Table of Contents

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					&lt;div name="status-deprecated" data-unique="status-deprecated"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h2 id="status-deprecated"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Status:&lt;/strong&gt; Deprecated&lt;/h2&gt;

This article covers a version of Ubuntu that is no longer supported. If you are currently operate a server running Ubuntu 12.04, we highly recommend upgrading or migrating to a supported version of Ubuntu:

  • Upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04.
  • Upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04
  • Migrate the server data to a supported version

Reason: Ubuntu 12.04 reached end of life (EOL) on April 28, 2017 and no longer receives security patches or updates. This guide is no longer maintained.

WordPress is a free and open source website and blogging tool that uses php and MySQL. It was created in 2003 and has since then expanded to manage 22% of all the new websites created and has over 20,000 plugins to customize its functionality.

Step One—Prerequisites!

wordpress illustration for: Step One—Prerequisites!

This tutorial covers installing WordPress. Before you go through it, make sure your server is ready for WordPress. You need root privileges (check out steps 3 and 4 for details): Initial Server Setup

You need to have nginx, MySQL, and PHP-FPM installed on your server: LEMP tutorial

Only once you have the user and required software should you proceed to install wordpress!

Step Two—Download WordPress

We can download WordPress straight from their website:

				
					wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

This command will download the zipped wordpress package straight to your user’s home directory. You can unzip it the the next line:

				
					tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz

Step Three—Create the WordPress Database and User

After we unzip the wordpress files, they will be in a directory called wordpress in the home directory on the virtual private server.

Now we need to switch gears for a moment and create a new MySQL directory for wordpress.

Go ahead and log into the MySQL Shell:

				
					mysql -u root -p

Login using your MySQL root password, and then we need to create a wordpress database, a user in that database, and give that user a new password. Keep in mind that all MySQL commands must end with semi-colon.

First, let’s make the database (I’m calling mine wordpress for simplicity’s sake; feel free to give it whatever name you choose):

				
					CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Then we need to create the new user. You can replace the database, name, and password, with whatever you prefer:

				
					CREATE USER wordpressuser@localhost;

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Set the password for your new user:

				
					SET PASSWORD FOR wordpressuser@localhost= PASSWORD("password");

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Finish up by granting all privileges to the new user. Without this command, the wordpress installer will not be able to start up:

				
					GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO wordpressuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Then refresh MySQL:

				
					FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Exit out of the MySQL shell:

				
					exit

Step Four—Setup the WordPress Configuration

The first step to is to copy the sample WordPress configuration file, located in the WordPress directory, into a new file which we will edit, creating a new usable WordPress config:

				
					cp ~/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php ~/wordpress/wp-config.php

Then open the wordpress config:

				
					sudo nano ~/wordpress/wp-config.php

Find the section that contains the field below and substitute in the correct name for your database, username, and password:

				
					// ** 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', 'password');

Save and Exit.

Step Five—Copy the Files

We are almost done uploading WordPress to the server. We need to create the directory where we will keep the wordpress files:

				
					sudo mkdir -p /var/www

Transfer the unzipped WordPress files to the website’s root directory.

				
					sudo cp -r ~/wordpress/* /var/www

We can modify the permissions of /var/www to allow future automatic updating of WordPress plugins and file editing with SFTP. If these steps aren’t taken, you may get a “To perform the requested action, connection information is required” error message when attempting either task.

First, switch in to the web directory:

				
					cd /var/www/

Give ownership of the directory to the nginx user, replacing the “username” with the name of your server user.

				
					sudo chown www-data:www-data * -R 

sudo usermod -a -G www-data &lt;i&gt;username&lt;/i&gt;

Step Six—Set Up Nginx Server Blocks

Now we need to set up the WordPress virtual host.

Create a new file for the for WordPress host, copying the format from the default configuration:

				
					sudo cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress

Open the WordPress virtual host:

				
					sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress

The configuration should include the changes below (the details of the changes are under the config information):

				
					server {

        listen   80;

        root /var/www;

        index index.php index.html index.htm;

        server_name 192.34.59.214;

        location / {

                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&amp;$args;

        }

        error_page 404 /404.html;

        error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;

        location = /50x.html {

              root /usr/share/nginx/www;

        }

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000

        location ~ \.php$ {

                try_files $uri =404;

                #fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

                # With php5-fpm:

                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;

                fastcgi_index index.php;

                include fastcgi_params;

                 }

        

}

Here are the details of the changes:

  • Change the root to /var/www/
  • Add index.php to the index line.
  • Change the server_name from local host to your domain name or IP address (replace the example.com in the configuration)
  • Change the “try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;” line to “try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;” to enable WordPress Permalinks with nginx
  • Uncomment the correct lines in “location ~ \.php$ {“ section

Save and Exit that file.

Step Seven—Activate the Server Block

Although all the configuration for worpress has been completed, we still need to activate the server block by creating a symbolic link:

				
					sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wordpress

Additionally, delete the default nginx server block.

				
					sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Install php5-mysql:

				
					sudo apt-get install php5-mysql

Then, as always, restart nginx and php-fpm:

				
					sudo service nginx restart
				
			
				
					sudo service php5-fpm restart

Step Eight—RESULTS: Access the WordPress Installation

Once that is all done, the wordpress online installation page is up and waiting for you:

Access the page by visiting your site’s domain or IP address (eg. example.com/wp-admin/install.php) and fill out the short online form (it should look like this).

See More

Once WordPress is installed, you have a strong base for building your site.

If you want to encrypt the information on your site, you can Install an SSL Certificate