob
mv dokuwiki-*/* html/

Change the ownership:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

3- Apache virtual host

For our setup, we will create a virtual host file.

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
vim dokuwiki.conf

Enter the following it (change where necessary).

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerName DOMAIN.COM

	DocumentRoot /var/www/html

	<Directory "/var/www/html">
		AllowOverride All
		Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
	</Directory>

	ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/dokuwiki_error.log
</VirtualHost>

Activate this virtual host file and restart Apache.

a2dissite 000-default.conf
a2ensite dokuwiki.conf

apachectl -t
systemctl restart apache2

4- SSL certificate

If you are using an IP, skip this step. In the case of a domain, run the following commands to get a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.

apt install certbot
certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/html -d DOAMIN.COM

Note down the certificate paths.

5- Update virtual host

Once you have the SSL certificates, it’s time to create a 443 block section in the virtual host file (/etc/apache2/sites-available/dokuwiki.conf).

<VirtualHost *:443>
	ServerName DOMAIN.COM
	DocumentRoot /var/www/html

	SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256+EDH:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA:AES128-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:HIGH:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!MD5:!PSK:!RC4
	SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
	SSLHonorCipherOrder On
	Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload"
	Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY
	Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff

	Protocols h2 http/1.1

	<Directory "/var/www/html">
		AllowOverride All
		Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
	</Directory>

	<FilesMatch ".(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf|ttf|woff)$">
		Header set Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public"
	</FilesMatch>

	ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/dokuwiki_error.log

	SSLEngine on
	SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN.COM/privkey.pem
	SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN.COM/fullchain.pem
</VirtualHost>

Save and restart Apache:

apachectl -t
systemctl restart apache2

To automatically redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, add the following to the port 80 block. Don’t forget to restart Apache.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

6- Install DokuWiki

We are done with the setup and configuration parts of the server. We can now proceed to install DokuWiki. Type the URL into the browser and add install.php to it.

URL: https://DOMAIN.COM/install.php

You will see the following screen. Enter your desired wiki name, admin ID, and the rest of the information.

Installation is now complete. You should be able to create your wiki pages and documentation.