Prerequisites for Installing WordPress with LEMP and MariaDB<\/h2>\n
To install WordPress with the LEMP stack and MariaDB database, you need the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
- An Ubuntu 24.04 server. We offer the globe's absolute lowest cost Ubuntu servers<\/a>!<\/li>\n
- Root access to your server or a
sudo<\/code> user. Check out our How to access your server using SSH<\/a> guide to learn how to access your server and create asudo<\/code> user.<\/li>\n- The LEMP stack installed on your server. Use our Installing LEMP on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS<\/a> guide to set it up. Or you can use our LEMP 1-Click Application<\/a> to get started in minutes! Just choose a server, and while prompted to choose the operating system, choose LEMP<\/strong> from the dropdown menu.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Step 1 - Updating the Package Cache<\/h2>\n
Before you install WordPress with LEMP and MariaDB, you need to update your Ubuntu packages in the package manager cache to the latest available versions using the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo apt update<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 2 - Creating a WordPress MariaDB Database and User<\/h2>\n
WordPress needs a MySQL database to store your site's data, such as user information, posts, pages, etc. In this tutorial we'll use MariaDB, which is a compatible drop-in replacement for MySQL but with more features.<\/p>\n
To create a MySQL\/MariaDB database, use the
mysql<\/code> client to connect to MariaDB and access its command line interface with the following command:<\/p>\nsudo mysql<\/code><\/pre>\nIf you get an error that contains
Access denied for user 'root'<\/code>, this means that the default authentication method has changed, and connecting to MariaDB requires a password for the root account. To solve this issue, use the following command to connect to MariaDB using the root user and a password:<\/p>\nmysql -u root -p<\/code><\/pre>\nYou'll be asked for your MySQL root password, enter it and then press Enter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Note:<\/strong> If you've installed the LEMP stack using our 1-Click App, you'll find your MySQL root password in the App Details<\/strong> widget on your SSDNodes Dashboard. As demonstrated in the following image:<\/p>\n
![\"Install](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/info.webp\")
<\/p>\nYou should get a prompt similar to the following:<\/p>\n
![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mariadb-prompt.webp\")
<\/p>\nNow you can create a database for WordPress. We'll name the database
wordpress<\/code>, but feel free to use your site's name, or any other name you would like, just make sure to remember it. Use the following MySQL statement to create a database namedwordpress<\/code>:<\/p>\nCREATE DATABASE wordpress<\/mark> DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;<\/code><\/pre>\nThis creates a database called
wordpress<\/code> with UTF-8 as a character set, which supports all alphabets and languages.<\/p>\nIf you receive an error upon entering the preceding command, make sure you've typed it in correctly, and that you end it with a semicolon (
;<\/code>).<\/p>\nNext, you'll need to create a MariaDB user account that will manage this
wordpress<\/code> database. Only this one account can interact with the site's database, which is a good security best practice. For this new user, we'll use the namewp_user<\/code>, but again, feel free to use another name of your choice.<\/p>\nTo create a new MariaDB user account, use the following statement in the MariaDB command line interface. Remember to replace
password<\/code> with a strong password for your user account, or you might wake up some day to the news of your WordPress website transforming into an abnormal nightmare:<\/p>\nCREATE USER 'wp_user<\/mark>'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';<\/code><\/pre>\nNow, you'll need to give all access permissions to the user account that will manage your
wordpress<\/code> database:<\/p>\nGRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO 'wp_user<\/mark>'@'localhost';<\/code><\/pre>\nHere, you use the
GRANT ALL<\/code> statement to grant all privileges on thewordpress<\/code> database to yourwp_user<\/code> user.<\/p>\nRefresh the privileges for the preceding command to take effect and apply the permission changes to the database server:<\/p>\n
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;<\/code><\/pre>\nExit out of the MariaDB command line interface and return to the regular Linux shell with the following command:<\/p>\n
EXIT;\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\nWith this, you have a MariaDB database and a MariaDB user account that can be used by your WordPress website to store data. Next, you'll install some important PHP packages that WordPress needs to function properly.<\/p>\n
Step 3 - Installing Required PHP Extensions for WordPress<\/h2>\n
WordPress requires a few additional PHP packages to be installed, in addition to the PHP packages that were installed with the LEMP stack. In this step, you'll use the
apt<\/code> command to install the most important PHP extensions that WordPress uses.<\/p>\nNote:<\/strong> The PHP packages we'll install are required for basic WordPress usage, but many WordPress plugins that extend the basic functionalities of WordPress come with their own requirements, and may require additional PHP extension packages to be installed. Refer to the documentation of the specific plugin you want to install to find out its required packages and install them with
apt<\/code> using the method we'll demonstrate in this step.<\/p>\nTo install the most important PHP extensions for WordPress, run the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo apt install php-curl php-gd php-intl php-mbstring php-soap php-xml php-xmlrpc php-zip php-imagick<\/code><\/pre>\nHere, you install the following packages:<\/p>\n
- \n
php-curl<\/code>: Provides a CURL module for PHP. CURL is used in command lines and scripts to transfer data through URLs.<\/li>\nphp-gd<\/code>: Provides a GD module for PHP. The GD library is a library that offers graphics drawing tools to manage image data.<\/li>\nphp-intl<\/code>: Provides an Internationalisation module for PHP.<\/li>\nphp-mbstring<\/code>: A package that provides the MBSTRING module for PHP, which is used to manage non-ASCII strings.<\/li>\nphp-soap<\/code>: Provides the SOAP module for PHP. SOAP is an API architecture that uses the XML language to transfer data between software. Although it has been replaced by the more flexible REST architecture in most web services, SOAP is still used by some companies.<\/li>\nphp-xml<\/code>: A package that provides a DOM, SimpleXML, WDDX, XML, and XSL module for PHP.<\/li>\nphp-xmlrpc<\/code>: Provides a XMLRPC-EPI module for PHP. XML-RPC is a feature of WordPress that enables data to be transmitted via HTTP using XML for encoding.<\/li>\nphp-zip<\/code>: Provides a Zip module for PHP. Zip is a tool that is used to archive and compress files.<\/li>\nphp-imagick<\/code>: Imagick is a native php extension to create and modify images using the ImageMagick API.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOnce the installation is complete, restart the
php-fpm<\/code> process for it to use the newly installed PHP extensions:<\/p>\nsudo systemctl restart php8.1-fpm.service<\/code><\/pre>\nNote:<\/strong> You may have another version of
php-fpm<\/code> installed on your system, so you might have to change8.1<\/code> in the preceding command with your version of PHP. To check yourphp-fpm<\/code> version, use the following command:<\/p>\nsudo systemctl status php* | grep fpm.service<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive the full name and version of your
php-fpm<\/code> service:<\/p>\n![\"Installing](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/php8.1.webp\")
<\/p>\nWith this, the required PHP extensions are now installed. Next, you'll configure Nginx to serve WordPress.<\/p>\n
Step 4 - Configuring Nginx to Serve WordPress<\/h2>\n
Now that our WordPress database and the PHP extensions are ready, we'll configure the Nginx web server to serve the pages and posts of our website. We'll create a new root web directory for WordPress files, and use a new Nginx configuration file made specifically for the website.<\/p>\n
First check Nginx\u2019s status with the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo systemctl status nginx<\/code><\/pre>\nThe output should show that the Nginx service is enabled and running:<\/p>\n
![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sudo-systemctl-status-nginx.webp\")
<\/p>\nBy default, Nginx is configured to serve files out of a root web directory located at
\/var\/www\/html<\/code>. This default configuration is suitable for small single-site web servers. However, hosting multiple sites using this method will quickly become unmanageable and cumbersome. Instead, it is best to create a root web directory for each site you\u2019d like to host on your web server. In this tutorial, we will create a root web directory for our WordPress website located at\/var\/www\/wordpress<\/code>. Again, feel free to use your site's name or some other name instead ofwordpress<\/code> for this root web directory, just remember to use the correct path in your Nginx configuration.<\/p>\nUse the following command to create a root web directory for your WordPress site, replacing
wordpress<\/code> with your site\u2019s name if you want:<\/p>\nsudo mkdir \/var\/www\/wordpress<\/mark><\/code><\/pre>\nNext, open a new configuration file in Nginx\u2019s
sites-available<\/code> directory, which is a directory that contains configuration for each of your sites. Again, make sure to replacewordpress<\/code> with your name of choice:<\/p>\nsudo nano \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/wordpress<\/mark><\/code><\/pre>\nPaste into it the following:<\/p>\n
server {\r\n listen 80;\r\n listen [::]:80;\r\n server_name <domain_name_or_IP<\/mark>>;\r\n access_log off;\r\n location \/ {\r\n rewrite ^ https:\/\/$host$request_uri? permanent;\r\n }\r\n}\r\n\r\nserver {\r\n listen 443 ssl;\r\n listen [::]:443 ssl;\r\n server_name <domain_name_or_IP<\/mark>>;\r\n root \/var\/www\/wordpress<\/mark>;\r\n index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;\r\n autoindex off;\r\n ssl_certificate \/etc\/ssl\/certs\/lemp.pem;\r\n ssl_certificate_key \/etc\/ssl\/private\/lemp.key;\r\n ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;\r\n ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;\r\n\r\n location ~ \\.php$ {\r\n include snippets\/fastcgi-php.conf;\r\n fastcgi_pass unix:\/var\/run\/php\/php-fpm.sock;\r\n fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;\r\n include fastcgi_params;\r\n }\r\n\r\n location \/ {\r\n try_files $uri $uri\/ \/index.php$is_args$args;\r\n }\r\n location = \/favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }\r\n location = \/robots.txt { log_not_found off; access_log off; allow all; }\r\n location ~* \\.(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$ {\r\n expires max;\r\n log_not_found off;\r\n }\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\nHere, you have two server blocks representing configuration for two ports: port 80 which serves HTTP requests, and port 443 that serves HTTPS requests.<\/p>\n
Notice that, in the HTTP configuration, you use the rewrite directive in the location block to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS.<\/p>\n
In the preceding configuration file, you set up the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
listen<\/code>: The port number Nginx will listen on. Here, you set its value to80<\/code> in the HTTP server block, which is the port number assigned to HTTP. And you set it to443<\/code> in the HTTPS server block, which is the port number for HTTPS.<\/li>\nserver_name<\/code>: The domain names or IP addresses these two server block configurations should respond for. Make sure to replace `` with your domain name or IP address.<\/li>\naccess_log<\/code>: Configures Nginx access logs, the special valueoff<\/code> cancels allaccess_log<\/code> directives on the current level.<\/li>\nroot<\/code>: The root web directory, also known as the document root, that stores the files served by your website. Here, you set its value to\/var\/www\/wordpress<\/code>, which is the root web directory we created earlier, so make sure to set the proper value in your case.<\/li>\nindex<\/code>: The order in which Nginx will prioritize index files for your website.<\/li>\nautoindex<\/code>: Configures Nginx auto indexing to enable or disable the ability to browse your files from the web browser. We set it tooff<\/code> to disable auto indexing.<\/li>\nssl_certificate<\/code>: The SSL certificate file path. See Secure Your Site Using HTTPS<\/a> for more information.<\/li>\nssl_certificate_key<\/code>: The path of your SSL certificate's private key file.<\/li>\nssl_protocols<\/code>: The protocols that will be used by SSL.<\/li>\nssl_ciphers<\/code>: The ciphers that will be used by SSL.<\/li>\nlocation ~ \\.php$<\/code>: A location block that handles PHP processing. It tells Nginx to handle any HTTP request with a URL that ends with.php<\/code> with the directives included in this location block. This effectively points Nginx to thefastcgi-php.conf<\/code> configuration file and thephp-fpm.sock<\/code> file, which declares the socket that is associated withphp-fpm<\/code>.<\/li>\nlocation \/<\/code>: The main location block, which includes atry_files<\/code> directive, and it allows Nginx to route HTTP requests to the WordPressindex.php<\/code> file.<\/li>\nlocation = \/favicon.ico<\/code>: A location block for requests to\/favicon.ico<\/code>. Which you configure to disable logging for thefavicon.ico<\/code> file.<\/li>\nlocation = \/robots.txt<\/code>: A location block for requests to\/robots.txt<\/code>. Which you configure to disable logging for the\/robots.txt<\/code> file.<\/li>\nlocation ~* \\.(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$<\/code>: A location block to configure static files to be cached with the maximum value, which sets the browser cache expiration time in the far future. This is important because these static files are expensive resources to serve.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nNext, you'll need to activate this Nginx server block configuration by linking your
wordpress<\/code> configuration file to the configuration file in Nginx\u2019ssites-enabled<\/code> directory using the following command:<\/p>\nsudo ln -s \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/wordpress<\/mark> \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled<\/code><\/pre>\nTo check that your configuration file has been properly linked to Nginx\u2019s
sites-enabled<\/code> directory, run the following command:<\/p>\nsudo ls -l \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive an output that\u2019s similar to the following:<\/p>\n
total 0\r\nlrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Aug 13 14:06 default -> \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/default\r\nlrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 Aug 14 10:17 wordpress -> \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/wordpress<\/code><\/pre>\nHere, you can see that your
\/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/wordpress<\/code> configuration file has been successfully linked.<\/p>\nNext, unlink the default Nginx configuration from the
\/sites-enabled\/<\/code> directory. This forces Nginx to use yourwordpress<\/code> configuration instead of the default configuration:<\/p>\nsudo unlink \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/default<\/code><\/pre>\nTo check that the default Nginx configuration has been properly unlinked from the
sites-enabled<\/code> directory, run the following command:<\/p>\nsudo ls -l \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive an output that\u2019s similar to the following:<\/p>\n
total 0\r\nlrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 Aug 14 10:17 wordpress -> \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/wordpress<\/code><\/pre>\nHere, you can see that the default configuration symlink is no longer in the sites-enabled directory, which means that it has been successfully unlinked.<\/p>\n
Next, test your configuration\u2019s syntax using the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo nginx -t<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive an output that\u2019s similar to the following:<\/p>\n
nginx: the configuration file \/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf syntax is ok\r\nnginx: configuration file \/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf test is successful<\/code><\/pre>\nThis output shows that there are no errors in the configuration file.<\/p>\n
If you receive any errors, review your configuration file and make sure you\u2019ve set your directives and values properly.<\/p>\n
Next, reload Nginx for the changes you\u2019ve made to take effect by running the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo systemctl reload nginx<\/code><\/pre>\nYou now have Nginx configured to serve files from the
\/var\/www\/wordpress<\/code> root web directory. Let's test the configuration using a test HTML file:<\/p>\nsudo nano \/var\/www\/wordpress<\/mark>\/test.html<\/code><\/pre>\nAdd the following HTML code to it:<\/p>\n
<!DOCTYPE html>\r\n<html lang=\"en\">\r\n<head>\r\n <meta charset=\"UTF-8\">\r\n <title>Wordpress on LEMP Test Page<\/title>\r\n<\/head>\r\n<body>\r\n <h1>Test Page for WordPress Nginx Configuration<\/h1>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html><\/code><\/pre>\nSave and close the file.<\/p>\n
Use your browser to navigate to this
test.html<\/code> file:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/<domain_name_or_IP<\/mark>>\/test.html<\/code><\/pre>\nAs always, replace
<domain_name_or_IP<\/mark>><\/code>\u00a0with your domain name or IP address.<\/p>\nIf you haven't set up an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority like Let's Encrypt, you will receive a \"Not Secure\" error informing you that the connection to your server is not secure. This error message is normal because your website is encrypted and secured with a self-signed certificate, and the browser does not recognize it since your server is not one of its known certificate authorities.<\/p>\n
Click the Advanced<\/strong> button or More information<\/strong> depending on the browser, and choose to proceed. The following is an example of the error in the Google Chrome browser:<\/p>\n
![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Securing-your-site-with-Self-Signed-or-CA-certificates_03.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"HTTPS](\"https:\/\/www.ssdnodes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Securing-your-site-with-Self-Signed-or-CA-certificates_04.png\")
<\/p>\nOnce you proceed, you'll receive the message
Test Page for WordPress Nginx Configuration<\/code>. Which means that the Nginx configuration is correct.<\/p>\n
- Root access to your server or a