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WordPress Installation and Optimization: VPS Guide

Guide to installing and optimizing WordPress on a VPS. LEMP stack setup, wp-config.php settings, file permissions, SSL, OPcache performance optimization, and security hardening.

Read time: 20 min Web Hosting / Applications
wordpressvpslempnginxphp-fpmmysqlsslopcachesecurity
Author
REXE Teknoloji Network & Security Team
Editor
REXE Teknoloji Technical Editorial
First published
Last updated

WordPress Installation and Optimization: VPS Guide

WordPress is the most widely used content management system in the world. Running WordPress on a VPS instead of shared hosting gives you more control, better performance, and customization options. This guide covers WordPress installation, configuration, and optimization on a LEMP stack.

Prerequisites: LEMP Stack

LEMP stack (Linux + Nginx + MySQL + PHP) is recommended for WordPress.

hljs bash
# System update
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo systemctl enable nginx

# Install MariaDB
sudo apt install mariadb-server -y
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# Install PHP 8.2 and required extensions for WordPress
sudo apt install software-properties-common -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.2 php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql php8.2-xml php8.2-curl \
  php8.2-mbstring php8.2-zip php8.2-gd php8.2-imagick php8.2-intl \
  php8.2-bcmath php8.2-soap -y
sudo systemctl enable php8.2-fpm

Create WordPress Database

hljs bash
sudo mysql -u root -p
hljs sql
CREATE DATABASE wordpress CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong-password-here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download and Install WordPress

hljs bash
# Download WordPress
cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzf latest.tar.gz

# Move to web directory
sudo mv wordpress /var/www/mysite.com

# Set file permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mysite.com
sudo find /var/www/mysite.com -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/mysite.com -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

wp-config.php Configuration

hljs bash
cd /var/www/mysite.com
sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
sudo nano wp-config.php
hljs php
// Database settings
define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'wpuser' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'strong-password-here' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4' );
define( 'DB_COLLATE', 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci' );

// Security keys (get from https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/)
define('AUTH_KEY',         'unique-value-1');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'unique-value-2');
// ... (add all 8 keys)

// Force SSL admin
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);

// Disable file editing (security)
define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

// Memory limit
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');

Nginx Configuration (for WordPress)

hljs bash
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite.com
hljs nginx
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name mysite.com www.mysite.com;
    root /var/www/mysite.com;
    index index.php;

    # WordPress permalink structure
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    # PHP-FPM
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    # Security: block xmlrpc.php
    location = /xmlrpc.php {
        deny all;
    }

    # Security: block wp-config.php
    location = /wp-config.php {
        deny all;
    }

    # Block hidden files
    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
    }

    # Cache for static files
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js|woff|woff2|svg)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
        log_not_found off;
    }

    client_max_body_size 64M;
}
hljs bash
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

SSL Certificate

hljs bash
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d mysite.com -d www.mysite.com

PHP Optimization (OPcache)

hljs ini
; OPcache settings
opcache.enable = 1
opcache.memory_consumption = 256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 16
opcache.max_accelerated_files = 10000
opcache.revalidate_freq = 2
opcache.save_comments = 1

; Recommended settings for WordPress
memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_vars = 3000
hljs bash
sudo systemctl restart php8.2-fpm

WordPress Security Hardening

hljs bash
# Secure wp-config.php permissions
sudo chmod 600 /var/www/mysite.com/wp-config.php

# Restrict wp-login.php by IP in Nginx
location = /wp-login.php {
    allow 1.2.3.4;  # Your IP address
    deny all;
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
}

Set wp-config.php permissions to 600. This file contains your database password.

On REXE servers, at least 2 GB RAM is recommended for WordPress. For high-traffic sites, prefer 4 GB+ RAM and SSD storage.

Conclusion

Your WordPress site is now running on a LEMP stack on a VPS, secured with SSL and optimized with OPcache. Keep your site healthy with regular backups, security updates, and performance monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm getting 'Error establishing a database connection' during WordPress installation.

Check the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_HOST values in wp-config.php. Verify MySQL is running with 'sudo systemctl status mariadb'. Check that the user has access to the database with the SQL command 'SHOW GRANTS FOR wpuser@localhost;'.

I can't log into the WordPress admin panel, what should I do?

Check that the try_files directive in your Nginx configuration is correct. Verify PHP-FPM is running with 'sudo systemctl status php8.2-fpm'. Review the Nginx error log with 'sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/mysite.com.error.log'. If you have IP restrictions on wp-login.php, whitelist your own IP.

I can't upload images in WordPress, getting a file size error.

Increase upload_max_filesize and post_max_size in php.ini (e.g., 64M). Also increase client_max_body_size in Nginx to the same value. Restart PHP-FPM and Nginx. Add 'define("WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT", "256M");' to wp-config.php.

My WordPress site is slow, how can I speed it up?

Enable OPcache, use Nginx FastCGI cache. Install W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache plugin. Use a CDN (Cloudflare). Add Smush or ShortPixel plugin for image optimization. Regularly optimize the database: 'wp db optimize' (with WP-CLI).

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