WordPress is a free and open source website and blogging tool that uses PHP and MySQL. WordPress is currently the most popular CMS (Content Management System) on the Internet, and has over 20,000 plugins to extend its functionality. This makes WordPress a great choice for getting a website up and running quickly and easily.
In this guide, we will demonstrate how to get a WordPress instance set up with an Apache web server on CentOS 7.
Before you begin with this guide, there are a few steps that need to be completed first.
You will need a CentOS 7 server installed and configured with a non-root user that has sudo
privileges. If you haven’t done this yet, you can run through steps 1-4 in the CentOS 7 initial server setup guide to create this account.
Additionally, you’ll need to have a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack installed on your CentOS 7 server. If you don’t have these components already installed or configured, you can use this guide to learn how to install LAMP on CentOS 7.
When you are finished with these steps, you can continue with the installation of WordPress.
The first step that we will take is in preparation. WordPress uses a relational database to manage information for the site and its users. We have MariaDB (a fork of MySQL) installed already, which can provide this functionality, but we need to make a database and a user for WordPress to work with.
To get started, log into MySQL’s root
(administrative) account by issuing this command:
mysql -u root -p
You will be prompted for the password that you set for the root account when you installed MySQL. Once that password is submitted, you will be given a MySQL command prompt.
First, we’ll create a new database that WordPress can control. You can call this whatever you would like, but I will be calling it wordpress
for this example.
CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
Note: Every MySQL statement or command must end in a semi-colon (;
), so check to make sure that this is present if you are running into any issues.
Next, we are going to create a new MySQL user account that we will use exclusively to operate on WordPress’s new database. Creating one-function databases and accounts is a good idea, as it allows for better control of permissions and other security needs.
I am going to call the new account wordpressuser
and will assign it a password of password
. You should definitely use a different username and password, as these examples are not very secure.
CREATE USER wordpressuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
At this point, you have a database and user account that are each specifically made for WordPress. However, the user has no access to the database. We need to link the two components together by granting our user access to the database.
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO wordpressuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Now that the user has access to the database, we need to flush the privileges so that MySQL knows about the recent privilege changes that we’ve made:
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Once these commands have all been executed, we can exit out of the MySQL command prompt by typing:
exit
You should now be back to your regular SSH command prompt.
Before we download WordPress, there is one PHP module that we need to install to ensure that it works properly. Without this module, WordPress will not be able to resize images to create thumbnails. We can get that package directly from CentOS’s default repositories using yum
:
sudo yum install php-gd
Now we need to restart Apache so that it recognizes the new module:
sudo service httpd restart
We are now ready to download and install WordPress from the project’s website. Luckily, the WordPress team always links the most recent stable version of their software to the same URL, so we can get the most up-to-date version of WordPress by typing this:
cd ~
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
This will download a compressed archive file that contains all of the WordPress files that we need. We can extract the archived files to rebuild the WordPress directory with tar
:
tar xzvf latest.tar.gz
You will now have a directory called wordpress
in your home directory. We can finish the installation by transferring the unpacked files to Apache’s document root, where it can be served to visitors of our website. We can transfer our WordPress files there with rsync
, which will preserve the files’ default permissions:
sudo rsync -avP ~/wordpress/ /var/www/html/
rysnc
will safely copy all of the contents from the directory you unpacked to the document root at /var/www/html/
. However, we still need to add a folder for WordPress to store uploaded files. We can do that with the mkdir
command:
mkdir /var/www/html/wp-content/uploads
Now we need to assign the correct ownership and permissions to our WordPress files and folders. This will increase security while still allowing WordPress to function as intended. To do this, we’ll use chown
to grant ownership to Apache’s user and group:
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/*
With this change, the web server will be able to create and modify WordPress files, and will also allow us to upload content to the server.
Most of the configuration required to use WordPress will be completed through a web interface later on. However, we need to do some work from the command line to ensure that WordPress can connect to the MySQL database that we created for it.
Begin by moving into the Apache root directory where you installed WordPress:
cd /var/www/html
The main configuration file that WordPress relies on is called wp-config.php
. A sample configuration file that mostly matches the settings we need is included by default. All we have to do is copy it to the default configuration file location, so that WordPress can recognize and use the file:
cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
Now that we have a configuration file to work with, let’s open it in a text editor:
nano wp-config.php
The only modifications we need to make to this file are to the parameters that hold our database information. We will need to find the section titled MySQL settings
and change the DB_NAME
, DB_USER
, and DB_PASSWORD
variables in order for WordPress to correctly connect and authenticate to the database that we created.
Fill in the values of these parameters with the information for the database that you created. It should look like this:
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wordpressuser');
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password');
These are the only values that you need to change, so save and close the file when you are finished.
Now that you have your files in place and your software is configured, you can complete the WordPress installation through the web interface. In your web browser, navigate to your server’s domain name or public IP address:
http://server_domain_name_or_IP
First, you will need to select the language that you would like to install WordPress with. After selecting a language and clicking on Continue, you will be presented with the WordPress initial configuration page, where you will create an initial administrator account:
Fill out the information for the site and administrative account that you wish to make. When you are finished, click on the Install WordPress button at the bottom to continue.
WordPress will confirm the installation, and then ask you to log in with the account that you just created:
To continue, hit the Log in button at the bottom, then fill out your administrator account information:
After hitting Log in, you will be presented with your new WordPress dashboard:
You should now have a WordPress instance up and running on your CentOS 7 server. There are many avenues you can take from here. We’ve listed some common options below:
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Hi,
I followed this document and completed the steps but not able to see the gui console in my browser. I could see the below info in my browser. I would request you to hep me on this. Thanks in advance…
I’m having a tough time replicating the issue that you’re describing. Would you mind sharing the contents of your
/var/log/httpd/error_log
in a Pastebin?thank you very much dear friends! It’s very helpfull!
This comment has been deleted
Great article, very helpful, thanks a bunch:)
Thanks so much for this super-helpful article! I was just bumming out about how to incorporate git into my WordPress workflow; this totally solves the problem. Everything worked like a charm.
One question: I was unable to clone a WordPress repo that I have hosted on BitBucket. The error message said something about the public key, yet I have the same public key in BitBucket as in GitHub, and cloning from the latter worked fine. Is there some inherent problem with Digital Ocean and BitBucket playing nicely, by any chance?
I haven’t heard of issues with DigitalOcean playing nicely with BitBucket. I would try asking in our Questions section.
mod_rewrite dose not work???
Find “AllowOverride None” in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf near line 125
and replace with
AllowOverride All
No, keep it at “AllowOverride None” and just put the wordpress .htaccess information into the main apache configuration file. .htaccess is only meant to be used when you don’t have access to the main apache configuration file.
http://haydenjames.io/disable-htaccess-wordpress-performance/
this is a b.s tutorial, if you are going to write a tutorial on How To Install WordPress on CentOS 7, make sure you write all the essential steps
Hey! If you explained the problem you were running into we might be able to help.
Apache Module mod_rewrite, Permalinks don’t work. WordPress cannot write to .htaccess file
Find “AllowOverride None” in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf near line 125
and replace with
AllowOverride All
I had the same problem, but changing only this line I can not solve the problem. I suggest to read this article https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-wordpress-on-centos-7
I don’t think that’s the ideal solution when you have access to the main apache configuration file. .htaccess is meant for situations such as shared hosting where you don’t have access.
You should place the content from the wordpress .htaccess file into the main apache configuration file for performance reasons and you should leave the default “AllowOverride None”.
http://haydenjames.io/disable-htaccess-wordpress-performance/
the other problem is I can’t upgrade wordpress, its asking for FTPS credentials, any idea how to enable ftp?
did you even bother to touch up on postfix so i can receive email messages??
Great article, thanks for posting. Also, like your site design.
enable mod_rewrite :
Find “AllowOverride None” in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf near line 125
and replace with
AllowOverride All
No, you should leave “AllowOverride None” alone and just add the content in the Wordpress .htaccess file into the main apache configuration file:
http://haydenjames.io/disable-htaccess-wordpress-performance/
Here i found many mistakes in this tut.
WP create his self these files : wp-config.php, uploads, .htaccess etc.
And I can not find, How to enable .htaccess working in config file.
Need to update this tut.
To those of you who are having issues with mod_rewrite:
RinkuY suggested to change line 125 however you may notice this will not allow you to create permalinks. Instead, make the change to line 151 which will take effect for /var/www/html as opposed to /vat/www.
Make sure you restart apache after doing so. Let’s go over it one more time:
**Find “AllowOverride None” in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf near line 151
and replace it with
AllowOverride All**
I hope this helps some of you.
No, you should not turn on “AllowOverride All”. You should leave set to “AllowOverride None” and just copy the information in the WordPress .htaccess file to the main apache configuration file:
http://haydenjames.io/disable-htaccess-wordpress-performance/
If you’ve got SELinux enable and are not a SELinux expert, apply this command:
setsebool -P httpd_unified 1
This command should solve some of the problems displayed in the previous comments.
Mate! you saved me! thank you
I’m not a Linux security expert, but making Apache the owner of the WordPress directory looks like a security risk.
TENGO UN PROBLEMON 1-QUIERO DARTE LAS GRASIAS POR LOS COMANDOS Y POR EL TOTORIAL PERO MI PREGUTA ES ESTA , 2- YO LO INALE TODO LO CONFIGURE TODO PERO CUANDO BOY A PONER EN LA WEB EL NOMBRE ME SALE LA PAGINA DONDE YO COMPRE EL DOMINIO ME PODRIAS ALLUDAR CON ESO
I HAVE A big problem 1-I want to thank BY COMMANDS AND THE totorial BUT THIS IS MY preguta, 2- I WILL SET ALL INALE EVERYTHING BUT WHEN BOY TO PUT NAME ON THE WEB PAGE ME OUT WHERE I COULD BUY DOMAIN ME WITH THAT tonics
I have AWS server on CentOS 7 and all worked great from command line. The only thing I had to do to see the page, was too use “setenenforce 0” this disables SElinux till a reboot or enable it again and then i could install the files.
Thanks!
After installing the wordpress, it still showing the default Apache Page. I have cleared cookies and opened a new browser session, still not solved
Been using your guides (firewalld, wordpress and openSSL) for our task for school…
We have to setup a LAMP-stack with wordpress, of course by using batch scripts so it has been some improvising and stuffs. Anyway, it’s bugging me less people are having it done with “yum install wordpress”… For our task we have to do it with yum (big bummer, because I had everything up and running perfectly with wget & tarring, so now I had to rewrite my script and do it the other way around)
Anyway… So doing it with yum, i’m now at the finishing stage (wordpress is pretty much the ending) but I keep getting “Forbidden” page… the apache page is up and working, but we also need to access the page from http://virtual-machine.ip/wordpress …
I’m aware that, when you install wordpress through yum, wordpress will be installed to /usr/share/wordpress, and has its own config file for httpd/Apache where it has an “Alias /wordpress /usr/share/wordpress” So I think it should just work like this? (You go to http://vm.ip/wordpress and it aliases through to /usr/share/wordpress, its an alias afterall)
Anyway, this makes it hard for me to know what is causing this… Theres also (on the guides where they do it with wget/tar) all different rights people give up for their wordpress folder, even though I wonder how it can be safe if you 755 that folder while it has A config file with mysql-password in it… (with Yum it uses some “red”-file that forwards to another one, but thats not my point right now) And even trying that on the /usr/share/wordpress folder does not change the Forbidden error…
I’ve been busy with this obstacke since last night and have not yet found the solution, hoping someone could be my hero of the week… I guess my teacher is currently getting wasted, wich is understandable due to the weekend ;)
The only thing after this that I need to find the google therms for is how to open a web browser with the page on it with the shell script (well, I don’t even know what I google for this matter) but that’s for later ^^
You can just ignore this, the problem was in the wordpress.conf afterall… But still why no yum-guide? ;)
after do follow this guideline, i get wordpress working. but when i use https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-importer/ to import xml file, it is unsuccess, after investigate, i see i miss php-xml module. so i think you should add a advice about instance php-xml, or php-common module.
Hi I managed to install WordPress on CentOS7 with the help of you that I really appreciate it but I have a problem: when I open the WordPress from the other computer within our internal network, it takes about 20 seconds to load the page despite it works fine with phpmyadmin or info.php addresses and also everything works fine on the CentOS7 server itself including WordPress! The problem just runs with the other computers within the network.
Thanks in advance.
Hello. I’ve followed this tutorial and everything seemed to be going well until I tried to proceed to step 4 - when I go to my domain name I am still greeted by the apache test page?? I have content in http://domainname/wp-content/ so I don’t see where this problem is coming from, did I install WordPress correctly? I didn’t get any errors or anything as such during the entire installation.
I have done all of above. I installed I created username and password, however when am reaching login page and put credentials it says that am using wrong credentials.
installed wordpress on centos 7 when i try to add new plugins and themes i am getting this error message
Error : Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress. You may automatically install plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory or upload a plugin in .zip format by clicking the button at the top of this page.
Plugins list An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server’s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the support forums. Try again
image kink >> http://s20.pixxxels.org/dn042stwt/Capture.4674567_PNG.png
I would like to say thanks for this article…!!! It’s very helpful.
Dear all,
I would like to know how to create virtual host for the sites with dns (Domain Creation).
Thanks beforehand!
Sincerely yours,
Samnang LEAP (Cambodia)
**How to bind dns ? without any web panel.
Thank you, It is time to reconsider and update my tutorial on installing WordPress on centos 6 … https://ivanblagojevic.com/2017/12/how-to-install-wordpress-on-centos-6-server/
I went throw all steps but I can not see the GUI of WP in a browser. Its just show me the apache test page.
The wordpress package is also available through https protocol. https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
Hello! Your articles are very clear and correct. Thank you and good luck, it works the first time :)
Hey, THX 4 that nice tutorial. Is there a way to get the automatic upgrade run?
I did that:
sudo chown -Rv apache:apache /var/www/html/
sudo find /var/www/html/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;
sudo find /var/www/html/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ;
sudo chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/html/wp-content -R
wp-config.php file:
define(‘FS_METHOD’,’direct’);
But it changed nothing, Wordpress always asks for FTP/FTPS Login credentials. :(
Greetz, Chris
Error establishing a database connection problem show when i connect wp-admin
Following this tutorial to install PHP produces the error, “Your server is running PHP version 5.4.16 but WordPress 5.2.1 requires at least 5.6.20.” after following this tutorial.
Hi @anon255,
This tutorial is only about LEMP. It does not cover the WordPress installation.
Hi guys! Kinda late question, but after some failed attempts of other tutorials trying this scheme and stuck at step two, particularly after unpacking, while moving wordpress folder to /var/www/html/ I get this error: “sudo: rsync: command not found”. Maybe due to doing it via SSH? So how can I evade it?
READ THIS: STEP FOUR TROUBLESHOOTING (I.E. “THERE HAS BEEN A CRITICAL ERROR ON YOUR WEBSITE.”) If you come across this message, then it most likely means you are missing a PHP hard dependency which wp-admin requires. Run this command on your CentOS system:
sudo yum install php-json
. Once that is done, runsudo systemctl restart mariadb httpd
and refresh your web browser.The above should solve your problem, but if not then try installing these as well if you don’t already have them:
php-mysql
: Hard dependency, else connections to your database cannot be established.php-fpm
: Hard dependency, else you will get the error message “The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.”php-gd
: Soft dependency, WordPress uses this library to resize your images into thumbnails. Your website will work without it, but I’d still recommend that you install it.cd ~ wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
can’t get this step to work