Install WordPress on a fresh VM

Sign in to the VM as root and update its packages. Replace the example IP address with your own.

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

apt update && apt upgrade -y

If the update requires a reboot, reboot first, reconnect, and then continue.

This installs the web server, the database, and the PHP modules WordPress commonly needs.

apt install -y apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip php-intl php-imagick curl unzip
a2enmod rewrite
systemctl restart apache2

Create a database and a dedicated user for WordPress. Replace YOUR_DB_PASSWORD with a strong password before running, and keep it for Step 05.

mariadb -e "CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR_DB_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Before running: Replace the placeholder locally, never publish your real password, and be aware that passwords typed into commands may remain in shell history.

Download the latest release from wordpress.org, place it in the web root, and give Apache ownership of the files.

cd /tmp
curl -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzf latest.tar.gz
rm -f /var/www/html/index.html
cp -a wordpress/. /var/www/html/
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
find /var/www/html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/www/html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Copy the sample configuration, then edit it and enter your database details. Set DB_NAME to wordpress, DB_USER to wpuser, and DB_PASSWORD to the password you chose.

cp /var/www/html/wp-config-sample.php /var/www/html/wp-config.php
nano /var/www/html/wp-config.php

Replace the placeholder security keys too. WordPress provides a generator at api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt. In nano, press Ctrl+O then Enter to save, and Ctrl+X to exit.

Let WordPress use pretty URLs by allowing .htaccess overrides for the web root.

cat > /etc/apache2/conf-available/wordpress.conf <<'EOF'
<Directory /var/www/html>
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>
EOF
a2enconf wordpress
systemctl reload apache2

Open this address, choose a language, and complete the famous five-minute install by entering your site title and creating an administrator account:

Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with your VM’s actual IP address. Use a strong, unique administrator password.

If your domain already points to this VM, install a free Let’s Encrypt certificate. Replace example.com with your domain.

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache
certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com