How to Install Revive Adserver on Ubuntu

Alex Marquez

October 26, 2026 04:19
Updated

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Introduction

Revive Adserver is the world's most popular free, open-source ad serving system. It allows publishers, advertising networks, and advertisers to serve ads
on websites, applications, and video players. It also collects detailed statistics including impressions, clicks, and conversions.

You can manage campaigns for multiple advertisers and advertising networks at once through an easy-to-use interface. You can also define delivery rules for campaigns and ads, including frequency capping, URL targeting, and geographic location.

Track campaign performance including CTR, conversion rates, revenue, eCPM, and conversion details, such as basket value and the number of items purchased.

This article explains how to install it on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server, specifically using the Preinstalled LAMP Image. Although you can install it on another web server such as NGINX, to avoid configuring directory security, we recommend using Apache or Configuring NGINX as a Reverse Proxy for an Apache Web Server with FastCGI.

Technical Requirements for Revive Adserver

Revive Adserver is a web application written in the PHP programming language and is compatible with the database systems MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Web Server Requirements

Web server with FastCGI (Apache, NGINX, IIS 7+, lighttpd, etc.) or Apache with mod_php.
For Revive Adserver v4.2 to v5.2.1: PHP 7.0.8 or higher up to PHP7.4.x.
For Revive Adserver v5.3.0 and higher: PHP 7.2.5 through PHP 8.0.x*.

*Support for the upcoming PHP 8.1 is planned for a future version of Revive Adserver.

Extensions required for PHP: mbstring, mysqli/mysql and/or pgsql, pcre, xml, zip, zlib
Extensions suggested for PHP: curl and/or openssl, gd, any opcode cache extension (opcache, apc, eaccelerator, xcache)

Apache .htaccess files are used to deny access to the library and configuration folders by default. If another web server is used (or support for .htaccess files is disabled), you may need additional configuration to secure the installation.

Database Server Requirements:

MySQL 4.1+
PostgreSQL 8.1+

Review the notes and important information on the official Revive Adserver requirements page by clicking here.

Installing Revive Adserver

First, download Revive from the official website; you can check the latest version by clicking here:

# wget https://download.revive-adserver.com/revive-adserver-5.3.1.zip

Then extract the downloaded file (we include installing unzip first):

# apt install -y unzip && unzip revive-adserver-5.3.1.zip

Create the web directory and synchronize it with the extracted file's directory:

# mkdir /var/www/revive/ && rsync -rtv revive-adserver-*/ /var/www/revive/

Change ownership to the web user:

# chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/revive/

Copy the default configuration file for Apache:

# cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/revive.conf

Then edit the copy:

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/revive.conf

Change the webroot and servername to the appropriate values and enable the site:

# a2ensite revive

If you want to use PostgreSQL as the database, install the PHP dependency:

# apt install php8.0-pgsql

Install the database server PostgreSQL:

# apt-get install postgresql -y && systemctl status postgresql

Next, open a session as the database user:

# su postgres

Use the client for PostgreSQL:

# psql

To create the user for the database (change the example password):

postgres=# CREATE USER usuario WITH PASSWORD 'contraseña';

Also create the database for Revive Adserver:

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE revivedb;

And grant the user all privileges on the database you created:

postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE revivedb to usuario;

Next, close the client:

postgres=# \q

And the user session:

# exit

If you want to use MySQL or MariaDB as the database, create a database for Revive Adserver:

# mysqladmin -u root --verbose create revivedb

Also create a user for the database (remember to change the password):

# mysql -u root --verbose -e "create user 'usuario'@'localhost' identified by 'contraseña';"

And grant the user all privileges on the database created for Revive Adserver:

# mysql -u root --verbose -e "grant all on revivedb.* to 'usuario'@'localhost' with grant option; flush privileges;"

Next, install Certbot:

# apt install python3-certbot-apache

And obtain the certificate:

# certbot --redirect --apache -d registro.com

Accept and answer the questions to obtain the certificate from Let's Encrypt. Once it has been obtained and configured automatically, open the site in a web browser using the domain name.

You will be redirected to the Wizard for Revive to finish the installation; first, accept the license terms:

If a dependency or something similar is missing, you will be notified in an earlier tab. Fix it, and then you can configure the database. Enter the user and database you created for Revive Adserver:

Finally, configure the administrator user for Revive Adserver:

Once this is done, the login screen will appear and the Revive Adserver installation will be complete.

We hope this tutorial has helped you. Have you tried it? Leave us your comments! 🙂

Remember, if you have questions about this or any other issue related to your servers on Clouding, feel free to write to soporte@clouding.io We're here for whatever you need!

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