📝 Install WordPress on a Linux VPS

This guide explains how to install WordPress on your Linux VPS. WordPress is the world's most popular content management system (CMS), used by millions of websites.

⚠️ Important Warning

📋 Prerequisites

• A Linux VPS with root or sudo access
• At least 1 GB of RAM (2 GB recommended for WordPress)
• At least 10 GB of free disk space
• A domain name pointing to your VPS IP
• Ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) open in your firewall

💡 Infrastructure Recommendation

For optimal WordPress performance, we recommend our NVMe VPS for moderate traffic sites, or our Performance VPS for high-traffic sites requiring significant CPU resources. NVMe drives significantly accelerate page loading and database operations.

🔧 Method 1: Installation with LAMP (Apache)

Step 1: Update the system

# Update package list
sudo apt update

# Update installed packages
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Apache

# Install Apache
sudo apt install -y apache2

# Start Apache
sudo systemctl start apache2

# Enable Apache on boot
sudo systemctl enable apache2

# Check status
sudo systemctl status apache2

Step 3: Install MySQL

# Install MySQL Server
sudo apt install -y mysql-server

# Start MySQL
sudo systemctl start mysql

# Enable MySQL on boot
sudo systemctl enable mysql

# Secure MySQL installation
sudo mysql_secure_installation

During securing, you will need to:

• Set a root password for MySQL
• Remove anonymous users
• Disable remote root login
• Remove test database
• Reload privileges

Step 4: Create WordPress database

# Connect to MySQL
sudo mysql -u root -p

In MySQL, run the following commands:

-- Create database
CREATE DATABASE wordpress_db CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

-- Create user for WordPress
CREATE USER 'wordpress_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YourSecurePassword123!';

-- Grant all privileges to user
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress_db.* TO 'wordpress_user'@'localhost';

-- Apply changes
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

-- Exit MySQL
EXIT;

Step 5: Install PHP and required extensions

# Install PHP and extensions required for WordPress
sudo apt install -y php php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-xmlrpc php-soap php-intl php-zip libapache2-mod-php

# Check PHP version
php -v

WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher. To install a specific version:

# For PHP 8.1 (recommended)
sudo apt install -y php8.1 php8.1-mysql php8.1-curl php8.1-gd php8.1-mbstring php8.1-xml php8.1-xmlrpc php8.1-soap php8.1-intl php8.1-zip libapache2-mod-php8.1

Step 6: Download WordPress

# Go to temporary directory
cd /tmp

# Download latest WordPress version
curl -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

# Extract archive
tar xzf latest.tar.gz

# Copy WordPress to web directory
sudo cp -r wordpress/* /var/www/html/

# Set correct permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

Step 7: Configure WordPress

# Create configuration file
cd /var/www/html
sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

# Edit configuration file
sudo nano wp-config.php

Modify the following lines with your database information:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress_db' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'wordpress_user' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'YourSecurePassword123!' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

Also add these security lines (generate unique keys):

define('AUTH_KEY',         'generate-unique-key-here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'generate-unique-key-here');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'generate-unique-key-here');
define('NONCE_KEY',        'generate-unique-key-here');
define('AUTH_SALT',        'generate-unique-key-here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'generate-unique-key-here');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',  'generate-unique-key-here');
define('NONCE_SALT',       'generate-unique-key-here');

You can generate unique keys at: https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/

Step 8: Configure Apache for WordPress

# Enable rewrite module
sudo a2enmod rewrite

# Edit Apache configuration
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

Add or modify the <Directory /var/www/html> section:

<Directory /var/www/html>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 9: Complete installation via web interface

1. Open your browser
2. Go to: http://YOUR_IP or http://yourdomain.com
3. Follow the WordPress installation wizard:
   • Choose your language
   • Fill in site information (title, admin user, email, password)
   • Click Install WordPress

🔧 Method 2: Installation with LEMP (Nginx)

Step 1: Install Nginx

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install -y nginx

# Start Nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

# Enable Nginx on boot
sudo systemctl enable nginx

Step 2: Install MySQL (same as LAMP method)

Follow steps 3 and 4 of the LAMP method to install MySQL and create the database.

Step 3: Install PHP-FPM

# Install PHP-FPM and extensions
sudo apt install -y php-fpm php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-xmlrpc php-soap php-intl php-zip

# For PHP 8.1
sudo apt install -y php8.1-fpm php8.1-mysql php8.1-curl php8.1-gd php8.1-mbstring php8.1-xml php8.1-xmlrpc php8.1-soap php8.1-intl php8.1-zip

Step 4: Download WordPress

Follow step 6 of the LAMP method to download and install WordPress.

Step 5: Configure Nginx for WordPress

# Create configuration file for your site
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress

Add the following configuration (replace yourdomain.com with your domain):

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the site:

# Create symbolic link
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Test configuration
sudo nginx -t

# Restart Nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 6: Configure WordPress

Follow steps 7 and 9 of the LAMP method to configure WordPress.

🔒 Securing WordPress

1. Change file permissions

# Permissions for files
sudo find /var/www/html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

# Permissions for directories
sudo find /var/www/html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Special permissions for wp-config.php
sudo chmod 600 /var/www/html/wp-config.php

2. Install SSL certificate with Let's Encrypt

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache
# For Nginx: sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Get SSL certificate
sudo certbot --apache -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
# For Nginx: sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

# Automatic renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

3. Configure firewall

# Allow HTTP and HTTPS
sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'
# For Nginx: sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

# Or manually
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

4. Limit login attempts

Install a WordPress security plugin like:

• Wordfence Security
• iThemes Security
• Sucuri Security

5. Disable file editing via interface

Add in wp-config.php:

define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

🔄 WordPress Updates

Via WordPress interface

1. Log in to WordPress admin
2. Go to Dashboard → Updates
3. Click Update Now

Via WP-CLI (command line)

# Install WP-CLI
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
chmod +x wp-cli.phar
sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

# Update WordPress
cd /var/www/html
sudo -u www-data wp core update
sudo -u www-data wp plugin update --all
sudo -u www-data wp theme update --all

📦 Recommended Plugins

• Yoast SEO : Search engine optimization
• Wordfence Security : Security and protection
• UpdraftPlus : Automatic backups
• W3 Total Cache : Caching to improve performance
• Contact Form 7 : Contact forms

❓ Common Issues

Error "Error establishing a database connection"

Solutions:

1. Check credentials in wp-config.php
2. Check MySQL is started: sudo systemctl status mysql
3. Test connection: mysql -u wordpress_user -p wordpress_db

404 error on permalinks

For Apache:

# Check mod_rewrite is enabled
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

For Nginx: Check that the try_files configuration is correct.

Permission problems

# Fix permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
sudo find /var/www/html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

📝 Useful Commands

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status apache2  # or nginx
sudo systemctl status mysql

# Restart services
sudo systemctl restart apache2  # or nginx
sudo systemctl restart mysql

# View Apache logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log

# View Nginx logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

# View PHP-FPM logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/php8.1-fpm.log

📞 Need Help?

If you encounter difficulties installing WordPress, please contact Infrawire support. Our team is available to help you.

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Note : For a better WordPress experience with dedicated support, automatic backups and pre-configured optimizations, consider our WordPress dedicated web hosting.