VPS Server WordPress Installation

In this post find out what exactly VPS hosting is, and find the best VPS Server WordPress installation guide for this hosting.

VPS Server WordPress Installation

Are you ready to level up your WordPress hosting? Find out what exactly VPS hosting is, and find the best WordPress installation guide in the Virtual Private Server hosting platform.

The first time you sign up for a hosting plan can be very confusing. And also, there is shared hosting, a dedicated server, managed services, and even a Virtual Private Server can choose from. So, there are a lot of options to take in, and the problem lies in knowing which type of plan you need.

VPSs are a natural progression from shared hosting, but the name makes them sound overly complicated. In this article, we’re going to give you a full breakdown of what a VPS is and when you should consider using one. Then, we’ll teach you how to install WordPress a VPS in four simple steps. Let’s get to it!

What a VPS Is (And When You Should Consider Upgrading to One)

With shared hosting, you occupy the same server as other users do. This means you share resources with everyone else, which often leads to performance issues if your website requires a bit more juice. In contrast, a VPS still enables you to share a single physical server, but you get a virtual instance to host your website. We’ll explain VPS Server WordPress installation and why this is good news for you.

  • You get a set amount of resources. When you sign up for a VPS, you get a set amount of memory, storage, and bandwidth, and you don’t need to share those resources with anyone else.
  • They are easy to upgrade. So, in most cases, you can ask your hosting provider to add more resources to your V.P.S.at a moment’s notice.
  • You get full control over your server. Even though you’re dealing with a virtual server, you still get complete control over it.
  • They’re often reasonably priced. More specifically, you can easily find powerful starter VPS plans below $10 per month.

In our opinion, once your WordPress website outgrows shared hosting, you have two options for upgrading. You can either sign up for a VPS plan or alternatively try managed WordPress hosting.

As you may know, managed WordPress hosting plans are all about convenience. However, when it comes to performance, you can probably do just as well, if not better, with a VPS. So, the only difference is that a VPS has a longer learning curve if you set it up manually. Moreover, this means configuring your server, tweaking it to run WordPress, and installing the platform. We’ll cover how to do the VPS host WordPress installation later.

VPS Server WordPress Installation Using Your Hosting Control Panel

There are a lot of great options when it comes to WordPress-friendly VPS services. However, we’re partial to Vultr thanks to its accessible prices and excellent performance. You’re free to choose any provider you want to host your website, but for this tutorial, we will use Vultr as an example. You may need to check whether your host will let you set up a VPS through your account dashboard. Moreover, if not, you’ll want to skip to the next section, where we talk about how to install WordPress manually via the command line.

Assuming you’ve already signed up for a Vultr account, your next step will be to log into it and go to the Servers tab on your dashboard.

Once you’re there, click on the blue Plus icon at the right of your screen. On the next page, choose your VPS’s location.

Your chosen server will depend on where you expect most of your traffic to come from. For example, if your website mainly targets American users, you’ll want to go with a US-based server. So, next, scroll down to the Server Type section and jump to the Application tab. Now look for the WordPress option at the bottom and click on it.

This will automatically install WordPress on your VPS using the latest 64-bit CentOS release as its Operating System (OS). There are other ‘distros’ available for use, but CentOS is the default choice for new Vultr VPSs due mainly to its stability.

If you scroll further down, you can choose which plan you want to use for your VPS Initially

We recommend choosing the $5 per month plan.

This should be enough for a single medium-sized WordPress website. More importantly, you can always scale your VPS with a few clicks, but downgrading your plan is much more complicated. Doing things this way gives you a lot more maneuverability.

Moving on, there are a couple of exciting options under the Additional Features section. For example, you can enable automated backups for an extra 20% of your base plan’s cost, which works out to $1 for this example. Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, on the other hand, will run you an extra $10 per month.

It’s up to you which features you want to enable, but keep in mind you can always take care of backups using plugins at no extra cost. Finally, go to the bottom of the screen and set a name for your VPS.

Whatever name you choose is for internal identification only, so pick anything you want. When you’re ready, click on the Deploy Now button below. Once Vultr completes the installation, your new VPS is prepared to go! You can access its settings from the Servers tab.

Within your VPS’s main settings screen, you’ll find instructions for the rest of the setup process.

By accessing the URL using the login details provided by Vultr, you’ll be able to finish installing WordPress (which is similar to the usual method).

You can use your new website for anything you want when that’s done. So, just remember to point your domain toward your VPSs IP address, and you’ll be all set!

VPS Server WordPress Installation Using Your Hosting Control Panel on a V.P.S. Manually (In 4 Steps)

Virtual Private Server - WordPress Installation Guide
Virtual Private Server – WordPress Installation Guide

In case you’re using a VPS that doesn’t include one-click setup options for apps such as WordPress, you can always opt for a manual install. So, for this example, we’re going to do the entire setup on a brand-new VPS running CentOS 7.

Step 1 – Connect to Your V.P.S. Via SSH

When we install WordPress VPS, once you have a VPS up and running, you’ll need two things to follow these instructions:

  1. Your server’s root password so you can run the necessary commands.
  2. Secure Shell (SSH) client such as Putty.

You’ll need to install Putty and open the application to access your VPS. Once you do that, you’ll see a section where you can specify the destination you want to connect to:

Now type your VPSs IP address within the Host Name (or IP Address) field, set the Port option to 22, choose SSH under Connection type, then click Open. Moreover, a command window will pop up, asking what user you want to log in as. Type root, then enter your password when prompted:

Also if you typed your password correctly, your VPSs name should display, and we can get down to business!

Step 2 – Install the Software You Need to Run WordPress

To run WordPress, you need an HTTP server, a database, and PHP. So, for this tutorial, we’re going to install Apache, MariaDB, and the latest version of PHP. Fortunately, you can do so in one fell swoop with a single command:

sudo yum install httpd mariadb mariadb-server php php-common php-mysql php-gd php-xml php-mbstring php-mcrypt php-xmlrpc unzip wget -y

So, this tells your server to download all necessary files and set them up. The process might take a few minutes, depending on how fast your server is, and when everything’s ready, you’ll be able to type in more commands.

Once the underlying software is ready, you need to initialize it and tell your server to boot it up every time. So, here are the commands you’ll need to use to install WordPress VPS:

sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

At this stage, there’s only one step left to go before you can install WordPress and start using it, and that’s to configure your database.

Step 3 – Configure MariaDB and Create a WordPress Database

Before creating a database for your website, you need to ‘secure’ your MariaDB installation so people can’t access it remotely. To get started, enter the following command:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Afterward, MariaDB will ask you for its root user password, which should be blank, so just hit the enter key. Then, you’ll be able to set a new root password. For the rest of the settings, hit Y for all of the remaining four options, particularly number three, which disallows remote logins.

Before creating a database for your WordPress website, you need to ‘secure’ your MariaDB installation on the VPS host so people can’t access it remotely. To get started, enter the following command:

mysql -u root -p

Once you’re in, there are four commands you need to run in turn. Each line below is an individual command, so keep that in mind. Also, remember to replace the user and password placeholders with a more secure pair for use with your database:

CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES on wordpress.* to 'user'@'localhost' identified by 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

There you go! Your new database is ready for use, so let’s not keep it waiting.

Step 4 – Installation of VPS Server and Run WordPress

So, now we have set up our infrastructure, the final step is to download the software and install and configure it. Moreover, let’s kick things off with a quick series of commands to download the latest platform version, extract its files, and move them to your root directory. Also, keep in mind each of the lines below is an individual command you need to run separately:

wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz
sudo cp -avr wordpress/* /var/www/html/

So far, so good. Now let’s create an Uploads folder for your WordPress VPS host installation and assign the correct permissions to your files and folders using the following two commands:

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/wp-content/uploads
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/

Finally, let’s rename your WordPress wp-config-sample.php file…

cd /var/www/html/
sudo mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
sudo nano wp-config.php

…and configure it so it can connect to your database. The last command you ran will open the file using the nano editor within the command line. It’s a bit tricky to use, but just navigate the file using your keyboard arrows and replace the following fields with the same data you entered during step number three while doing the installation of WordPress in your VPS host.

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
define('DB_USER', 'user');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password');

So, after updating those fields, type CTRL+O and CTRL+X on your keyboard. The former will save the changes you made to the file, while the latter will close the nano editor. And also, all that’s left to do now is to configure your VPS to allow HTTP and HTTPS connections with these commands:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Once you run them, you’ll be able to access the WordPress installer by visiting your VPSs at http://yourvpsipgoeshere and replacing the placeholder accordingly.

That’s it! We went through many commands, but the process is quite simple when you realize it’s mostly copying, pasting, and following instructions. So, with this guide, you’ll be able to install WordPress on any VPS you want.

Conclusion

Using a VPS is a big jump if you’ve only experienced shared hosting before. And also, fortunately, most reputable web hosts keep the experience simple. Moreover, if you don’t want to deal with using the command line to customize your VPS, chances are your provider will have the tools to help you.

So, with that in mind, there are two ways to go about setting up WordPress on a VPS. Most VPS services provide you with one-click setup options for popular platforms such as WordPress, or you can do so manually. The latter method requires you to be comfortable using the command line, but it’s not difficult if you know what steps to follow in the WordPress installation process in a VPS host.

Do you have any questions about installing WordPress on a VPS? Ask away in the comments section below!