PrestaShop 9

sudo systemctl is-active apache2.service mariadb.service prestashop-firstboot.service php --version | head -1 apache2 -v | head -1 mariadb --version

sudo cat /stage/scripts/prestashop-credentials.log

Note these values: PRESTASHOP_STOREFRONT_URL, PRESTASHOP_ADMIN_URL, PRESTASHOP_ADMIN_USER, PRESTASHOP_ADMIN_PASSWORD and PRESTASHOP_ADMIN_DIR (the randomized 8-hex admin path). The file also holds the per-VM MariaDB password.

curl -sIL http://127.0.0.1/ | grep -E '^(HTTP|Location)'
curl -sL http://127.0.0.1/ | grep -o '<title>[^<]*</title>' | head -1

The first call shows the locale redirect chain. PrestaShop 9 redirects / to /gb/ (the default GB locale), and the final hop returns 200. The second call extracts the <title> tag and confirms that the shop name is sac-prestashop.

Browse to http://<vm-ip>/. The default Hummingbird theme renders with the demo header, navigation, product blocks and footer.

Browse to http://<vm-ip>/<admin-dir>/, the randomized path from Step 5. Sign in with admin@sac.local and the password from /stage/scripts/prestashop-credentials.log.

After you sign in, the Dashboard shows the sales overview, today's stats, recent orders, top customers and shop activity. The left sidebar gives access to Catalog, Orders, Customers, Modules, Design, Configure and Advanced Parameters.

In the back office, go to Catalog > Products and select New product. Enter the product name, retail price and quantity, and optionally a category and image. Select Save to publish. The product becomes visible on the storefront immediately.

For bulk imports, use Advanced Parameters > Import to load a CSV of products. PrestaShop accepts the standard CSV format, with columns for ID, Name, Categories, Price, Quantity and so on.

Go to Configure > Shop Parameters > General to set the shop name, default currency, default language and timezone.

International > Localization lets you import country-specific tax rules and currencies. Shop Parameters > Order Settings configures the checkout flow, gift wrapping and the minimum order total.

PrestaShop has 5000+ free and paid modules available, covering payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal), shipping carriers (DHL, UPS), marketing (Mailchimp, Klaviyo) and analytics. In the back office, go to Modules > Module Catalog to browse and install them.

To install a module from the command line on the VM, run:

cd /var/www/prestashop
sudo -u www-data php bin/console prestashop:module install <module-name>

In the back office, go to Configure > Shop Parameters > General > Maintenance and open the SEO and URLs sub-page. Set the Shop domain and SSL domain fields to your DNS name (for example shop.example.com) and save. Then restart Apache so that PrestaShop's URL rewriting picks up the change:

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Point your domain's DNS A record at this VM. Then, on the VM, run:

sudo apt-get install -y python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d shop.example.com -m you@example.com --agree-tos --non-interactive --redirect

Certbot edits the Apache vhost to add the SSL VirtualHost and a :80 → :443 redirect, then reloads Apache. The certbot.timer systemd unit handles renewal and runs twice daily.

Once HTTPS works, set Configure > Shop Parameters > General > Enable SSL to Yes in the back office. This forces secure cookies and https:// URLs site-wide.

Take a consistent backup of the MariaDB database and the on-disk image and upload directories:

PASS=$(sudo grep '^PRESTASHOP_DB_PASSWORD=' /stage/scripts/prestashop-credentials.log | cut -d= -f2-) mysqldump -h 127.0.0.1 -u prestashop -p"$PASS" prestashop | gzip > /var/backups/prestashop-db-$(date +%F).sql.gz
sudo tar czf /var/backups/prestashop-img-$(date +%F).tgz -C /var/www/prestashop img upload

Periodically copy /var/backups to Azure Blob Storage (az storage blob upload-batch) for off-VM retention. Test the restore at least once before you rely on the backups in production.

sudo journalctl -u apache2.service --no-pager -n 80
sudo tail -50 /var/log/apache2/error.log
sudo tail -50 /var/log/apache2/access.log
sudo tail -50 /var/www/prestashop/var/logs/prod.log

PrestaShop's own debug log is at /var/www/prestashop/var/logs/prod.log.

For verbose error pages while you develop or troubleshoot a module, edit /var/www/prestashop/config/defines.inc.php and set _PS_MODE_DEV_ to true. Clear the cache with sudo -u www-data php bin/console cache:clear --no-warmup, then reload. Set it back to false before you open the storefront to customers.