Using WordPress on AWS EC2 Free Tier

Here is a guide on how to setup WordPress on Amazon EC2 Free Tier

Setup

1. Sign up for a AWS Account at http://aws.amazon.com/

   

2. Sign up for a Amazon EC2 at http://aws.amazon.com/ec2

   

3. Sign into the AWS Console

   

4. Choose a Region before launching your new EC2 instance.

   

    

5. Create EC2 Linux Micro Instance for WordPress:
6. To start a new EC2 instance click on the Launch Instance button.

   

7. In the “Request Instances Wizard” tab to the Community AMI’s then filter using “wordpress” then choose the AMI:

   bitnami-wordpress-3.1-0-linux-ubuntu-10.04-ebs (ami-30f18f62)

   

8. For your Free instance, choose the number of instances: 1, Availability Zone: No Preference and Instance Type: Micro (t1 micro, 613MB).

   

9. Shutdown Behavior option should be stop, and all other options Use Default.

   

10. Add in a tag key = Name and value = Webserver.

    

11. Create a new Key Par call it the name of the website then create and save this file somewhere on your local machine that can be grabbed latter. E.g xyz.pem

    

12. Adjust Security Groups,

    Add rules for SSH, HTTP, HTTPS but leave the source as 0.0.0.0/0

    

13. Now Lunch the instance

    

14. Assign Elastic IP then Associate Address with your EC2 Instance
15. Click on Instances within the EC2 console to find the Public DNS.

    

16. Install Open SSH on Windows
17. Set pem file to Read by owner

     

    chmod 400 xyz.pem

18. SSH in to the instance

    ssh -i xyz.pem bitnami@ec2-<public DNS>.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com

19. Move WordPress to run at the root of the apache web server by editing httpd.conf file using vi

     

    sudo vi /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

    DocumentRoot “/opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs”

     

    To

     

    DocumentRoot “/opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs”

    <Directory />

    Options Indexes MultiViews +FollowSymLinks

    AllowOverride All

    Order allow,deny

    Allow from all

    </Directory>

     

    <Directory “/opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs”>

     

    To

     

    <Directory “/opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs”>

     

    Comment out:

     

    #Include “/opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/conf/wordpress.conf”

     

20. Create an .htaccess file for WordPress

     

    This also enables you to have pretty permalinks like myblog.com/tour

     

    Add .htaccess file to WordPress dir

    in /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/.htaccess

     

    # BEGIN WordPress

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteBase /

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/server-status

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

    </IfModule>

    # END WordPress

     

21. Configure WordPress to know its own DNS entry

     

    sudo vi /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/wp-config.php

     

    define(‘WP_HOME’, ‘http://www.ringio.com’);

    define(‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘http://www.ringio.com’);

     

22. Install Filezila

     

    Public DNS

    SSH Username: bitnami

    Password: <Blank>

     

23. delete the /opt/bitnami/updateip file. Otherwise, restarting the instance, Bitnami resets the wp_options values to the Public DNS server name.

     

    sudo rm /opt/bitnami/updateip

     

24. Install EMS MySQL Manager

     

    How to Connect to BitNami MySQL Remotely

    http://wiki.bitnami.org/cloud/how_to_connect_to_your_amazon_instance#How_to_connect_to_the_BitNami_MySQL_remotely.3f

     

     

25. Run this SQL script to set the Pubic IP Address with WordPress

     

    update wp_options set option_value = ‘http://www.agileweboperations.com’ where option_name in (‘siteurl’, ‘home’);

     

26. Configure WordPress with the Pubic IP Address

     

    sudo vi /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/wp-config.php

     

    define(‘WP_HOME’, ‘http://www.ringio.com’);

    define(‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘http://www.ringio.com’);

     

27. Reboot the instance
28. In your Browser type the public ip and see if WordPress is running correctly at Root Directory
29. Login into Woresspress using default bitnami username

    Username: user

    Password: bitnami

30. Add a new use into WordPress with Role of Administrator
31. Then remove default bitnami username from WordPress by login in as your new username
32. Make a DNS A record for the domain host provider, and use the elastic IP.

Migration

1. Both wordpress on your old site and on AWS are the same due to database compatible issues
2. Copy your \wp-content\upload from your old site locally to reload on AWS

   sudo chmod 755 /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/wp-content/

   Install and download all plugins to your AWS Worspress instance

3. Download or install your old theme and plugins
4. Export your Old WordPress database using MyPHPAdmin
5. Run the Export SQL Script on the AWS WordPress Instance using your Remote SQL Manager
6. The rerun the SQL script to set the Pubic IP Address with WordPress

   update wp_options set option_value = ‘http://www.agileweboperations.com’ where option_name in (‘siteurl’, ‘home’);

To Finish

1. When your domain has delegated run this script again with your domain

   update wp_options set option_value = ‘http://www.website.com’ where option_name in (‘siteurl’, ‘home’);

    

2. Configure WordPress with the Pubic IP Address

    

   sudo vi /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/wp-config.php

    

   define(‘WP_HOME’, ‘http://www.website.com’);

   define(‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘http://www.website.com’);

Links

Amazon Web Services
http://aws.amazon.com/

AWS Management Console
http://aws.amazon.com/console/

Bitnami Wordpres Stack
http://bitnami.org/stack/wordpress

OpenSSH
http://www.openssh.com/
http://sshwindows.webheat.co.uk/

Filezilla
http://filezilla-project.org/

How to Connect to BitNami MySQL Remotely
http://wiki.bitnami.org/cloud/how_to_connect_to_your_amazon_instance#How_to_connect_to_the_BitNami_MySQL_remotely.3f

EMS MySQL Manager
http://www.sqlmanager.net/products/mysql/manager