How to Install WordPress with LEMP Stack on CentOS 7

WordPress is an open source and most widely used software for blogging, content management software, websites etc. It’s written in PHP and used MySQL/MariaDB for database.
This article describes How to Install WordPress with LEMPStack on CentOS7.

Step 1. LAMP Stack Installation: Follow the article Howto Install the LEMP Stack on CentOS 7. Due to WordPress recommendation php 5.6.x or higher version is required, follow the article Howto Install PHP 7.3 Latest Version on CentOS 7.

[root@linuxcnf ~]# yum install --enablerepo=remi-php73 php php-mysqlnd -y Loaded plugins: fastestmirror ……………………. Installed:   php.x86_64 0:7.3.15-1.el7.remi                                                 php-mysqlnd.x86_64 0:7.3.15-1.el7.remi Dependency Installed:   php-cli.x86_64 0:7.3.15-1.el7.remi      php-common.x86_64 0:7.3.15-1.el7.remi      php-json.x86_64 0:7.3.15-1.el7.remi      php-pdo.x86_64 0:7.3.15-1.el7.remi Complete! [root@linuxcnf ~]#

Step 2. Database Configuration: Create a database and a user for WordPress to access that database:

Run the following commands to create a database:

[root@linuxcnf ~]# mysql -u root -p Enter password: Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g. Your MariaDB connection id is 11 Server version: 5.5.64-MariaDB MariaDB Server Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others. Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement. MariaDB [(none)]> create database wordpress; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec) MariaDB [(none)]>

Create a User and grant all privileges on wordpress database:

MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on wordpress.* to wordpress@localhost identified by 'w0rdpr$55'; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) MariaDB [(none)]> quit Bye [root@linuxcnf ~]#

Step 3. WordPress Installation: Download the WordPress from the official site and copy it the web server document directory:

Run the following command to install php-gd wordpress prerequisites:

[root@linuxcnf ~]# yum install --enablerepo=remi-php73 php-fpm php-opcache php-gd php-xml php-mbstring php-fpm php-curl Loaded plugins: fastestmirror ……………………. Installed:   php-fpm.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi     php-gd.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi     php-mbstring.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi     php-opcache.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi   php-xml.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi Dependency Installed:   oniguruma5.x86_64 0:6.9.4-1.el7.remi Updated:   php-common.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi Dependency Updated:   php.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi          php-cli.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi      php-json.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi      php-mysqlnd.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi   php-pdo.x86_64 0:7.3.16-1.el7.remi Complete! [root@linuxcnf ~]#

Download WordPress from it official site:

[root@linuxcnf ~]# cd /tmp [root@linuxcnf tmp]# curl -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100 11.8M  100 11.8M    0     0   613k      0  0:00:19  0:00:19 --:--:--  695k [root@linuxcnf tmp]# ls -ltrh latest.tar.gz -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 12M Mar 15 21:18 latest.tar.gz [root@linuxcnf tmp]#

Unzip the file and copy the contents to the web document root directory:

[root@linuxcnf tmp]# tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz ………………………. wordpress/wp-admin/widgets.php wordpress/wp-admin/setup-config.php wordpress/wp-admin/install.php wordpress/wp-admin/admin-header.php wordpress/wp-admin/post-new.php wordpress/wp-admin/themes.php wordpress/wp-admin/options-reading.php wordpress/wp-trackback.php wordpress/wp-comments-post.php [root@linuxcnf tmp]# cd wordpress/ [root@linuxcnf wordpress]# ls index.php    readme.html      wp-admin            wp-comments-post.php  wp-content   wp-includes        wp-load.php   wp-mail.php      wp-signup.php     xmlrpc.php license.txt  wp-activate.php  wp-blog-header.php  wp-config-sample.php  wp-cron.php  wp-links-opml.php  wp-login.php  wp-settings.php  wp-trackback.php [root@linuxcnf wordpress]# [root@linuxcnf wordpress]# mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/wordpress-data [root@linuxcnf wordpress]# cp -r * /usr/share/nginx/wordpress-data/ [root@linuxcnf wordpress]# cd /usr/share/nginx/wordpress-data/ [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# ls index.php    logs         wp-activate.php  wp-blog-header.php    wp-config-sample.php  wp-cron.php  wp-links-opml.php  wp-login.php  wp-settings.php  wp-trackback.php license.txt  readme.html  wp-admin         wp-comments-post.php  wp-content            wp-includes  wp-load.php        wp-mail.php   wp-signup.php    xmlrpc.php [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Step 4. WordPress Configuration: Follow the below steps to configure WordPress:

Create a folder on the below path to store uploaded data:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# mkdir -p wp-content/uploads [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Now set the correct ownership and permission on the WordPress files and directories:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# chown -R nginx:nginx * [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Make a copy of WordPress configuration and update the parameters for database configuration as below:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# cp -p wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# vi wp-config.php <?php ……………………….. /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); /** MySQL database username */ define( 'DB_USER', 'wordpress' ); /** MySQL database password */ define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'w0rdpr$55' ); ………………………. [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Step 4. Nginx Configuration: Open the Nginx configuration file and modify as shown in below screen:

Add the following configuration to the end of the file:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# vi /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf ……………………. listen = /var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock listen.owner = nginx listen.group = nginx listen.mode = 0660 [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Restart the following command to restart php-fpm service:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# systemctl restart php-fpm [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# systemctl enable php-fpm Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/php-fpm.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/php-fpm.service. [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Create a new configuration and add the following configuration to the file. Replace server name as per environment:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/wordpress.conf server {    listen 80;    root /usr/share/nginx/wordpress-data;    index index.php index.html index.htm;    server_name 192.168.43.47;    location / {       try_files $uri $uri/ =404;    }    location ~ \.php$ {     include fastcgi_params;     fastcgi_intercept_errors on;     fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;     fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root/$fastcgi_script_name; }    location ~ /\.ht {       deny all;     } } [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Run the following command to restart the nginx service to reflect all the above changes;

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# systemctl restart nginx [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# systemctl enable nginx Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nginx.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service. [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Step 5. Firewall Configuration: Run the following command to allow Nginx access from the system firewall:

[root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=80/tcp success [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]# firewall-cmd --reload success [root@linuxcnf wordpress-data]#

Step 6. Verify the Installation: Finally, browse the URL http://<Server IP Address/Hostname> to access the WordPress configuration page and further configuration as shown in below screen shot:

Done!!! Now follow the further instruction to complete initial setup of WordPress.