Skyrocket Your WordPress: AWS Linux, Apache & RDS Hosting

11 min readSep 17, 2023

Welcome to the world of cutting-edge website hosting! If you’re eager to elevate your WordPress experience to unparalleled heights, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we will delve into the powerful realm of AWS (Amazon Web Services) and show you how to host your WordPress website on the dynamic combination of AWS Linux, Apache, and RDS (Relational Database Service).

Swag++

When it comes to creating a robust and scalable web environment, AWS stands tall as a market leader. Its extensive suite of cloud computing services allows you to harness the true potential of the cloud, ensuring seamless performance, top-notch security, and unmatched flexibility. Within this ecosystem, AWS Linux, Apache, and RDS form a trio of prowess that promises to deliver an exceptional hosting experience for your WordPress application.

Over the course of this guide, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of setting up and configuring your WordPress website on an AWS Linux 2023 instance. You’ll become familiar with Apache, the renowned web server, and learn how to utilize RDS to create and manage your WordPress database with ease.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer seeking to optimize your web hosting or a newcomer to the world of AWS looking to harness its power, our journey together will unlock the secrets to seamless WordPress hosting on the cloud. So, let’s dive in and unleash the true potential of your WordPress website with AWS Linux, Apache, and RDS!

Introduction to WordPress, AWS RDS, and Apache HTTP Server

WordPress:

WordPress is a popular and widely used content management system (CMS) that allows users to create and manage websites easily, even without extensive technical knowledge. It was initially designed as a blogging platform but has evolved over the years into a full-fledged CMS suitable for various types of websites, including blogs, business sites, e-commerce stores, and more.

WordPress

Key features and aspects of WordPress include:

1. User-friendly Interface: WordPress offers an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard that enables users to manage their website’s content, themes, and plugins with ease.

2. Themes and Customization: Users can choose from a vast array of themes, both free and premium, to change the appearance of their website. Customization options are available for tweaking the layout, colors, fonts, and more.

3. Plugins: One of the most powerful aspects of WordPress is its plugin ecosystem. There are thousands of plugins available to add extra functionality to a website, such as contact forms, SEO optimization, social media integration, and more.

4. Content Management: WordPress provides a simple and effective way to create, edit, and organize content, such as blog posts, pages, images, videos, and other media types.

5. SEO-friendly: WordPress is designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, and its structure allows search engines to crawl and index websites easily.

6. Community and Support: Due to its widespread use, WordPress has a large and active community. Users can find help, support, and tutorials from forums, blogs, and official documentation.

7. Regular Updates and Security: The WordPress team frequently releases updates to improve functionality and address security issues, ensuring that the platform remains secure and up-to-date.

Overall, WordPress is an excellent choice for individuals and businesses looking to create a dynamic website quickly and efficiently. Its flexibility, ease of use, and extensive community support have contributed to its massive popularity as a leading CMS.

AWS RDS:

Amazon Relational Database Service (AWS RDS) is a fully managed cloud-based database service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It simplifies the process of setting up, operating, and scaling relational databases in the cloud, freeing users from many administrative tasks so they can focus on building and managing their applications.

AWS RDS

Key features and aspects of AWS RDS include:

Managed Service: AWS RDS takes care of routine database tasks such as hardware provisioning, software patching, backups, and automatic failure detection and recovery. This allows users to offload the burden of database administration and focus on their applications.
Multi-Engine Support: AWS RDS supports various popular database engines, including Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server. This versatility allows users to choose the database engine that best suits their specific application requirements.
Scalability: With AWS RDS, users can easily scale their database resources up or down based on demand. This flexibility ensures that the database can handle varying workloads without disruptions.
High Availability: AWS RDS provides options for high availability through features like Multi-AZ (Availability Zone) deployments. Multi-AZ replication creates a standby replica of the primary database in a different Availability Zone, ensuring automatic failover in case of any infrastructure issues.
Security: AWS RDS offers robust security features, including encryption at rest and in transit, IAM database authentication, and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) support to isolate the database in a private network.
Automated Backups and Restore: RDS automatically performs regular backups of the database, allowing users to easily restore to any specific point in time within the retention period.
Monitoring and Metrics: AWS RDS provides various monitoring tools and performance metrics to help users track the health and performance of their databases.
Cost-effective: AWS RDS follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing users to choose the instance size, storage, and features they need, helping them optimize costs based on their actual usage.

AWS RDS is an excellent choice for businesses and developers who want a scalable, secure, and fully managed database solution without the complexities of traditional database administration. Its integration with other AWS services and the ability to support various popular database engines make it a powerful tool for building robust and reliable applications.

Apache HTTP Server:

The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, is an open-source web server software developed and maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. It is one of the most widely used web servers globally and has been a cornerstone of the internet since its inception in 1995.

Apache HTTPD

Key features and aspects of Apache HTTP Server include:

1. Web Server Functionality: Apache’s primary function is to serve web pages and other content over the internet. It supports various protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, and more, making it capable of handling a wide range of web applications and websites.

2. Cross-Platform Compatibility: Apache is designed to be platform-independent and runs on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, Windows, macOS, and others.

3. Configuration Flexibility: Apache offers a highly customizable configuration system. Users can modify various settings through configuration files to suit their specific needs, making it a versatile choice for different types of web applications.

4. Module Support: Apache’s modular architecture allows users to extend its functionality using modules. There is a vast library of third-party modules available, enabling features such as URL rewriting, authentication, caching, and more.

5. Security Features: Apache comes with robust security features, including support for SSL/TLS encryption to secure data transmission, access controls, and modules for preventing common web vulnerabilities like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and SQL injection attacks.

6. Performance and Scalability: Apache is known for its efficiency and performance. It can handle a large number of simultaneous connections and is optimized to distribute the server load across multiple processes or threads, making it suitable for high-traffic websites.

Due to its reliability, security, and extensive feature set, Apache HTTP Server remains a preferred choice for hosting websites and web applications across the internet. Its long-standing presence in the web server space is a testament to its stability and adaptability to evolving web technologies and demands.

Let’s now embark on a hands-on implementation

Prerequisites:

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

An AWS account: Sign up for an AWS account if you don’t have one already.
Basic knowledge of AWS services: Familiarize yourself with AWS concepts such as EC2 instances, security groups, and IAM roles.

A. Launching an Amazon EC2 Instance:

Step 1: Sign in to your AWS Management Console.

Step 2: Navigate to the EC2 Dashboard and click “Launch Instance.”

EC2 Dashboard

Step 3: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with your preferred Linux distribution (e.g., Amazon Linux 2023) and instance type, in this case, t2 micro.

t2.micro and Amazon Linux 2023

Step 4: Create or select an existing security group and define the inbound rules to allow HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) traffic.

Step 5: Review the instance details and launch the instance. Check the instance after launch.

The instance is created.

B. Setting up WordPress Server

Step 1: Connect to your EC2 instance via SSH using the provided key pair.

ssh -i "wordpress.pem" ec2-user@ec2-13-235-83-173.ap-south-1.compute.amazonaws.com

On a successful connection, it should look like this:

Successfully Connected to Instance

Step 2: Install Apache HTTP Server:

sudo yum install httpd -y

It would look like this:

The Installation of HTTPD

Step 3: Start the Apache server and verify the status:

sudo service httpd start
sudo service httpd status

The output of above commands:

Server Status UP!

Step 4: Install PHP and necessary PHP modules:

dnf install wget php-mysqlnd php-fpm php-mysqli php-json php php-devel -y

The expected output:

Installation of PHP

Once done, verify by giving the command “php -help”

PHP Works!

Step 5: Download the latest version of WordPress:

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

It will start downloading the WordPress archive file.

The file is being downloaded.

Step 6: Unzip and unarchive the installation package in /var/www/html.

sudo tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/html

Once, we execute the command, the extraction will begin in “/wordpress” directory.

Extraction process

Verify the same by using “ls” command, you should see “wordpress” directory

WordPress Directory Created!

Step 7: Restart Apache to apply the changes:

sudo service httpd restart

It will apply the changes, the output should look something like this:

Server Restarted

Step 8: We have almost completed the server side set up of WordPress, now let’s hit:

http://<instance_public_ip>/wordpress

We would see WordPress configuration page:

Config Page

C. Setting up Relational Database Server

Step 1: Navigate to the RDS Dashboard.

RDS Page

Step 2: Click “Create Database” and select “Standard Method” and the engine as MySQL.

Basic Selection ad Engine Selection

Step 3: Select Db Template as “Free Tire”

Free Tire — No Fees

Step 4: Configure the database authentication and network settings.

Provide the identifier, Master name, and secure 8-character password.

Db Credentials

For Connectivity, let the setting be “Don’t connect to…”, and block public access.

Network conf part 1

Also, select existing VPC SG, here I have allowed all traffic, let rest be the same.

Network conf part 2

Step 5: Then select the Db authentication mode as password-based

Password Auth based

Step 6: After this, create an initial database, so we can directly provide the name to WordPress.

initial DB name

Step 7: Finally, click on create button to provision the RDS

create DB

It will take a few minutes, be patient!

Work In Progress!

After a few minutes, DB will be created.

Db Created!

Step 8: Click on “View Connection Details” to get the EndPoint and other information.

Keep it safe and secure

D. Connecting WordPress Server and RDS:

Step 1: Now, navigate to your WordPress configuration file and update the database settings with the RDS endpoint, master username, password, and other necessary details:

cd /var/www/html/wordpress
sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
sudo vim wp-config.php

Find the following lines in the wp-config.php file and update them with your RDS database information:

define('DB_NAME', 'your_database_name');
define('DB_USER', 'your_database_username');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_database_password');
define('DB_HOST', 'your_rds_endpoint');

After the update, it should look like:

Added the info to the config file

Step 2: Restart Apache to apply the changes:

sudo service httpd restart

After restart, WordPress should be ready to be used.

E. Accessing WordPress Webiste:

Step 1: Open a web browser and enter your EC2 instance’s public IP or public DNS, followed by “/wordpress”. You should see the WordPress welcome page. Fill in the required information to continue.

Welcome Page

Step 2: After, we have clicked “Install WordPress”, it should show success message.

Congrats!!

Step 3: Login into your website/ account

The Login Page

Step 4: After login, you will see the main dashboard

The Dashboard

Step 5: Write and publish a Blog:

In conclusion, We have successfully implemented WordPress with AWS RDS and Apache HTTP Server. This powerful combination offers a scalable, secure, and high-performance infrastructure for hosting your dynamic website or blog.

Don’t forget to regularly update your WordPress installation, plugins, and server for optimal performance and security. Happy website building!