Setup WordPress using AWS Lightsail

Originally posted at my blog - The Complete Guide to setup WordPress using AWS Lightsail

Amazon Lightsail is a user-friendly cloud computing platform that allows you to easily manage your web applications, websites, and other services. If you are looking to set up a new WordPress blog or website using AWS Lightsail you can follow the below-mentioned steps.

Setting up your VPS

If you are looking to set up a new WordPress blog or website using AWS Lightsail you can follow the below-mentioned steps.

When you log in to your AWS account, you can search for Lightsail

• Log in to your AWS Lightsail account and click on the “Create instance” button.
• Select the “WordPress” blueprint from the list of options.
• Choose the instance location, instance plan, and instance name. You can also choose to add a launch script if you have one. -Click on the “Create instance” button to start the instance.
• Once the instance is running, click on the “Connect using SSH” button to connect to the instance.
• Once you’re connected to the instance, run the following command to configure WordPress cat bitnami_credentials
• This will provide you the credentials.

DNS

One of the key features of Lightsail is the ability to manage your own domain name system (DNS) settings. DNS is responsible for translating human-readable domain names (such as example.com) into IP addresses, allowing users to access websites and services using easy-to-remember domain names instead of complex numerical IP addresses. In this guide, we’ll explore how to manage your DNS settings in Amazon Lightsail, including how to create and edit DNS records, and how to configure your domain to work with your Lightsail resources.

To configure DNS, follow the following steps

• Select Create a DNS Zone
• Put your Domain name
• Configure the name servers in the DNS
• Configure the IP assignment (Note you would need either IPv4 or IPv6 for this)
• Make sure you add both entries for www as well.

Setting up a certificate for HTTPS

In this guide, we’ll explore the process of securing traffic to and from your Bitnami application host using SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt.

Let’s Encrypt is a Certificate Authority (CA) that provides free SSL certificates and I will provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to generate a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for your domain.

Run the following command

sudo /opt/bitnami/bncert-tool

It will ask you the domain name, Follow the steps as shown in this video and you should be able to set up your HTTPS certificate.

Set up email with Lightsail

• In the AWS console, Go to SES, Click on the “SMTP Settings” tab in the left-hand menu.
• Click on the “Create My SMTP Credentials” button.
• Enter a name for your SMTP credentials in the “Create a new IAM user” field.
• Click on the “Create” button.
• Your SMTP credentials will be displayed on the screen. Make note of the SMTP username and password as you will need them to configure your email client.
• Click on the “Download Credentials” button to save the SMTP credentials in a secure location.
• Click on the “Close” button to exit the SMTP Settings page.
• Go to the verified identities
• Enter the domain that you want to verify, and choose to Create an identity.
• Once you’ve set up your domain identity using Easy DKIM, you’ll need to complete the verification process with DKIM authentication. This involves copying the CNAME records generated by Amazon SES and publishing them to your domain’s DNS provider. Please note that it may take up to 72 hours for the records to be detected.
• To add the DNS records to your domain’s DNS zone, open a new browser tab and navigate to the Lightsail console.
• From the Lightsail home page, go to the Networking tab and select your domain’s DNS zone.
• Follow the instructions provided by Amazon SES to add the DNS records to your domain’s DNS zone.
• Configure the SMTP configuration in WordPress using the wp-SMTP plugin

Now login to your WordPress Instance and configure it.

Congratulations! You have successfully set up a WordPress blog with Lightsail in AWS. With your new blog up and running, you can start sharing your thoughts, ideas, and expertise with the world.

Remember to keep your blog secure by regularly updating your WordPress installation and plugins, and by following best practices for online security. You can also use Lightsail’s built-in security features, such as firewall rules and SSH key pairs, to further enhance your blog’s security.

Finally, don’t forget to regularly back up your blog to ensure that your data is safe in case of any unexpected issues. Lightsail makes it easy to set up automatic backups and restore your blog if needed.

Thanks for following along with this tutorial, and I hope you enjoy using your new WordPress blog!