Step By Step – Setting Up WordPress on a VPS for Beginners
Welcome to The Definitive WordPress Course.
In this course, you’ll learn how to host multiple WordPress sites on your very own Virtual Private Server, using Apache or nginx as your web server.
Having issues with your current shared web host?
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Say goodbye to shared hosting and one click WordPress installers!
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Say goodbye to bad web hosts!
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Say goodbye to terrible tech support that take days to solve issues
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Say hello to the only WordPress course that is going to put YOU in true control of your server and your WordPress sites.
Stop relying on shared hosting with a control panel, its bloated, filled with hosts trying to sell you additional products and the cpanel consumes valuable resources that could be better served handling your website(s) visitors. As your site grows some shared hosts will throttle your site and sometimes even shut your site down if your site consumes to many resources. The more visitors you get, the more resources you are going to use. It ends badly, with you looking for a new host and wondering how to move your WordPress sites.
What’s the solution?
Pay someone to move your site(s)? Purchase a WordPress Backup plugin for $80 – $300 per year? Use a badly coded free plugin? Do a cPanel backup?
The solution is to move your WordPress site(s) to a Virtual Private Server.
The answer to the above: its all done on your server and it doesn’t cost a cent! By typing a few characters on the keyboard you will be in possession of your database and site backups ready to move to your new host!
When you take this course, you will soon realize and wonder why it took you so long to move your WordPress sites from shared hosting to an unmanaged VPS. Please don’t let the word unmanaged scare you. An unmanaged VPS simply means the host keeps the network connected and the host node running, you are in control and responsible for everything else on the server. I’ll guide you, step by step through the process of setting up an unmanaged VPS and then I’ll also be guiding you through setting up WordPress on that VPS.
Never used the command line before? Never edited a configuration file before? No problem, I will teach you and provide you with the knowledge you need
I cover all aspects, no matter if your are using Windows or MACOSX. We will download the software, I’ll show you how to install and configure the software and most important how to use the software. Prior to each section, I’ll explain what we are doing, why we are doing it and in plain easy to understand English. You won’t find any long and boring PowerPoint presentations and minute after minute looking at me talking to the camera. Its us and the command line, nothing else. The command line is easy to use, just think of terminal as a very basic word processor. I’ll be there guiding you step by step.
At the end of this course, you will have mastered how to set up an unmanaged VPS and install multiple WordPress sites on a fast and secure VPS.
WordPress can be securely installed in under a minute on the same server. Yes!!! a single minute to set up a new WordPress site: 45 seconds to set up the database and 15 seconds to install WordPress. Additional WordPress sites, with a different domain name, can also be set up in under a minute.
This course will give you the knowledge to:
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setup your very own unmanaged VPS
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you will be able to secure, harden, configure and optimized the server
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setup multiple WordPress sites on that VPS
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install a new WordPress site in a few seconds and secure that site on the server
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update multiple WordPress sites by typing a single command
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update multiple themes and plugins on multiple sites by typing a single command
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setup your own scheduled backups, no plugins
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move you WordPress sites whenever you need to from host to host, no plugins
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you will never be stuck with a bad host again
Take control of your web hosting and WordPress sites starts here
A general course overview.
We are going to look at what a VPS is and compare shared hosting and VPS hosting.
A strong password is the first step in securing your sites. We are going to generate a few strong passwords using random.org. When you are running multiple WordPress sites, it becomes very difficult remembering all the various sites information. I'll show you a simple and easy method that works.
In this lecture we are going to look at my recommended web hosts.
I'm also going to guide you through the procedure of creating an Ubuntu 18.04 Virtual Server Instance.
Attached to this lecture is a PDF download to accompany the content of this lecture.
We are going to look at the software you need to administer a VPS.
All the software is FREE and no purchase of any sort is required.
This section covers software for MACOS, Linux and Windows. Please download the PDF attached to this lecture, it contains information pertinent to this lecture.
MAC and Windows Users, please complete this entire lecture - it's important that your terminal emulator is configured correctly.
We are going to look at the command line. If you have never used terminal or putty before, this is an important section that will introduce the command line to you.
Please print the attached PDF file, it contains a list of the command we will be using. Its a handy reference guide.
If you have worked on the command line before, please feel free to skip this and the next two lectures.
In this lecture we will continue looking at the command line.
In this lecture we will continue looking at the command line.
This is probably the most important section of the course, ownership and permissions. Ownership and permissions are also one of the most misunderstood topics when starting out with a Linux server.
By them time you have completed lecture you will have an understanding of ownership and permissions.
This is the second part of the lecture on ownership and permissions.
Setup a Secured, Hardened and Optimized Virtual Private Server
Before we login for the first time, this lecture contains some important information regarding the server fingerprint and the Linux package management system.
Finally, we are going to login to our VPS for the first time. All we have is the IP address and the root user's password. Step by step we are going build a secure hosting environment for our WordPress Sites.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to change passwords, add users, prevent anyone logging in as the root user and how to give a non root user "root" privileges.
We are going to login as a non root user and ensure the software on our VPS is up to date.
After you have completed this lecture you will be able to login as a non root user and you will be able to update your VPS.
Securing access to your VPS is the first step in security. We will not allow anyone to login using a password, only SSH key authentication will be allowed. After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to setup SSH key authentication on your VPS.
We are going to create a config file that will contain shortcuts ( alias ) to our servers. This speeds up logging into our servers tremendously.
Instead of having to specify a username @ hostname with the ssh command, you need only type ssh followed an alias to login to your server.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to setup a config file on your pc or mac.
Typing firewall rules can be a complex and error prone task, so we are going to make use of Uncomplicated Firewall.
We are going to be very strict with our firewall. All ports are going to be blocked except for 80 (http) 443 (https) and 22 (ssh).
After you have completed this lecture, you have taken a major step in locking down your server by setting up the firewall.
This lecture covers both Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04.
Please download the attached PDF file.
In this lecture we are going to install and configure the Intrusion Prevention Framework, Fail2Ban on an Ubuntu server.
It is an essential step in protecting your server from brute force attack.
Apache or nginx?
In this section we are going to look at the differences between Apache and nginx, in relation to this course only.
Setting Up an Apache Powered WordPress Site(s)
In this lecture you are going to install Apache, MariaDB and PHP7.2
Apache offers excellent compatibility with almost all WordPress themes and plugins. MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL and offers better performance with a reduced system resource requirement. PHP 7.2 offers a massive performance boost over earlier PHP versions.
Please download the PDF and TXT files attached to this lecture
In this lecture you are going to secure the web server, Apache. By secure you are going to remove the dangerous default settings that were applied during the installation process. I've split this lecture into two parts.
In this lecture you are going to secure the web server, Apache. By secure you are going to remove the dangerous default settings that were applied during the installation process. I've split this lecture into two parts.
In this lecture you are going to secure the MariaDB and PHP 7.2. By secure you are going to remove the dangerous default settings that were applied during the installation process.
In this lecture you are going to point a domain name to your VPS. You will setup both an A RECORD and a CNAME RECORD.
In this lecture we are going to cover all aspects of creating directories on the server to store your WordPress site(s). In addition to creating the directories, we are also going to look at the directory ownership.
Apache Virtual Hosts allows you to host multiple sites on a single server. It's quick and easy to setup your first virtual host.
I've split the the process of installing WordPress over the next three lectures.
In this lecture you are going to install the WordPress Command Line Interface and create the database for your first WordPress site.
The ease and simplicity with which you can deploy multiple WordPress sites using the command line will astound you.
The heart of every WordPress site, the database. Due to security considerations, we will NOT be using phpMyAdmin, its actually much easier and faster to use the command line to administer databases. After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to setup a WordPress database in a few seconds. Its that easy!
I've split the the process of installing WordPress over the next three lectures.
Finally we have reached an important milestone. We are setting up our first WordPress site on the VPS using only the WordPress Command Line interface.
After you have completed this lecture you will be able to setup a WordPress site using only the command line.
I've split the the process of installing WordPress over the next three lectures.
After you have competed this lecture you will be able to check and if necessary change the WordPress wp-config.php and .htaccess file permissions.
It's in this lecture that we start the extremely important process of securing WordPress.
WordPress security is extremely important.
Please follow these steps for every WordPress site you setup. Security of your WordPress sites starts on the server, then you can look at a security plugin to complement the server setup. After you have competed this section, you will be able to ensure that the ownership and permissions of your site is correct. If necessary you will have the skills to change the ownership and permissions of the WordPress files and directories.
We are also going to make use of various .htaccess directives to further secure your WordPress site.
The ability to add a SSL certificate to each of your sites hosted on a single VPS has never been easier. A+ rated Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates are free and easy to implement. After you have completed this lecture you will be able to setup, install and renew SSL certificates on your server. Best of all is that the SSL certificates are trusted and 100% free to install and use on your private or commercial sites.
Please refer to the lecture on CRON for the procedure to setup automatic renewal of all the ssl certificates installed on your server.
I've split the lecture into three parts. We will cover installing certbot, installing the certificates, configuring and optimizing the ssl certificates to obtain an A+ rating.
The ability to add a SSL certificate to each of your sites hosted on a single VPS has never been easier. A+ rated Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates are free and easy to implement. After you have completed this lecture you will be able to setup, install and renew SSL certificates on your server. Best of all is that the SSL certificates are trusted and 100% free to install and use on your private or commercial sites.
Please refer to the lecture on CRON for the procedure to setup automatic renewal of all the ssl certificates installed on your server.
I've split the lecture into three parts. We will cover installing certbot, installing the certificates, configuring and optimizing the ssl certificates to obtain an A+ rating.
The ability to add a SSL certificate to each of your sites hosted on a single VPS has never been easier. A+ rated Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates are free and easy to implement. After you have completed this lecture you will be able to setup, install and renew SSL certificates on your server. Best of all is that the SSL certificates are trusted and 100% free to install and use on your private or commercial sites.
Please refer to the lecture on CRON for the procedure to setup automatic renewal of all the ssl certificates installed on your server.
I've split the lecture into three parts. We will cover installing certbot, installing the certificates, configuring and optimizing the ssl certificates to obtain an A+ rating.
In this lecture we are going to configure page caching using W3 Total cache
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create the Apache Virtual Host
Create the database and install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site using the command line and .htaccess directives.
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create the Apache Virtual Host
Create the database and install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site using the command line and .htaccess directives.
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
A combination of carefully selected plugins that improve performance and the functionality of your site is essential.
Setting Up a NGINX Powered WordPress Site(s)
It's quick and easy to point a domain name to your server.
Create an A RECORD and a CNAME RECORD and you are done.
We also look at creating and pointing sub domains to your server. Sub domains make great staging environments to demonstrate sites to clients. When the site is approved, changing the url from sub.domain to domain is a simple task using the command line. In under a second you can change the url from your staging sub domain to your production domain name - change directories and type a single command - site is "live"
In this lecture you are going to install NGINX, MariaDB and php 7.2 on your Ubuntu 18.04 server.
Please download the attached PDF Companion Guide for the lectures that follow.
The pdf has been updated - March 2021 - to remove weak ssl ciphers and ensure an A+ ssl certificate rating
In this lecture you are going to secure the NGINX, MariaDB and php 7.2 installation. By "securing" the installation you are going to remove any dangerous defaults that were applied during the installation.
In this lecture we are going to look at NGINX configuration files. You need to be able to read and understand the layout and terminology used when we discuss NGINX configuration. It's much better being able to understand and read nginx configurations than it is to copy and paste different configurations without understanding them.
In this lecture we are going to look at NGINX configuration files. You need to be able to read and understand the layout and terminology used when we discuss NGINX configuration. It's much better being able to understand and read nginx configurations than it is to copy and paste different configurations without understanding them.
To improve performance NGINX, MariaDB and php needs to be optimized for performance.
To improve performance NGINX, MariaDB and php needs to be optimized for performance.
NGINX server blocks allow you to host multiple sites on a single server. They are the NGINX equivalent of "Virtual Hosts". Creating the first server block will take some time as we need to cover the details. Creating additional server blocks will be done quickly and easily using the "shortcuts" covered in this section.
NGINX server blocks allow you to host multiple sites on a single server. They are the NGINX equivalent of "Virtual Hosts". Creating the first server block will take some time as we need to cover the details. Creating additional server blocks will be done quickly and easily using the "shortcuts" covered in this section.
NGINX server blocks allow you to host multiple sites on a single server. They are the NGINX equivalent of "Virtual Hosts". Creating the first server block will take some time as we need to cover the details. Creating additional server blocks will be done quickly and easily using the "shortcuts" covered in this section.
Using the WordPress Command Line Interface, you are going to install a WordPress site. Firstly, the database needs to be created using MariaDB. Then, by typing 3 commands you will install a WordPress site using WPCLI. Quick, easy and secure.
Using the WordPress Command Line Interface, you are going to install a WordPress site. Firstly, the database needs to be created using MariaDB. Then, by typing 3 commands you will install a WordPress site using WPCLI. Quick, easy and secure.
The most important aspect of setting up any server and site is security. Everything else is secondary to security. the entire course is based on setting up a "secure" server. When we install a WordPress site, the security aspect is applied just as stringently as with the server.
You are going to secure your WordPress site using the tools that the command line offers, as well as various nginx directives.
NB: installing a WordPress security plugin does not secure you site, security is accomplished in layers, starting with the server. We cover these aspects in this course.
As Let's Encrypt offers free SSL certificates, we are going to install SSL certificates for every site your are going to host on the server. We are going to cover every aspect of implementing Lets Encrypt SSL certificates using NGINX. Once the lectures have been completed, your site will obtain an A+ rating on ssllabs.
As Let's Encrypt offers free SSL certificates, we are going to install SSL certificates for every site your are going to host on the server. We are going to cover every aspect of implementing Lets Encrypt SSL certificates using NGINX. Once the lectures have been completed, your site will obtain an A+ rating on ssllabs.
As Let's Encrypt offers free SSL certificates, we are going to install SSL certificates for every site your are going to host on the server. We are going to cover every aspect of implementing Lets Encrypt SSL certificates using NGINX. Once the lectures have been completed, your site will obtain an A+ rating on ssllabs.
As Let's Encrypt offers free SSL certificates, we are going to install SSL certificates for every site your are going to host on the server. We are going to cover every aspect of implementing Lets Encrypt SSL certificates using NGINX. Once the lectures have been completed, your site will obtain an A+ rating on ssllabs.
Optimizing WordPress by configuring page caching is important. It reduces the demand for server resources and improves your sites performance drastically as "static" html pages are being served. You will make use of both NGINX directives and a caching plugin to configure page caching.
A combination of carefully selected plugins that improve performance and the functionality of your site is essential.
After completing this and the preceding lectures, your site will obtain 97%+ Page Speed scores. You will have a secure and optimized base to built your WordPress site(s) on.
Introduction and DNS
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create non secure HTTP NGINX server block
Install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create non secure HTTP NGINX server block
Install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create non secure HTTP NGINX server block
Install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create non secure HTTP NGINX server block
Install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create non secure HTTP NGINX server block
Install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Do you need to host multiple sites on your server? No problem, it takes a few minutes to add an additional site to your server.
DNS - point your domain to the server's ip
Create the directories to store your site
Create non secure HTTP NGINX server block
Install new WordPress using WPCLI
Secure installed WordPress site
Install and configure a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate for the site
Optimize installed WordPress site by making use of page caching
The steps are quick, easy and accomplished in minutes.
Server Administrative Tasks
The first step in security is ensuring that the packages installed on the server are current and updated regularly. Then you need to ensure that WordPress and any themes / plugins are also up to date. Using outdated themes and plugins is a bad security practice.
Optimizing the WordPress MariaDB databases is an ongoing task that needs your attention. Installing plugins to improve performance will have NO effect unless you optimize the server first and in particular the database. We are going to manually set a few directives and then make use of mysqltuner to aid in optimizing the database.
Open this utility on your desktop and monitor your cpu and ram usage on your server in realtime.
Plugin FREE WordPress Backups - Quick and Easy
In this lecture we are going to look at the procedure to manually backup a WordPress database and the WordPress site files.
In this lecture we are going to look at how a database or site backup is restored.
The first part of creating a plugin free backup solution is to automate the procedure. This lecture covers automating the backup procedure.
Moving a WordPress Site
Moving WordPress is a skill that every WordPress site owner should have. Most important is to have the skill to do it without plugins. This lecture deals with a situation where the domain name remains the same. Only the servers IP address changes.
When you have completed this lecture you will be able to move your WordPress site to a new server without using a plugin.
This is part one of two
Moving WordPress is a skill that every WordPress site owner should
have. Most important is to have the skill to do it without plugins.
This
lecture deals with a situation where the domain name remains the same
.
Only the servers IP address changes.
When you have completed this lecture you will be able to move your WordPress site to a new server without using a plugin.
This is part two of two
Moving WordPress is a skill that every WordPress site owner should
have. Most important is to have the skill to do it without plugins.
This
lecture deals with a situation where the domain name changes on the new server
. The servers IP address also changes.
When you have completed this lecture you will be able to move your WordPress site to a new server without using a plugin.
If you are currently using shared hosting and want to move your WordPress sites to a VPS, then this lecture is important.
After you have completed this lecture you will be able to move your WordPress sites from a shared hosting environment to a VPS, quickly and easily without using plugins.
Schedule Certain Administrative Tasks Using CRON
In the previous lecture we automated the backup procedure. In this lecture we will use CRON to schedule, when we want our backups to run.
In the course we implement "HTTP Strict Transport Security" on the server, so it's important that your SSL Certificates are renewed on a regular basis. In this lecture we will use CRON to schedule that our SSL Certificates are renewed once a month.
Installing multiple plugins, from wordpress.org or a zip file is quick and easy using WPCLI.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to install plugins from wordpress.org or a zip file using only the command line.
Please download the PDF attached to this lecture.
FileZilla
Setup a sFTP connection to your server and upload / download files securely from your server using FileZilla.
Setup a sFTP connection to your server and upload / download files securely from your server using FileZilla.
The WordPress Command Line Interface
Installing multiple themes, from wordpress.org or a zip file is quick and easy using WPCLI.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to install themes from wordpress.org or a zip file using only the command line.
Please download the PDF attached to this lecture.
The true power and speed of the WordPress Command Line Interface WPCLI is apparent when it comes to administering a multitude of themes and plugins over multiple WordPress sites. A process that would normally take hours, using the dashboard, is easily accomplished in seconds.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to install and update both themes and plugins using only the WPCLI.
Please download the PDF attached to this lecture.
You should never edit your themes original files. In the event of an update, all your modifications will be lost. Its best to create a child theme and make the changes to the child theme.
After you have completed this section, you will be able to create a child theme using WPCLI.
Please download the PDF attached to this lecture.
What are you going to do if you need to import 1000 images into a WordPress site? Good luck using the dashboard. WPCLI will do the job extremely efficiently and in a fraction of the time.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to import images using WPCLI.
Please download the PDF attached to this lecture.
Basic Server Administration
Its important to monitor the server resources. The CPU and the RAM especially.
In this lecture you will learn how to open the system resource monitor in a terminal window and while your site visitors are viewing your sites you can monitor the server resources in real time. Its important, as its a good indicator of when you have outgrown your current VPS. A server upgrade is a click away with NO downtime.
Log files are a wealth of information. From trouble shooting a script to viewing visitors using the web server logs. Its something that should be done regularly.
In this lecture you will learn the location of your log files and how to view them in a terminal window.
We are going to download our log files using sFTP.
After you have completed this lecture, you will be able to download and view your server log files on your PC or MAC.
Ubuntu 20.04
Apache and nginx guides for Ubuntu 20.04
Course Conclusion
Whats Next and Course Conclusion
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