How to deploy a Symfony application to a production server?

To deploy a Symfony application to a production server, follow these steps:

  1. Set up your production server: Make sure you have a server with the necessary software and configurations to run a Symfony application. This typically includes a web server like Apache or Nginx, PHP, and a database server like MySQL or PostgreSQL.

  2. Clone your Symfony project: Clone your Symfony project from your version control system (e.g. Git) onto your production server. Make sure to remove any development-specific files like .env and cache folders.

  3. Install dependencies: Run composer install --no-dev to install all the necessary dependencies for your Symfony project without development dependencies.

  4. Configure environment variables: Update your .env file on the production server with the appropriate environment variables for your production environment, such as database credentials, secret key, and debug mode.

  5. Clear cache: Run php bin/console cache:clear --env=prod to clear the cache for the production environment.

  6. Set permissions: Set the appropriate permissions for the cache and log directories so that your Symfony application can write to them.

  7. Configure web server: Configure your web server (Apache or Nginx) to serve your Symfony application. Make sure to point the document root to the public directory inside your Symfony project.

  8. Set up database: If your Symfony application uses a database, make sure to create the necessary database schema and update the database credentials in your Symfony project configuration.

  9. Test your application: Test your Symfony application on the production server to make sure everything is set up correctly and working as expected.

  10. Monitor and maintain: Monitor your Symfony application on the production server regularly to ensure it is running smoothly and perform any necessary maintenance tasks as needed.