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Setup WordPress on Linux in Azure

Posted on March th, 2015 in Server Setup | 0 Comments

Every since Dreamhost started pushing my buttons with less than sub-par service, dead slow loading speeds and pointing fingers at WordPress plugins and themes I was using, I’ve been looking at alternatives for my hosting needs.

Among some of the options are Amazon and Azure Cloud offerings.

Content:

Setup Linux VM
Install Infrastructure
- Apache
- PHP
- MySQL
- Virtual Host
- Database
Install WordPress
Tips and Links

Microsoft’s Azure service has 2 huge advantages, in my opinion:

Easier management interface
30 day credit so you can try service and even know how much would it cost you.

Amazon has free for 1 year program, which allows you to use their Small VM for free for a period of one year. But if you would like to try larger instances you would have to pay out of your own pocket. Which one to select will depend on your plan of migration. For me, Azure was the way to go.

These instructions are for Azure Linux installations, but they could also be used on Amazon AWS though some steps might require additional setup.

So let’s start.

Setup Linux VM

First, let create VM. Click on a “+ NEW” sign in Azure Portal and follow prompts
We will choose Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as our base
Give VM distinct name and set up size, user name and password
Next step allows us to create Cloud Service for this VM or we can connect it to existing Cloud Service. Select Region (I use West US).
Setup endpoints to your VM. You can set them up now or later. Make sure you enable: SSH and web port 80.
That’s it! That was easy. Now just wait about 5 minutes for your new VM to be fully provisioned. We are now ready to log in to our Azure VM.
Linux on Azure is installed without GUI, so the only way to login is through SSH. Use Terminal on Mac or any SSH client on Windows to connect to your machine. You will see your VM’s IP (public virtual IP, VIP) address on the right hand side of the Dashboard panel
SSH into your VM:
```
$ ssh admin_user@your_ipaddress
```
For some reason Azure does not set default root password, so let’s fix that:
```
$ sudo passwd root
```
You now can sudo your commands.
```
$ su
```

Install infrastructure

All of the steps below are performed using SSH. I did not install Linux GUI nor RDP connection as they will add unnecessary overhead which translates into extra cost. If you are interested in installing GUI and RDP, refer to my post about Splunk Setup on Azure for instructions.

Assuming you SSH into VM,

Apache

Install Apache
```
$ apt-get install apache2
```
Test by visiting http://your_ipaddress in the browser. You should see Apache start page

PHP

Install PHP and several essential php libraries by running
```
$ apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5
```
Restart Apache
```
$ service apache2 restart
```
Test PHP by creating info.php file and accessing it via browser:
```
$ nano /var/www/html/info.php
```
Type in:
```
<?php
   phpinfo();
?>
```
Save the file via Ctrl+O, Return
Open http://your_ipaddress/info.php in your browser, you should see PHP Info page.

MySQL

Install MySQL by running

# apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

Enable MySQL support in PHP
```
# apt-get install php5-mysql
```
Install X-Cache
```
# apt-get install php5-xcache
```
Optionally, install phpMyAdmin, tool you can use to access your MySQL database
```
# apt-get install phpmyadmin
```

Enable link between phpmyadmin and www [3]

# ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin /var/www/html

Enable mod_rewrite and restart apache [5]

# a2enmod rewrite
# service apache2 restart

Test phpMyAdmin by accessing http://your_ipaddress/phpmyadmin/

Set up Virtual Hosts [4]

… if planning to host more than one website

You can run more than one website on one machine, which might make sense for ease of administration. Enabling that is pretty easy with Apache.

Copy default config file and give it distinct name

# sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/teterine.conf

Create separate folder for log delivery

# mkdir /var/log/apache2/teterine

Modify file to include:

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/teterine.conf

ServerAdmin teterine@mynewsite.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/teterine
ServerName teterine.com
ServerAlias *.teterine.com

Change log delivery directory in config file

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

Enable the new VirtualHost using the a2ensite utility and restart Apache2

# a2ensite teterine
# service apache2 reload 
# service apache2 restart

You can test newly created site by modifying you hosts file to include
```
106.123.45.56 teterine.com
```
You can switch it back and forth by adding # in front of that line

Create Database

Access MySQL interface by executing
```
mysql -u root -p
```

In MySQL interface create database, create user and assign privileges:

-> CREATE DATABASE database_name;
-> CREATE USER database_user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'secure_password';
-> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database_name.* TO database_user@localhost;
-> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
-> exit

Install WordPress

install unzip

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install unzip

install php5-gd libssh2-php

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install php5-gd libssh2-php

download WordPress

$ mkdir temp
$ cd temp
$ wget http://wordpress.org/latest.zip

Unzip files

$ unzip -q latest.zip -d /var/www/html/teterine/

Change permissions

$ chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www/html/teterine
$ chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/teterine

Create Uploads directory

$ mkdir -p /var/www/html/teterine/wp-content/uploads

Change permissions for Uploads directory

$ chown -R :www-data /var/www/html/teterine/wp-content/uploads

Modify config file, or wordpress will do it for you

$ cd /var/www/html/wordpress/
$ cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
$ nano wp-config.php

[...]

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'database_name');

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'database_user');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'secure_password');

[...]

Tips and Links

Rewrite rules [6]

WordPress usually updates .htaccess file with Rewrite rules. Recent apache installations ignore .htaccess Rewrite rules, which is more secure that way. So in order to accomplish same results as changing .htaccess file, modify you site config file instead. Below is sample what I added to my config file, as I had WP Multisite enabled. Add your things WordPress tells you to add to .htaccess file to site config file.

$ nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/teterine.conf

<Directory /var/www/html/teterine>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
</Directory>