How to host WordPress on AWS Lightsail VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail

To create a server in AWS Lightsail, First log in to the AWS Lightsail console. Once you are there, Follow the steps given below.

Step 1: Go to Instance Creation Form

To access the instance creation form, Go to AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the orange button with Create Instance text. See the following image for reference.

Step 2: Select the Location of your Instance

First of all, You have to select the location for your instance. It is always better to select a location closest to your major traffic source. It will decrease the latency for majority of your website visitors.

If you want to change the location of your server, You can simply update the current region in your AWS account.

Step 3: Select the OS for your Instance

After selecting the location, Select the operating system for your instance. In this case, First click on OS Only and then select Ubuntu 20.04 as an operating system just like the following image.

Step 4: Select SSH Key and Launch Script (Optional/Advanced)

This is an optional step. Here you can set the Launch script and the main SSH key for your server. If you don't understand launch script and SSH keys, Just ignore this step.

Step 5: Select the Plan

In this step, select the size of your VM instance. AWS Lightsail provides lots of different options when it comes to plans and pricing. The plan and pricing selection completely depends on the requirements of your site(s). So, select the plan based on the complexity and traffic of your sites.

Step 6: Verify and Create the Instance

Finally, Enter the name of your instance, number of instances you want to create and assign the tags accordingly for identification. Once done, click on the Create Instance button to start the instance creation process.

It might take a few minutes to deploy the instance. Once done, follow the below given step to update the firewall rules for the VM instance.

Step 7: Update Firewall Rules

ServerAvatar requires 43210 port open. In total, You need to keep the following ports open on the instance.

• 22 (SSH): To access your server via SSH.
• 80 (HTTP): To access your sites on HTTP.
• 443 (HTTPS): To access your sites on HTTPS.
• 43210 (ServerAvatar): To allow communication between ServerAvatar and your instance.

To update the firewall rules for a specific instance, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the name of the instance you want to update. Then go to the Networking section and add the missing firewall rules. After updating the firewall rules, the networking section of your Instance should look like the following image.

Initial Server Configuration

The Initial server configuration includes installation and configuration of various packages required to host your website. Usually, You have to write commands and modify configuration files. Luckily, With ServerAvatar, Your full server configuration and optimisation can be automated.

Here are the three ways to automatically configure your server with ServerAvatar.

wget https://srvr.so/install
chmod +x install
./install

Auto-Install WordPress with ServerAvatar

Step 1: Create a PHP application

Access the Application tab on your server panel and click the Create button.

Fill up the required details and click the Create Application button.

Note That:

If you want to host WordPress CMS on your domain, then make sure to point your domain to the current IP address of your server, and for that:

1. Log in to your hosting provider site, where you buy your domain. You can check your domain information with one click.

2. Access DNS Manager to edit your DNS records(contact the support team if you don’t find them)

3. Change the IP address of A Record of your website to the current server’s IP address.

Step 2: Auto-install WordPress Application

On your application panel, click the Auto Deploy tab from the sidebar.

Now click on the WordPress Install Now card, as seen in the above image.

It asks to enter WordPress details on the form. It includes-

1. WordPress Title: Title of your WordPress
2. Username: WordPress admin username
3. Email: Your Email address. It's an optional field. You can also set it after installing WordPress
4. Password: WordPress admin password
5. Database server: Choose a server in which you want your WordPress database
6. Database Name: Enter the name of the WordPress database.

Once you fill up all the information, click the Install Now button, and that's it. ServerAvatar will install WordPress on your domain/ServerAvatar domain within a minute.

You can access the login page on the URL:example.com/wp-admin.