How-To Install WordPress on Ubuntu Server

This guide helps you to install and configure the latest WordPress on an Ubuntu Server. It covers Apache, MariaDB, PHP, and WordPress configurations.

Steps

Installation and configuration of Apache2
Installation and configuration of MariaDB
Installation and configuration of PHP and Apache modules
Create WordPress database and user
Setup and configure WordPress
Configure Apache For WordPress
Accessing the WordPress dashboard

Installation and configuration of Apache2

Step 1: Login to the server and update the package repos.

sudo apt-get update -y

Step 2: Install Apache2

sudo apt-get install apache2 -y

Step 3: Disable anonymous directory listing.

sudo sed -i "s/Options Indexes FollowSymLinks/Options FollowSymLinks/" /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Step 4: Start, enable, and check the status of Apache2

sudo systemctl stop apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2

Installation and configuration of MariaDB

Step 1: Install the MariaDB database server and client

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client -y

Step 2: Use the following commands to start, stop, enable, and check the status of the MariaDB service.

sudo systemctl stop mysql
sudo systemctl enable mysql
sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl status mysql

Step 3: Setup the root admin password for the database using mysql_secure_installation command. It will prompt you to set up the new password.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Use the following options for the prompt.

Enter current password for root (enter for none):  
Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n]: Y
Change the root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password:   <Enter new password for MariaDB root>
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

Step 4: Restart the database server for the changes to take effect.

sudo systemctl restart mysql

Installation and configuration of PHP and Apache modules

Step 1: Install latest PHP and its related modules.

sudo apt install -y php php-mysql php-cli php-cgi php-gd libapache2-mod-php

Step 2: Open /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini file

sudo vi /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini

Add the following contents to the file. List of supported timezones: https://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 150M
max_execution_time = 350
date.timezone = UTC

Create WordPress Database and user

Step 1: Login to the database using the password you set for root.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Step 2: Create a database named “wp-db”

CREATE DATABASE wp-db;

Step 3: Create a new database user named “wpadmin” and set a custom password. This user will be used in the WordPress configuration.

CREATE USER 'wpadmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password_here';

Step 4: Grant all privileged on wordpress-db for wordpress-admin user. Replace the password you set for wordpress-admin.

GRANT ALL ON wp-db.* TO 'wpadmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your-password-here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Step 5: Flush all privileges and exit the db shell.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES; 

exit

Setup and configure WordPress

Step 1: Download the latest WordPress

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

Step 2: Untar the WordPress files

tar -xvf latest.tar.gz

Step 3: Move the WordPress folder to /var/www/html folder.

sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress

Step 4: Change the ownership of the wordpress folder to www-data

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress/

Step 5: Change the folder and file permissions using the following command. Folders should have 755 permission, and files should have 644 permission.

find /var/www/html/ -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 0755
find /var/www/html/ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 0644

Step 6: Remove the downloaded wordpress installation file.

rm latest.tar.gz

You can check if the permissions have been applied using the following command.

stat -c "%a %n"  /var/www/html/wordpress/*

Configure Apache For WordPress

Step 1: Create a new Apache configuration named wp-site.conf for the WordPress site.

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/wp-site.conf

Add the following configuration to the file and save it. Replace yourdomain with your custom domain name.

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin admin@yourdomain.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress/
     ServerName yourdomain.com
     ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com

     <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Step 2: Enable wp-site.conf

sudo a2ensite wp-site.conf

Step 3: Enable the Apache rewrite module.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Step 4: Restart the Apache server.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Configure WordPress Application

Step 1: Rename the default wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php

sudo mv /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php

Step 2: Open the wp-config.php file

sudo vi /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php

Replace the values highlighted in the image below with the database, user, and password generated in the previous steps.

Step 3: Now you have configured your site details on the wp-site.conf file, try to access WordPress by browsing the domain name you used on the wp-site.conf file.

Make sure your server is mapped to the domain name you configured in the wp-site.conf file.

http://your-domain-name.com

If you haven’t configured a domain name, you can access the installed WordPress with

http://<your-server-ip>/wordpress

Step 4: Select the preferred language and fill up the details in the configuration wizard.

Step 5: Once WordPress is installed, you can access the dashboard using the username and password.