WordPress is the most powerful and popular content management systems (CMS) in use today. If you’re going to be running a dynamic website or blog and want to manage it easily, you may want to use WordPress.
In today’s environments, WordPress is frequently being installed with SSL/TLS encryption so that all traffic to and from the website is protected over HTTPS. Also, websites that use HTTPS may rank better with Google and other search engine providers.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install WordPress on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 with Nginx, MariaDB, PHP and Let’s Encrypt support. When you’re done, your website will automatically be configured to use HTTPS for all traffic.
To get started with installing WordPress with Let’s Encrypt support, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Nginx
WordPress requires a webserver to function and the second most popular webserver in used today is Nginx. So, go and install Nginx on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt install nginx
Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop nginx.service sudo systemctl start nginx.service sudo systemctl enable nginx.service
Step 2: Install MariaDB
WordPress also requires a database server to function.. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
sudo systemctl restart mariadb.service
Step 3: Install PHP-FPM and Related Modules
WordPress also requires PHP to function. To install PHP-FPM and related modules run the commands below
sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-gd php-xml php-intl php-mysql php-cli php-mcrypt php-ldap php-zip php-curl
After install PHP, run the commands below to open Nginx PHP default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.10 sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini # Ubuntu 17.04
Then change the following lines below in the file and save. You may increase the value to suite your environment.
max_execution_time = 180 max_input_time = 60 memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 64M cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
Step 4: Create WordPress Database
Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create WordPress database.
Run the commands below to logon to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called wordpress
CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
Create a database user called wordpressuser with new password
CREATE USER 'wordpressuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wordpressuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download WordPress Latest Release
Next, visit WordPress site and download the latest….
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file and move it into a new WordPress root directory.
cd /tmp && wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for WordPress to function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress/
Step 6: Configure Nginx
Finally, configure Nginx site configuration file for WordPress. This file will control how users access WordPress content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called wordpress
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/html/wordpress;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.10
# fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.04
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the WordPress Site
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Step 8 : Restart Nginx
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
STEP 9: CONFIGURE WORDPRESS
Now that Nginx is configured, run the commands below to create WordPress wp-config.php file.
sudo mv /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Then run the commands below to open WordPress configuration file.
sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Enter the highlighted text below that you created for your database and save.
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wordpressuser');
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'user_password_here');
/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');
Step 10: Obtain and Configure Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificates
Now that the WordPress configuration is done, continue below to get Let’s Encrypt installed and configured. Let’s Encrypt now provides a Nginx client to automate this process. To get the client installed on Ubuntu, run the commands below
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install python-certbot-nginx
After that run the commands below to obtain your free Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate for your site.
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com
After running the above commands, you should get prompted to enter your email and accept the licensing terms. If everything is checked, the client should automatically install the free SSL/TLS certificate and configure the Nginx site to use the certs.
Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A
Choose Yes ( Y ) to share your email address
Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about EFF and
our work to encrypt the web, protect its users and defend digital rights.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Y)es/(N)o: Y
This is how easy is it to obtain your free SSL/TLS certificate for your Nginx powered website.
Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration. 2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this change by editing your web server's configuration. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
Pick option 2 to redirect all traffic over HTTPS. This is important!
After that, the SSL client should install the cert and configure your website to redirect all traffic over HTTPS.
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://example.com and https://www.example.com You should test your configuration at: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=example.com https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.example.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTES: - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem Your key file has been saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem Your cert will expire on 2018-02-24. To obtain a new or tweaked version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again with the "certonly" option. To non-interactively renew *all* of your certificates, run "certbot renew" - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by: Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org/donate Donating to EFF: https://eff.org/donate-le
The highlighted code block should be added to your Nginx WordPress configuration file automatically by Let’s Encrypt certbot. Your WordPress site is ready to be used over HTTPS.
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/html/wordpress;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.10
# fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; #Ubuntu 17.04
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
if ($scheme != "https") {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
# Redirect non-https traffic to https
# if ($scheme != "https") {
# return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
# } # managed by Certbot
}
After that, open your browser and browse to your domain name to launch WordPress configuration wizard.
You should see WordPress setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
https://example.com
Continue with the setup until you’ve successfully installed WordPress.
Your Permalinks should show you’re using HTTPS.
That’s it!
You’ve successfully installed WordPress with Nginx, MariaDB, PHP and Let’s Encrypt support.
To setup a process to automatically renew the certificates, add a cron job to execute the renewal process.
sudo crontab -e
Then add the line below and save.
0 1 * * * /usr/bin/certbot renew & > /dev/null
The cron job will attempt to renew 30 days before expiring
Enjoy!
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