Deploying WordPress with EC2 and RDS

Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will:

1. Understand the architecture of deploying WordPress with EC2 and RDS.
2. Set up an EC2 instance to host WordPress.
3. Configure Amazon RDS to serve as the database backend.
4. Connect WordPress to RDS and complete the setup.

Introduction: WordPress in the Cloud

WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for building websites, from blogs to e-commerce stores. Deploying WordPress on AWS using EC2 and RDS provides scalability, reliability, and performance.

In this chapter, we’ll guide you step-by-step to deploy WordPress, with EC2 hosting the application and RDS managing the database.

Architecture Overview

1. EC2 Instance:
   • Hosts the WordPress application and serves web traffic.
2. RDS Instance:
   • Stores the WordPress database for secure, scalable, and reliable data management.
3. Security Groups:
   • Control access to the EC2 and RDS instances.
4. Public and Private Subnets:
   • EC2 resides in a public subnet, while RDS is in a private subnet.

Step-by-Step Deployment

Part 1: Set Up the Database with Amazon RDS

1. Log in to AWS:
   • Go to the AWS Management Console and search for RDS.
2. Create an RDS Instance:
   • In the RDS dashboard, click Create Database.
   • Choose MySQL as the database engine.
   • Select Free Tier for this lab.
3. Configure the Database:
   • DB Instance Identifier: WordPressDB.
   • Master Username: admin.
   • Master Password: MySecurePassword123.
   • Allocated Storage: 20 GiB.
   • Public Access: No (default).
4. Set Up Security Group:
   • Create a security group for RDS:
     • Allow MySQL traffic (port 3306) from the security group of your EC2 instance.
5. Launch the Database:
   • Click Create Database and wait for it to initialize.
   • Note the Endpoint of the database (e.g., wordpressdb.xxxxxxx.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com).

Part 2: Launch an EC2 Instance for WordPress

1. Navigate to EC2:
   • In the AWS Management Console, search for EC2.
2. Launch an EC2 Instance:
   • AMI: Choose Amazon Linux 2 (Free Tier Eligible).
   • Instance Type: Select t2.micro.
   • Key Pair: Select an existing key pair or create a new one.
3. Configure Networking:
   • Place the instance in a public subnet.
   • Associate it with a security group that allows:
     • SSH (port 22) from your IP.
     • HTTP (port 80) from anywhere.
4. Launch the Instance:
   • Click Launch Instance and wait for it to start.

Part 3: Set Up WordPress on EC2

1. Connect to the Instance:
   • Use SSH to connect to your EC2 instance:
     

     
     ssh -i “your-key.pem” ec2-user@your-ec2-public-ip
     

2. Install LAMP Stack:
   • Update the system:
     

     
     sudo yum update -y
     

   • Install Apache:
     

     
     sudo yum install httpd -y
     sudo systemctl start httpd
     sudo systemctl enable httpd
     

   • Install PHP and MySQL:
     

     
     sudo amazon-linux-extras enable php8.0
     sudo yum install php php-mysqlnd -y
     

3. Download WordPress:
   • Change to the web directory:
     

     
     cd /var/www/html
     

   • Download WordPress:
     

     
     wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
     tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz
     mv wordpress/* .
     rm -rf wordpress latest.tar.gz
     

   • Set permissions:
     

     
     sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html
     sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html
     

Part 4: Connect WordPress to RDS

1. Edit the WordPress Configuration File:
   • Rename and edit the WordPress configuration file:
     

     
     mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
     nano wp-config.php
     

   • Update the database connection settings:
     

     
     define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘MyAppDB’);
     define(‘DB_USER’, ‘admin’);
     define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘MySecurePassword123’);
     define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘wordpressdb.xxxxxxx.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com’);
     define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’);
     define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);
     

2. Save and Close the File:
   • Press Ctrl + O, Enter, and Ctrl + X to save and exit.

Part 5: Complete the WordPress Setup

1. Access WordPress:
   • Open your browser and navigate to the public IP of your EC2 instance (e.g., http://your-ec2-public-ip).
2. Follow the Setup Wizard:
   • Enter the site name, admin username, and password.
   • Click Install WordPress to complete the setup.
3. Log in to the Dashboard:
   • Access the WordPress admin dashboard and start customizing your site.

Reflection: Why Use EC2 and RDS for WordPress?

1. Scalability: Easily scale your EC2 instance or RDS database independently.
2. Reliability: RDS provides automated backups, durability, and high availability.
3. Security: Segregate your application and database layers with private and public subnets.

By separating the web server (EC2) and database (RDS), you create a more modular, scalable, and secure architecture.

What’s Next?

In the next chapter, we’ll explore Hosting a Static Website with S3 and CloudFront, introducing you to serverless hosting.

Your WordPress deployment is complete—let’s build more applications!