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In this article, we demonstrate how to deploy the KodeKloud ecommerce application manually on a CentOS machine—without using automation tools like Ansible. You can use any available CentOS machine or quickly access a CentOS playground online. The application’s source code is hosted on GitHub in the learning-app-ecommerce repository maintained by the KodeKloud organization. The repository includes all necessary deployment files along with a detailed README file divided into three sections: • Deploying prerequisites
• Deploying and configuring the database
• Deploying and configuring the web server Follow the steps below sequentially to complete the manual deployment.

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1. Deploying Prerequisites

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Installing and Configuring firewalld

Begin by installing firewalld, then start and enable the service to run on system boot: 
sudo yum install -y firewalld
sudo systemctl start firewalld
sudo systemctl enable firewalld
If you need to troubleshoot, verify the service status with: 
sudo systemctl status firewalld
When adding firewall rules later in the process, you can list all active rules with: 
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all
A sample troubleshooting session might resemble: 
[root@eb29eab4499 ~]# sudo systemctl start firewalld
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start firewalld.service
[root@eb29eab4499 ~]# sudo systemctl enable firewalld
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service
    to /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/firewalld.service
    to /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.

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2. Deploying and Configuring the Database

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Installing MariaDB Server

Install the MariaDB server package using the following command: 
sudo yum install -y mariadb-server
After installation, you can review or modify default settings in the configuration file /etc/my.cnf. Below is an example configuration; unless you need to change the default port or other settings, the provided configuration remains suitable: 
[mysqld]
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
# Disabling symbolic-links is recommended to prevent assorted security risks
symbolic-links=0
# Settings user and group are ignored when systemd is used.
# If you need to run mysqld under a different user or group,
# customize your systemd unit file for mariadb according to the
[mysqld_safe]
log-error=/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log
pid-file=/var/run/mariadb/mariadb.pid
#
# include all files from the config directory
#
!includedir /etc/my.cnf.d
Start and enable MariaDB: 
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
A sample session to verify these steps: 
[root@eb29eab44d99 ~]# vi /etc/my.cnf
[root@eb29eab44d99 ~]# sudo systemctl start mariadb
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start mariadb.service
[root@eb29eab44d99 ~]# sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service
    to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.

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Adding the Firewall Rule for MariaDB

Open port 3306 (the default MySQL port) by executing: 
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=3306/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Confirm that the new rule is active: 
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

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Configuring the Database

Access the MariaDB monitor to create the database, add a new user, and grant the necessary privileges. :::note Database Setup In this example, we create a database named ecomdb and a user ecomuser with the password ecompassword. :::
  1. Create the Database: 
    MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE ecomdb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
  2. Verify the Database: If a typo occurs, such as show database;, correct it using: 
    MariaDB [(none)]> SHOW DATABASES;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| ecomdb             |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| test               |
+--------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)
  3. Create a Database User and Grant Privileges: 
    MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'ecomuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ecompassword';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'ecomuser'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

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Loading Inventory Data

The GitHub repository includes a SQL script (DB-load-script.sql in the assets directory) that creates a products table with sample data.
  1. Create the SQL Script File: Run the command below to create the file and paste the content: 
    cat > db-load-script.sql
  2. Sample Contents of db-load-script.sql: 
    USE ecomdb;
CREATE TABLE products (
  id mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
  Name varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  Price varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  ImageUrl varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (id) AUTO_INCREMENT=1
);

INSERT INTO products (Name, Price, ImageUrl) VALUES
  ("Laptop", "100", "c-1.png"),
  ("Drone", "20", "c-2.png"),
  ("VR", "300", "c-3.png"),
  ("Tablet", "50", "c-5.png"),
  ("Watch", "90", "c-6.png"),
  ("Phone Covers", "20", "c-7.png"),
  ("Phone", "80", "c-8.png"),
  ("Laptop", "150", "c-4.png");
  3. Load the Data: Execute the script with: 
    mysql < db-load-script.sql
  4. Verification: Log in to the MariaDB monitor and switch to the ecomdb database to confirm the data was loaded: 
    mysql
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 4
Server version: 5.5.64-MariaDB MariaDB Server

MariaDB [(none)]> USE ecomdb;
Database changed
MariaDB [ecomdb]> SELECT * FROM products;
+----+---------------+-------+----------+
| id | Name          | Price | ImageUrl |
+----+---------------+-------+----------+
|  1 | Laptop        | 100   | c-1.png  |
|  2 | Drone         | 20    | c-2.png  |
|  3 | VR            | 300   | c-3.png  |
|  4 | Tablet        | 50    | c-5.png  |
|  5 | Watch         | 90    | c-6.png  |
|  6 | Phone Covers  | 20    | c-7.png  |
|  7 | Phone         | 80    | c-8.png  |
|  8 | Laptop        | 150   | c-4.png  |
+----+---------------+-------+----------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
At this point, the database is configured and pre-populated with sample data.

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3. Deploying and Configuring the Web Application

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Installing HTTPD, PHP, and MySQL Extensions

Install the required web server packages along with PHP and its MySQL extension: 
sudo yum install -y httpd php php-mysql
Add the firewall rule for HTTP (port 80) and reload firewalld: 
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

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Configuring HTTPD

To configure Apache, open the configuration file and modify the DirectoryIndex if needed. For example, change the default file to index.php by editing the file: 
sudo vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Locate and adjust the DirectoryIndex section from: 
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html
</IfModule>
to: 
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.php
</IfModule>
After saving the changes, restart HTTPD: 
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl restart httpd

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Downloading the Application Code

Ensure Git is installed, then clone the ecommerce repository into the web server’s document root: 
sudo yum install -y git
git clone https://github.com/kodekloudhub/learning-app-ecommerce.git /var/www/html/
Verify the files were cloned successfully: 
ls /var/www/html/
# Expected output: assets  css  fonts  img  index.php  js  README.md  scss  vendors

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Updating Database Connection Settings

By default, the application’s index.php file is configured to connect to an IP address (e.g., 172.20.1.101). Since this is an all-in-one setup, update the database connection details to use localhost. Open index.php and locate the mysqli_connect call. Change the connection parameters from: 
$link = mysqli_connect('172.20.1.101', 'ecommerce', 'password', 'ecommerce');
to: 
$link = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'ecomuser', 'ecompassword', 'ecomdb');
Save the file and refresh your web page. You can also test the server response with: 
curl http://localhost
If the connection is correctly configured, you will see a list of products fetched from the database.

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Troubleshooting Default Page Issues

If an index.html file exists alongside index.php, Apache might serve index.html by default. Ensure that the DirectoryIndex configuration in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf prioritizes index.php. If necessary, remove or rename the default index.html. For example, to create a temporary index file: 
cat > index.html
Hello there! This is a sample index file.
^C
After adjusting the DirectoryIndex value, restart HTTPD: 
sudo systemctl restart httpd
Now, accessing your site should display the ecommerce application (i.e., index.php) rather than the sample index.html.

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Conclusion

Following these steps, you have successfully deployed the KodeKloud ecommerce application manually on a CentOS machine. The process included: • Installing and configuring firewalld and MariaDB
• Setting up the database by creating the database, adding a user, and loading sample data
• Installing and configuring HTTPD, PHP, and cloning the application code
• Updating the database connection settings in index.php This demonstration highlights how all components work together in a manual deployment scenario. Enjoy exploring the KodeKloud ecommerce application and refer to the KodeKloud GitHub repository for further information and updates.

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