How to Install Magento 2 via Composer (6 Easy Steps)

Excited to launch your eCommerce site with Magento 2? 

Magento 2 is a powerful platform for building online stores and installing it correctly is the first step toward creating your own. Using Composer to install Magento 2 is one of the most efficient and flexible ways. Composer allows you to easily manage dependencies, making the installation process smoother and more reliable.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to install Magento 2 using Composer. Whether you're a beginner or have some experience with Magento, we’ve made the process simple and easy to follow. 

You’ll be up and running with your Magento store in no time, ready to customize and grow your business.

Let’s get started!

Why Use Composer to Install Magento 2? 

Installing Magento 2 can be tricky, but with Composer, it becomes much easier. Composer is a tool for managing dependencies in PHP projects. And when it comes to Magento 2 Installation via Composer, it simplifies a lot of things. Here's why you should consider using Composer to install Magento 2:

Easy Package Updates

Composer makes managing updates a breeze. Whenever a new version of Magento 2 or any of its packages is released, Composer handles the upgrade for you. This means your store stays secure, up-to-date, and ready for new features with minimal effort on your part. Using Composer to install Magento 2 ensures your store runs the latest version. This keeps it secure and efficient, with little hassle.

Smart Dependency Management

Magento 2 uses many third-party libraries to work properly. Without Composer, managing all these pieces can get confusing. Composer in Magento 2 automatically takes care of these dependencies, ensuring that everything works together smoothly. It reduces the chance of errors or compatibility issues, making your setup much more reliable.

Key Benefits of Installing Magento 2 with Composer

When setting up your Magento 2 store, you want a process that’s as smooth, reliable, and efficient as possible. Installing Magento 2 via Composer offers several great benefits that can make a big difference in how your store is set up and maintained. Here are some of the key advantages:

• Simplified Extension Management

Composer automatically resolves extension dependencies, reducing compatibility issues and ensuring smoother integration.

• Adheres to Best Practices

By following PHP-FIG standards, Composer helps maintain a high-quality installation that’s reliable and easy for developers to work with.

• Easier Updates and Modifications

Installing Magento 2 via Composer makes it easy to update it and its extensions. This keeps your store up-to-date with the latest features and security fixes.

• Security Enhancements

Composer in Magento 2 automated updates deploys security patches quickly. This helps protect against vulnerabilities.

• Cost and Time Efficiency

Magento 2 Installation via Composer streamlines the installation and maintenance process, reducing development hours and minimizing errors, saving both time and money.

Using Composer to install Magento 2 simplifies management, improves reliability, and keeps your store running smoothly.

Requirements for Running Magento 2 Store

Before installing Magento 2 via Composer, one must confirm that an appropriate hardware and software environment on your hosting is prepared. Let’s go through the essentials you need to consider before you start the installation.

Hardware & Software Requirements

• RAM: 4GB minimum (8GB or more recommended for production).
• CPU: Multi-core processor (e.g., Intel Xeon, AMD Opteron). More cores are better for handling traffic.
• Storage: SSD is recommended for optimal performance. Sufficient space for the Magento installation, database, media files, and backups. Consider future growth.
• Web Server: Apache (2.4 or later) or Nginx (latest stable version recommended).
• Database Server: MySQL (8.0 or later) or MariaDB (10.4 or later).
• PHP: Compatible PHP version (check Magento documentation for specific version requirements).
• Operating System: Linux distributions (e.g., CentOS, Ubuntu) are commonly used. Check Magento documentation for supported versions.
• Composer: Composer package needs to be installed to handle PHP dependencies and to install packages.
• Elasticsearch: Required for enhanced search functionality on your Magento store.

Authentication Keys

Before installation of Magento 2 a set of authentication keys should be obtained from Magento Marketplace. 

These keys are required to access Magento's repository and to download the necessary program packages. 

To obtain these keys, create a profile on the Commerce Marketplace:

1. Go to Adobe’s Commerce Marketplace and click "Register" if you don't have an account, or "Log In" if you already do.
2. Provide the required information (name, email, password, etc.) and submit the form to complete the registration or login process.
3. Go to My Profile and then Access Keys in the Marketplace tab.

4. Create a new access key and enter the key's name.

5. Copy the generated public and private keys.

You will be prompted to enter your Magento authentication keys during the installation.

File System Owner

Setting the right file system owner is important for your Magento 2 store to work properly. The file system owner controls all the files and folders in your Magento installation.

This ensures the web server can access and change the files when needed. To set up the file system owner, follow these steps:

1. Create a new user on your server, like magento.
2. Add this new user to the web server group (use www-data for Apache or nginx for NGINX).
3. Change the ownership of the Magento 2 files and folders to this new user and the web server group.

How to Install Magento 2 via Composer

To learn how to install Magento 2 via Composer, follow these steps for a simple installation process.

Step 1: Install Composer on Your Server

Composer is an essential tool for managing PHP project dependencies, and it’s necessary to install it on your server before proceeding with the Magento 2 installation. Here’s how to do it:

Check if Composer is Already Installed:

Run the following commands in your terminal to check if Composer is already installed:

composer --help
composer list --help

If Composer is installed, you'll see command outputs. If not, follow the steps below.

Install Composer via Command Line:

Download the Composer installation script with the following command:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

This will download and install Composer as composer.phar.

Move Composer to a Global Location:

Move the downloaded composer.phar file to a directory that's in your system's

$PATH (commonly /usr/local/bin):
mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Verify Installation:

To verify that Composer has been installed successfully, run:

composer --version

This should display the installed Composer version.

Step 2: Create a Magento 2 Project Directory

Navigate to the Desired Location:

Change to the directory where you would like to install Magento. For example:

cd /var/www/html

Create a New Directory:

Create a new directory for your Magento 2 project:

mkdir magento2
cd magento2

Step 3: Access as the File System Owner

Make sure that you are logged in as the file system owner (the user who has write access to the Magento directory).

Set up your PATH for Magento Commands: Add <magento_root>/bin to your system's PATH:

export PATH=$PATH:/var/www/html/magento2/bin

Alternatively, you can navigate directly to <magento_root>/bin and use ./magento <command>.

Step 4: Download Magento 2

Install Magento 2 via Composer:

Run the following command to install the community edition of Magento 2:

composer create-project --repository-url=https://repo.magento.com/ magento/project-community-edition <install-directory-name>

For a specific version of Magento 2:

composer create-project --repository-url=https://repo.magento.com/ 
magento/project-community-edition:2.4.6

Adobe Commerce (Enterprise) Edition:

If you are installing the enterprise edition, use the following command:

composer create-project --repository-url=https://repo.magento.com/ 
magento/project-enterprise-edition:2.4.6

Authentication:

Before downloading Magento, you’ll need to provide your repo.magento.com credentials. You can generate these by creating access keys (public and private) in the Adobe Marketplace. To generate the keys, refer to the steps mentioned earlier.

Set File Permissions:

Set the correct file permissions for your Magento 2 installation by running the following commands:

find. -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find. -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
chmod -Rf 777 var
chmod -Rf 777 pub/static
chmod -Rf 777 pub/media
chmod 777 ./app/etc
chmod 644 ./app/etc/*.xml
chmod -Rf 775 bin

Step 5: Create a Database

Create an Empty Database:

To store Magento data, create a database in MySQL:

echo "CREATE DATABASE magento2" | mysql -u[mysqluser] -p

Replace [mysqluser] with your MySQL username, and provide your password when prompted.

Step 6: Install Magento 2

Run the Magento Installation Command:

In your Magento 2 root directory, run the following command to install Magento:

php bin/magento setup:install \
--base-url="http://yoururl.com/" \
--db-host="localhost" \
--db-name="dbname" \
--db-user="dbuser" \
--db-password="dbpass" \
--admin-firstname="admin" \
--admin-lastname="adminx" \
--admin-email="[email protected]" \
--admin-user="admin" \
--admin-password="admin123" \
--language="en_US" \
--currency="USD" \
--timezone="America/Chicago" \
--use-rewrites="1" \
--backend-frontname="admin"

Replace the placeholders (e.g., yoururl.com, dbname, dbuser, dbpass, etc.) with the actual details.

Deploy Sample Data:

If you want to populate your store with sample data, run:

php bin/magento sampledata:deploy

Enable All Magento Modules:

To enable all the modules, run:

php bin/magento module:enable --all

Upgrade the Setup:

Finally, run:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

To access the Magento Store

Frontend:

Open your Magento 2 site URL to see the front end of your store.

Backend:

To access the Magento Admin Panel, go to http://yoururl.com/admin, and log in using the admin credentials you set during the installation.

You have successfully installed Magento 2 using Composer! You can now start configuring your store and installing themes, extensions, and more.

Troubleshooting Tips for a Smooth Install Magento 2 With Composer 

If you’re facing problems while installing Magento 2 using Composer, here are some frequent issues and practical solutions:

Increasing Composer Memory Limit

If you encounter memory-related errors, you might need to increase your PHP memory limit. This will help prevent the installation process from running out of memory. 

Resolving Dependency Issues

Another problem you might run into is missing or incompatible PHP extensions. Be sure that all the necessary PHP extensions are installed and active. If any are missing, Magento might not function correctly. Hire Magento Developers to ensure that all required dependencies are configured properly.

Fixing File Permission Errors

When dealing with permission errors, you may need to adjust the file permissions for your Magento 2 directories. Typically, directories should have 755 permissions and files should have 644 permissions. Make sure the web server user owns the Magento files and directories by using chownand chmodcommands.

Solutions to Other Common Errors

1. Addressing Permission Issues

Permission errors are a typical problem during Magento 2 installation. To fix this:

Set directories to 755 and files to 644.

Use the chown command to ensure that the web server user owns the Magento files.

This will allow Magento to access and modify files without issues.

2. Handling Missing Dependencies

If Magento is missing dependencies, you can resolve the problem by running these commands in the root directory of your Magento 2 installation:

• composer install – Installs any missing dependencies.
• composer update – Updates outdated dependencies.

Running these commands should help fix missing dependency errors.

Installing Magento 2 Sample Data

If you want to add sample data during installation, simply run this command:

php bin/magento sampledata:deploy

After that, clear the cache and recompile the code with these commands:

php bin/magento cache:clean
php bin/magento setup:di:compile

Managing Magento 2 Components

Magento 2’s component-based system can be managed via the Magento Component Manager. This tool, accessible from the Admin Panel, allows you to install, update, and uninstall extensions and modules with ease.

Best Practices for a Secure Magento 2 Installation

To ensure your Magento 2 store remains secure, follow these key practices:

• Please use HTTPS for data transmission between the server and your clients.
• Use powerful and individual passwords/passphrases for both your admin account and database.
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for the admin account.
• Frequently review and update your server and application security settings.
• Keep your store safeguarded with the latest security patches by regularly patching your Magento 2 Installation via Composer.
• Prohibit access to the Admin Panel by implementing IP whitelisting.

Wrapping up

We have covered the entire process of installing Magento 2 using Composer and we hope it helps you do it the right way.

Ultimately, using Composer for your Magento 2 install saves time. It reduces errors and ensures a better, more scalable eCommerce setup. With Magento 2 installed and running, you can focus on growing your business and providing a top-notch experience for your customers.

If you run into any challenges or need expert assistance with your Magento 2 installation, don’t hesitate to contact us.