Help Center> Elastic Cloud Server> Best Practices> Setting Up a WordPress Website (Linux)
Updated on 2023-11-13 GMT+08:00

Setting Up a WordPress Website (Linux)

Application Scenarios

The best practices for ECS guide you through the setup of LNMP on a Linux ECS and deploy WordPress on the website. WordPress (WP for short) is initially a blog system and gradually evolved to a content management system (CMS) or website setup system that is free of charge. The CentOS 7.2 64bit OS is used as an example in this section.

Architecture

Figure 1 Setting up a WordPress website on a Linux ECS

Advantages

  • A website with a simple networking architecture can be quickly set up.
  • The website is secure and easy to use.

Resource and Cost Planning

Table 1 Resources and costs

Resource

Description

Cost

VPC

VPC CIDR block: 192.168.0.0/16

Free

Subnet

  • AZ: AZ1
  • CIDR block: 192.168.0.0/24

Free

Security group

Inbound rule:

  • Protocol/Application: HTTP
  • Port: 80
  • Source: 0.0.0.0/0

Free

ECS

  • Billing mode: Yearly/Monthly
  • AZ: AZ1
  • Flavor: s6.large.2
  • Image: CentOS 7.2 64bit
  • System disk: 40 GB
  • EIP: Auto assign
  • EIP type: Dynamic BGP
  • Billed by: Traffic
  • Bandwidth: 5 Mbit/s

The following resources incur costs:

  • ECSs
  • EVS disks
  • EIPs

For billing details, see Billing.

Nginx

A high-performance HTTP and reverse proxy server.

You can download it from:

http://nginx.org/packages/centos/7/noarch/RPMS/nginx-release-centos-7-0.el7.ngx.noarch.rpm

Free

MySQL

An open-source relational database software.

You can download it from:

http://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql57-community-release-el7-10.noarch.rpm

Free

PHP

An open-source software used for web development.

You can download it from:

http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm

Free

WordPress

An open-source blogging software.

You can download it from:

https://wordpress.org/download/releases/

Free

Domain name

Used to access the created website.

The price of a domain name is subject to that provided by the domain name registrar. For details, see the help document of the domain name registrar.

Process

Procedure

Preparations

Procedure

  1. Install Nginx.

    1. Log in to the target ECS.
    2. Run the following command to download the Nginx package:

      wget http://nginx.org/packages/centos/7/noarch/RPMS/nginx-release-centos-7-0.el7.ngx.noarch.rpm

    3. Run the following command to create the Nginx yum repository:

      rpm -ivh nginx-release-centos-7-0.el7.ngx.noarch.rpm

    4. Run the following command to install Nginx:

      yum -y install nginx

    5. Run the following commands to start Nginx and configure automatic Nginx start upon ECS startup:

      systemctl start nginx

      systemctl enable nginx

    6. Check the startup status.

      systemctl status nginx.service

    7. Enter http://IP address of the Nginx server in the address bar to access Nginx. If the following page is displayed, Nginx has been installed.
      Figure 2 Accessing Nginx

  2. Install MySQL.

    1. Install MySQL.

      wget -i -c http://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql57-community-release-el7-10.noarch.rpm

      yum -y install mysql57-community-release-el7-10.noarch.rpm

      yum -y install mysql-community-server --nogpgcheck

    2. Start MySQL and enable MySQL to start automatically upon ECS startup:

      systemctl start mysqld

      systemctl enable mysqld

    3. Query the running status of MySQL.

      systemctl status mysqld.service

      [root@ecs-adc3 ~]# systemctl status mysqld.service
      ● mysqld.service - MySQL Server
         Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mysqld.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
         Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-08-16 19:33:40 CST; 36s ago
           Docs: man:mysqld(8)
                 http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/en/using-systemd.html
       Main PID: 7916 (mysqld)
         CGroup: /system.slice/mysqld.service
                 └─7916 /usr/sbin/mysqld --daemonize --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
      
      Aug 16 19:33:35 ecs-adc3 systemd[1]: Starting MySQL Server...
      Aug 16 19:33:40 ecs-adc3 systemd[1]: Started MySQL Server.
    4. Obtain the password of user root that is automatically set during MySQL installation:

      grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log

      Information similar to the following is displayed:
      2021-08-16T11:33:37.790533Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: ;8nPd29lhs,k
    5. Harden MySQL:

      mysql_secure_installation

      Securing the MySQL server deployment.
      
      Enter password for user root:    #Enter the obtained password of user root.
      The existing password for the user account root has expired. Please set a new password.
      
      New password:  #Enter the new password.
      
      Re-enter new password:   #Enter the new password again.
      The 'validate_password' plugin is installed on the server.
      The subsequent steps will run with the existing configuration of the plugin.
      Using existing password for root.
      
      Estimated strength of the password: 100
      Change the password for root ? ((Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : N   #Asks you whether to change the password of user root. Press n.
      
       ... skipping.
      By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user,
      allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have
      a user account created for them. This is intended only for
      testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother.
      You should remove them before moving into a production
      environment.
      
      Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y   #Asks you whether to remove anonymous users. Press y.
      Success.
      
      Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.
      
      Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y   #Asks you whether to forbid remote login of user root. Press y.
      Success.
      
      By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed before moving into a production environment.
      
      Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y   #Asks you whether to delete the test database and cancel access permissions to it. Press y.
       - Dropping test database...
      Success.
      
       - Removing privileges on test database...
      Success.
      
      Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes
      made so far will take effect immediately.
      
      Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y   #Asks you whether to reload privilege tables. Press y.
      Success.
      
      All done!

  3. Install PHP.

    1. Run the following command to install the EPEL repository:

      yum install epel-release

    2. Run the following command to install the REMI repository:

      yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm

    3. Run the following command to install the Yum repository management tool:

      yum install yum-utils

    4. Run the following command to install PHP 7.4:

      yum -y install php74-php-gd php74-php-pdo php74-php-mbstring php74-php-cli php74-php-fpm php74-php-mysqlnd

    5. Run the following command to check the PHP installation:

      php74 -v

      If information similar to the following is displayed, PHP has been installed:

      PHP 7.4.33 (cli) (built: Jun  6 2023 15:55:08) ( NTS )
      Copyright (c)  The PHP Group
      Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    6. Start PHP and configure PHP automatic start upon ECS startup:

      systemctl start php74-php-fpm

      systemctl enable php74-php-fpm

    7. Modify the Nginx configuration file to support PHP.
      1. Run the following command to open the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file:
        vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
        Figure 3 nginx.conf

        According to the nginx.conf, the configuration file is directed to /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf.

      2. Enter :quit to exit nginx.conf.
      3. Run the following command to open the /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf file:

        vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

      4. Press i to enter insert mode.
      5. Modify the default.conf file.
        Find the server paragraph and configure it as follows:
            server {
                listen       80;
                server_name  localhost;
        
                #access_log /var/log/nginx/host.access.log  main;
        
            location / {
                root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
                index  index.php index.html index.htm;    }
        
            location ~ \.php$ {
                root           html;
                fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
                fastcgi_index  index.php;
                fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/share/nginx/html$fastcgi_script_name;
                include        fastcgi_params;
            }

        Figure 4 shows the configuration after modification.

        Figure 4 Configuration after modification
      6. Press Esc to exit insert mode. Then, enter :wq to save the settings and exit.
    8. Run the following command to reload the Nginx configuration file:

      service nginx reload

  4. Test the LNMP environment.

    1. Create the info.php test page in /usr/share/nginx/html.
      1. Run the following command to create and open the info.php test file:

        vim /usr/share/nginx/html/info.php

      2. Press i to enter insert mode.
      3. Modify the info.php file and add the following data to the file:
        <?php
         phpinfo();
        ?>
      4. Press Esc to exit insert mode. Then, enter :wq to save the settings and exit.
    2. Enter http://Server IP address/info.php in the address bar. If the following page is displayed, the LNMP website has been set up.

  5. Create a database.

    1. Run the following command and enter the user root password of MySQL as prompted to log in to the MySQL CLI:

      mysql -u root -p

    2. Run the following command to create a database:

      CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

      In the preceding command, wordpress is the database name, which is configurable.

    3. Run the following command to create a user for the database and assign the full-access permission to the user:

      GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO wordpressuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'BLOck@123';

      In the preceding command, wordpressuser is the username for logging in to the database, and BLOck@123 is the configurable user password.

    4. Run the following command to exit the MySQL CLI:

      exit

    5. (Optional) Run the following commands to verify the creation of the database and account and exit the MySQL CLI:

      mysql -u wordpressuser -p

      SHOW DATABASES

      exit

      In the preceding command, wordpressuser is the created username for logging in to the database.

  6. Install WordPress.

    1. Obtain the WordPress software package and upload it to the /usr/share/nginx/html directory. For details, see How Can I Use WinSCP to Transfer Files from a Local Windows Computer to a Linux ECS?

      The WordPress software package wordpress-6.2.2.tar.gz is used as an example.

    2. Run the following command to decompress the software package:

      tar -zxvf /usr/share/nginx/html/wordpress-6.2.2.tar.gz

      After the decompression, the folder wordpress is obtained.

    3. Run the following command to assign permissions to the wordpress folder:

      chmod -R 777 wordpress

    4. Enter http://Server IP address/wordpress in the address bar of the browser to access the installation wizard.

    5. Configure the database as prompted and click Let's go.
    6. Enter the database access information, including the database name, username, and password.

    7. After the verification, the installation page is displayed. Then, click Run the installation.

    8. Set the site title, administrator username, password, and email address. Then, click Install WordPress.

    9. Verify that the following page is displayed, indicating that the installation is successful.

    10. Click Log In. Alternatively, enter http//Server IP address/wordpress/wp-admin in the address bar of the browser, enter the username and password, and click Log In.

  7. Purchase a domain name.

    To make the website easy to access, configure a unique domain name for the website. You are required to obtain an authorized domain name from the domain name registrar for the website.

  8. Configure DNS records.

    Your website can be visited using the registered domain name only after DNS records are configured. For details, see Routing Internet Traffic to a Website.

    For example, if the domain name is www.example.com, enter http//www.example.com in the address bar of the browser to access the website.