4. Install WordPress

Step 1: Creating a WordPress Database

We will begin by creating the database for the WordPress installation, which is used to store all the files during and after the installation.

So, log in to the MariaDB database:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Once on the MariaDB shell, create the database and database user and grant all the privileges to the database user.

CREATE DATABASE wordpress_db;
GRANT ALL ON wordpress_db.* TO 'wordpress_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

Save the changes and exit the MariaDB prompt.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Step 2: Download and Install WordPress in RHEL

With the WordPress database in place, the next course of action is to download and configure WordPress. At the time of publishing this guide, the latest WordPress version is 5.9.1.

To download WordPress, use the wget command to download the binary file from the official site.

wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Next, extract the tarball file:

tar -xvf latest.tar.gz

Next, we are going to copy the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php from where WordPress derives its base configuration. To do that run:

cp wordpress/wp-config-sample.php wordpress/wp-config.php

Next, edit the wp-config.php file.

nano wordpress/wp-config.php

Modify the values to correspond to your database name, database user, and password as indicated in the image shown.

Save the changes and exit the configuration file.

Next, copy the WordPress directory to the document root:

sudo cp -R wordpress /var/www/html/

Be sure they assign the necessary directory ownership and permissions as follows:

sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wordpress
sudo chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/html/wordpress -R
sudo chmod -Rf 775  /var/www/html

Step 3: Create Apache WordPress VirtualHost File

We also need to create a configuration file for WordPress in order to point client requests to the WordPress directory. We will create the configuration file as shown:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/wordpress.conf

Copy and paste the lines below to the configuration file.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress

<Directory "/var/www/html/wordpress">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride all
Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/wordpress_error.log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/wordpress_access.log common
</VirtualHost>

Save and exit the configuration file.

To apply the changes, restart Apache.

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 4: Configure SELinux for WordPress

In most cases, RHEL 8 comes with SELinux enabled. This can be a hindrance, especially during the installation of web applications. As such, we need to configure the right SELinux context to the /var/www/html/wordpress directory.

sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/html/wordpress(/.*)?"

For the changes to come into effect, execute:

sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/html/wordpress

Then reboot your system.

NOTE: Before you reboot, ensure that Apache and MariaDB services are enabled so that they can start automatically on boot.

sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

By default, SELinux denies communications to other pages on the network. To solve this, you have to change some SELinux policies for the Apache Server.

sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

Now SELinux will permit WordPress to make outgoing network connections to check for updates and install plugins.

To ensure that WordPress does not block the network connection, we will add the following line to the wp-config.php file:

sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php

define('WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL', false);

Then reboot your system.

Step 5: Finalize WordPress Installation

The last step is to complete the installation from a web browser. Launch your browser and browse your server’s IP address:

http://server-IP-address

On the first page, select your preferred installation language and click Continue.

In the next step, fill in your Site’s details.

Then scroll down and click Install WordPress.

And in flash, WordPress installation will be complete! To log in, click the Login button.

On the login screen, provide the username and password and click Log In.

This ushers you to the WordPress dashboard as shown. From here, you can customize your website with rich and elegant themes and plugins.

And that is it! You have successfully installed WordPress on RHEL 9.

Appendix 1: File Permissions

If you get any 403 Forbidden error, or any other permissions error, or if you have changed the location of the WordPress root folder, run these commands in the console:

sudo chgrp -R GROUP ./
sudo chown -R USER:GROUP ./
find ./ -type d -exec chmod 755 -R {} \;
find ./ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

And this:

chmod 644 /var/www/html
chmod 755 /var/www/html

And the perrmission problem was resolved!

Last modified: 17 December 2024