Creating a website on CMS Joomla with a PostgreSQL database using the management console

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Updated at August 14, 2025

Get your cloud ready
- Required paid resources
Set up a cloud network
Create a VM for Joomla
Create and configure a public DNS zone
Add a TLS certificate to Yandex Certificate Manager
Create a PostgreSQL DB cluster
Set up your VM environment
Configure Joomla
Test the website
How to delete the resources you created

To create an infrastructure for your Joomla CMS website with a PostgreSQL database using the Yandex Cloud management console:

If you no longer need the resources you created, delete them.

Get your cloud ready

Navigate to the management console and log in to Yandex Cloud or create a new account.
On the Yandex Cloud Billing page, make sure you have a billing account linked and it has the ACTIVE or TRIAL_ACTIVE status. If you do not have a billing account, create one and link a cloud to it.

If you have an active billing account, you can navigate to the cloud page to create or select a folder for your infrastructure.

Learn more about clouds and folders here.

Required paid resources

The cost of hosting a Joomla-powered website includes:

Fee for a continuously running VM (see Yandex Compute Cloud pricing).
Fee for using a public IP address (see Yandex Virtual Private Cloud pricing).
Fee for a PostgreSQL DB cluster (see Yandex Managed Service for PostgreSQL pricing).
Fee for outbound traffic from Yandex Cloud to the internet (see Yandex Compute Cloud pricing).
Fee for public DNS queries and DNS zones (see Yandex Cloud DNS pricing).

Set up a cloud network

Create a cloud network and subnets

Management console

Create a cloud network:
1. In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
2. In the list of services, select Virtual Private Cloud.
3. At the top right, click Create network.
4. In the Name field, specify joomla-network.
5. In the Advanced field, disable the Create subnets option.
6. Click Create network.
Create a subnet in the ru-central1-b availability zone:
1. In the network list window that opens, select joomla-network you have just created.
2. In the top panel, click Create subnet.
3. In the Name field, specify joomla-subnet-b.
4. In the Availability zone field, select the ru-central1-b availability zone.
5. In the CIDR field, specify 192.168.1.0/24.
6. Click Create subnet.
Similarly, create subnets named joomla-subnet-a and joomla-subnet-d in the ru-central1-a and ru-central1-d availability zones, respectively. Specify 192.168.2.0/24 and 192.168.3.0/24 in the CIDR field for these subnets.

Create security groups

Create joomla-sg and postgresql-sg security groups to manage network access permissions for the VM and the Yandex Managed Service for PostgreSQL cluster.

Management console

Create a security group named joomla-sg for your VM:

In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
In the list of services, select Virtual Private Cloud.
In the left-hand panel, select Security groups and click Create security group.
In the Name field, enter joomla-sg.
In the Network field, select joomla-network, which you created earlier.

Under Rules, create the following traffic management rules:

Traffic direction	Description	Port range	Protocol	Source / Destination name	CIDR blocks / Security group
Inbound	`http`	`80`	`TCP`	`CIDR`	`0.0.0.0/0`
Inbound	`https`	`443`	`TCP`	`CIDR`	`0.0.0.0/0`
Inbound	`ssh`	`22`	`TCP`	`CIDR`	`0.0.0.0/0`
Inbound	`self`	`All`	`Any`	`Security group`	`Current`
Outbound	`any`	`All`	`Any`	`CIDR`	`0.0.0.0/0`

Click Create.

Similarly, create a security group named postgresql-sg for the Managed Service for PostgreSQL cluster with the following traffic rules:

Traffic direction	Description	Port range	Protocol	Source / Destination name	CIDR blocks / Security group
Inbound	`port-6432`	`6432`	`TCP`	`CIDR`	`192.168.1.0/24`
Inbound	`self`	`All`	`TCP`	`Security group`	`Current`
Outbound	`any`	`All`	`Any`	`CIDR`	`0.0.0.0/0`

Reserve a static public IP address

Reserve a static public IP address for the VM that will host your website.

Management console

In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
In the list of services, select Virtual Private Cloud.
In the left-hand panel, select IP addresses and click Reserve address.
In the window that opens, select ru-central1-b in the Availability zone field and click ** Reserve**.

Create a VM for Joomla

Management console

In the management console, on the dashboard of the folder where you want to create your infrastructure, click Create resource and select Virtual machine instance.
Under Boot disk image, in the Product search field, type Ubuntu 24.04 and select a public Ubuntu 24.04 LTS image.
Under Location, select the ru-central1-b availability zone.
Under Network settings:
- In the Subnet field, select joomla-network and joomla-subnet-b.
- In the Public IP address field, select List and then, the previously reserved IP address in the field that appears.
- In the Security groups field, select the joomla-sg security group you created earlier.
Under Access, select SSH key and specify the VM access credentials:
- In the Login field, specify the username: yc-user.
- In the SSH key field, select the SSH key saved in your organization user profile.
  
  If there are no SSH keys in your profile or you want to add a new key:
  1. Click Add key.
  2. Enter a name for the SSH key.
  3. Select one of the following:
    - Enter manually: Paste the contents of the public SSH key. You need to create an SSH key pair on your own.
    - Load from file: Upload the public part of the SSH key. You need to create an SSH key pair on your own.
    - Generate key: Automatically create an SSH key pair.
      
      When adding a new SSH key, an archive containing the key pair will be created and downloaded. In Linux or macOS-based operating systems, unpack the archive to the /home/<user_name>/.ssh directory. In Windows, unpack the archive to the C:\Users\<user_name>/.ssh directory. You do not need additionally enter the public key in the management console.
  4. Click Add.
  The system will add the SSH key to your organization user profile. If the organization has disabled the ability for users to add SSH keys to their profiles, the added public SSH key will only be saved in the user profile inside the newly created resource.
Under General information, specify the VM name: joomla-web-server.
Click Create VM.

It may take a few minutes to create your VM.

Create and configure a public DNS zone

You need to link the domain name you want to use for your website to the IP address of the new joomla-web-server VM. You can use Yandex Cloud DNS to manage the domain.

Delegate the domain name

Delegation involves reassigning domain management from your registrar's servers to your own ones, which includes creating NS records.

To delegate a domain, specify the ns1.yandexcloud.net and ns2.yandexcloud.net DNS server addresses in the domain settings in your account on your domain registrar's website.

Delegation does not take effect immediately. Internet provider servers normally update records within 24 hours (86,400 seconds). This depends on the TTL value which specifies how long domain records are cached.

You can check domain delegation using Whois or the dig utility:

dig +short NS example.com

Result:

ns2.yandexcloud.net.
ns1.yandexcloud.net.

Create a public DNS zone

Management console

In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
From the list of services, select Cloud DNS and click Create zone.
Specify the zone settings consistent with your domain:
1. Zone: Domain zone. Its name must end with a trailing dot. For example, example.com. matches the example.com domain. To create a domain name with non-Latin characters, use the Punycode encoding.
2. Type: Public.
3. Name: joomla-zone.
Click Create.

Create a type A resource record

In your DNS zone, create a type A resource record pointing to the public IP address of the previously created VM:

Management console

In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
Select Cloud DNS.
Select joomla-zone you previously created and click Create record.
Specify the record settings:
1. In the Name field, select Matches zone name (@).
2. In the Type field, select the A record type.
3. In the Data field, specify the public IP address of the web server VM you created earlier.
  
  You can find the VM IP address in the management console, on the VM page under Network.
Click Create.

Add a TLS certificate to Yandex Certificate Manager

Create a new Let's Encrypt® certificate for your domain to enable secure access to your website over TLS:

Add the new certificate to Certificate Manager:
Management console
1. In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
2. In the list of services, select Certificate Manager.
3. Click Add certificate and select Let's Encrypt certificate.
4. In the window that opens, specify joomla-cert in the Name field.
5. In the Domains field, specify your domain name, e.g., example.com.
6. Select DNS as the domain ownership verification type.
7. Click Create.
To successfully issue the certificate, pass a domain rights check:
Management console
1. In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
2. In the list of services, select Certificate Manager.
3. From the list of certificates, select joomla-cert.
4. In the window that opens, under Check rights for domains, select CNAME record.
5. In the section below, click Create record and then, Create in the window that opens.
The domain rights check may take from a few minutes to a few days. Wait until it is complete. As a result, the certificate will be issued and get the Issued status.

Create a PostgreSQL DB cluster

Management console

In the management console, on the dashboard of the folder where you want to create your infrastructure, click Create resource and select PostgreSQL cluster.
In the Cluster name field, enter the cluster name: joomla-pg-cluster.
In the Version field, select the DBMS version: 17.
Under Host class, select the appropriate host class.
Under Storage size, specify: 10 GB.
Under Database, specify:
- DB name: joomla_db.
- Username: joomla.
- In the Password field, select Enter manually and set a password you will use to access the database.
Under Network settings, select joomla-network and postgresql-sg you created previously as the network and security group, respectively.
Under Hosts, add additional hosts to ensure one host per availability zone. When creating hosts, do not enable Public access for them.
Click Create cluster.

Creating a DB cluster may take a few minutes.

Set up your VM environment

At this step, you will prepare the VM environment to deploy and set up Joomla.

Export the joomla-cert TLS certificate to your local computer:
Management console
1. In the management console, select the folder to create your infrastructure in.
2. In the list of services, select Certificate Manager and choose joomla-cert.
3. In the top panel, click Export certificate, select Certificate without private key, and click Download certificate. A file with the certificate.pem certificate will be saved to your computer.
4. Repeat the previous step and download the private key by selecting Private key only. Rename the downloaded private key file to private_key.pem.
5. Save the downloaded certificate.pem and private_key.pem files: you will need them to configure the web server.

Copy the certificate and private key to the VM:

scp ./certificate.pem yc-user@<VM_IP_address>:certificate.pem \
  && scp ./private_key.pem yc-user@<VM_IP_address>:private_key.pem

Where <VM_IP_address> is the public IP address of the previously created joomla-web-server VM.

You can find the VM IP address in the management console on the VM page under Network.

If this is your first time connecting to the VM, you will get this unknown host warning:

The authenticity of host '51.250.**.*** (51.250.**.***)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:PpcKdcT09gjU045pkEIwIU8lAXXLpwJ6bKC********.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

Type yes into the terminal and press Enter.

Connect to the VM over SSH:
```
ssh yc-user@<VM_IP_address>
```

Create a directory for the certificate and move the copied files there:

sudo mkdir /etc/ssl-certificates
sudo mv certificate.pem /etc/ssl-certificates/
sudo mv private_key.pem /etc/ssl-certificates/

Upgrade the versions of the packages installed on the VM:
```
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
```

Install and run the Apache HTTP server:

sudo apt install apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2 && sudo systemctl enable apache2

Install PHP with the required libraries:

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-common php-pgsql php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-intl php-json unzip

Download and unpack the Joomla package:

Note

This example uses a link to Joomla 5.2.4, the latest version at the time of writing this guide. To check for a newer version and get the download link, visit the project website.
```
wget https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla5/5-2-4/Joomla_5-2-4-Stable-Full_Package.zip -O Joomla.zip
sudo rm /var/www/html/index.html
sudo unzip Joomla.zip -d /var/www/html
rm Joomla.zip
```

Set up access permissions for the website directory:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

Change the number of the default port used by Joomla to access PostgreSQL databases: Yandex Managed Service for PostgreSQL uses port 6432.
1. Open the Joomla database access driver configuration file:
```
sudo nano /var/www/html/libraries/vendor/joomla/database/src/Pdo/PdoDriver.php
```
2. In the file, find the section with PostgreSQL database settings and change the port number from 5432 to 6432:
```
...
case 'pgsql':
$this->options['port'] = $this->options['port'] ?? 6432;
...
```
  Make sure to save your changes.

Configure a virtual host for your website:

Create a virtual host configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/joomla.conf

Add the following configuration into the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin admin@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    ServerName <domain_name>

    <Directory /var/www/html>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/joomla_http_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/joomla_http_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerAdmin admin@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    ServerName <domain_name>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/joomla_ssl_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/joomla_ssl_access.log combined

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl-certificates/certificate.pem
    SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl-certificates/certificate.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl-certificates/private_key.pem
</VirtualHost>

Where <domain_name> is the domain name of your website, e.g., example.com.

Activate the virtual host and restart the web server:

sudo a2ensite joomla.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Configure Joomla

Get the Managed Service for PostgreSQL cluster host names (you will need them when installing Joomla):
Management console
1. In the management console, select the folder with the cluster. From the list of services, select Managed Service for PostgreSQL.
2. Select the joomla-pg-cluster cluster and open the Hosts tab.
3. Hover over the Host FQDN field in the row with each host and click to copy the host FQDN. Save the values you copied, as you will need them later.
Install and configure Joomla:
1. Open the Joomla setup wizard in your browser. At this step, you can access it using any of these addresses:
  - http://<VM_public_IP_address>
  - http://<your_domain_name>
  - https://<your_domain_name>
2. When configuring database parameters, fill in the following fields:
  - Database type: PostgreSQL (PDO).
  - Host name:
```
<host_1_name>,<host_2_name>,<host_3_name>
```
    Where <host_1_name>, <host_2_name>, and <host_3_name> are the Managed Service for PostgreSQL cluster host FQDNs you copied at the previous step.
  - Database username: joomla.
  - Database user password: DB user password set when creating the PostgreSQL cluster.
  - Database name: joomla_db.
  - Connection encryption: Keep the default value.
3. Joomla may prompt you to create or delete a specific test file in the product installation directory on the VM for security purposes. Navigate to the /var/www/html/installation/ directory and create or delete the specified file there:
```
You are trying to connect to a database host that is not available on 
your local server. You need to verify ownership of the hosting 
account. Read the information provided on the **Secure 
installation procedure** page.

To verify your ownership of the website, delete 
`_JoomlazUZKusLnD2jXi********.txt` from the `installation` directory and click 
**Install Joomla** to continue.
```
After installation is complete, delete the installation directory from the VM. This is a Joomla security requirement:
```
sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/installation
```

If you encounter any issues while installing Joomla, use this guide on the project website.

Test the website

After Joomla installation is complete, enter your website’s IP address or domain name in the browser to test the site:

http://<VM_public_IP_address>
http://example.com
https://example.com

Now you can further configure your website and add content using the Joomla admin interface and tools.

How to delete the resources you created

To stop paying for the resources you created:

Delete the joomla-web-server VM.
Delete the static public IP address.
Delete the Managed Service for PostgreSQL cluster named joomla-pg-cluster.
Delete the DNS records and then delete the joomla-zone DNS zone.
Delete the joomla-cert TLS certificate.
Delete the joomla-sg and postgresql-sg security groups.
Delete the joomla-subnet-a, joomla-subnet-b, and joomla-subnet-d subnets.
Delete the joomla-network cloud network.

Creating a website on CMS Joomla with a PostgreSQL database using the management console

Get your cloud ready

Required paid resources

Set up a cloud network

Create a cloud network and subnets

Create security groups

Reserve a static public IP address

Create a VM for Joomla

Create and configure a public DNS zone

Delegate the domain name

Create a public DNS zone

Create a type A resource record

Add a TLS certificate to Yandex Certificate Manager

Create a PostgreSQL DB cluster

Set up your VM environment

Configure Joomla

Test the website

How to delete the resources you created

See also

Was the article helpful?

Creating a website on CMS Joomla with a PostgreSQL database using the management console

Get your cloud readyGet your cloud ready

Required paid resourcesRequired paid resources

Set up a cloud networkSet up a cloud network

Create a cloud network and subnetsCreate a cloud network and subnets

Create security groupsCreate security groups

Reserve a static public IP addressReserve a static public IP address

Create a VM for JoomlaCreate a VM for Joomla

Create and configure a public DNS zoneCreate and configure a public DNS zone

Delegate the domain nameDelegate the domain name

Create a public DNS zoneCreate a public DNS zone

Create a type A resource recordCreate a type A resource record

Add a TLS certificate to Yandex Certificate ManagerAdd a TLS certificate to Yandex Certificate Manager

Create a PostgreSQL DB clusterCreate a PostgreSQL DB cluster

Set up your VM environmentSet up your VM environment

Configure JoomlaConfigure Joomla

Test the websiteTest the website

How to delete the resources you createdHow to delete the resources you created

See alsoSee also

Was the article helpful?

Get your cloud ready

Required paid resources

Set up a cloud network

Create a cloud network and subnets

Create security groups

Reserve a static public IP address

Create a VM for Joomla

Create and configure a public DNS zone

Delegate the domain name

Create a public DNS zone

Create a type A resource record

Add a TLS certificate to Yandex Certificate Manager

Create a PostgreSQL DB cluster

Set up your VM environment

Configure Joomla

Test the website

How to delete the resources you created

See also