WordPress

Deploy WordPress, a free and open source content management system (CMS), to build a customized website.

1. Deploy WordPress

 Estimated deployment time: 2–5 minutes

Base distribution and plan

• Supported distribution: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Recommended plan: You can use all plan types and sizes. However, for production websites, use at least a 4GB Dedicated CPU Compute Instance.

Configuration options

StackScript ID: 401697

Notes:

• After the app deployment completes, the passwords for your WordPress admin user, WordPress database user, MariaDB root user, and limited sudo user are generated and stored in the /home/$USERNAME/.credentials file. Log in to your instance as root through the Lish console or SSH, then run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view the password.
• You can automatically configure a custom domain (optional) during deployment. To do that:
  1. Configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers via your registrar. See Configure your domain's authoritative name servers for details.
  2. Once you complete that, specify the Linode API token, subdomain, and domain for the app in Cloud Manager or via API/CLI/Terraform.

Use API, CLI, or Terraform

curl --location 'https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/instances' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Accept: application/json' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer abc123def456hij789klm' \
    --data-raw '{
        "region": "us-east",
        "type": "g6-standard-2",
        "image": "linode/ubuntu24.04",
        "label": "my-wordpress-one-click-app",
        "root_pass": "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd",
        "stackscript_id": 401697,
        "stackscript_data": {
            "soa_email_address":"jsmith@example.com",
            "webserver_stack":"LAMP",
            "site_title":"My Site",
            "wp_admin_user":"jsmith-admin",
            "wp_db_user":"jsmith-database",
            "wp_db_name":"My Database",
            "user_name":"jsmith"
        }
    }'

linode-cli linodes create \
    --region us-east \
    --type g6-standard-2 \
    --label my-wordpress-one-click-app \
    --image linode/ubuntu24.04 \
    --root_pass @C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd \
    --stackscript_id 401697 \
    --stackscript_data '{"soa_email_address":"jsmith@example.com", "webserver_stack":"LAMP", "site_title":"My Site", "wp_admin_user":"jsmith-admin", "wp_db_user":"jsmith-database", "wp_db_name":"My Database", "user_name":"jsmith"}'

resource "linode_instance" "my-linode" {
    region         = "us-east"
    type           = "g6-standard-2"
    label          = "my-wordpress-one-click-app"
    image          = "linode/ubuntu24.04"
    root_pass      = "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd"
    stackscript_id = 401697
    stackscript_data = {
        "soa_email_address" = "jsmith@example.com"
        "webserver_stack"   = "LAMP"
        "site_title"        = "My Site"
        "wp_admin_user"     = "jsmith-admin"
        "wp_db_user"        = "jsmith-database"
        "wp_db_name"        = "My Database"
        "user_name"         = "jsmith"
    }
}

2. Access WordPress

Once you've deployed your app in Cloud Manager and fully installed it, get credentials to access the WordPress Admin Dashboard and start using it.

Get credentials

1. Log in to your new Linode instance using one of these methods:

   • Lish console. Within Cloud Manager, navigate to Linodes from the left menu, select the Linode instance you just deployed, and click the Launch LISH Console button. Log in as the root user. See Accessing your system console using Lish.
   • SSH. Log in to your Linode instance over SSH using the root user. See Connecting to a remote server over SSH for details.

2. Once logged in, access the credentials file by running cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials.

   The command displays the file contents, including the passwords generated when the instance was deployed. Once you save these, you can safely delete the file.

Access dashboard

1. Open your web browser and navigate to https://[domain]/wp-admin/, where you can replace [domain] with the custom domain entered during deployment or your Linode instance’s rDNS domain, like 192-0-2-1.ip.linodeusercontent.com.

   You can also use your IPv4 address. However, the connection won't be secure. See the Manage IP addresses on a Linode guide for information on viewing IP addresses and rDNS.

   Note: A TLS/SSL certificate is automatically generated for your custom domain, enabling you to connect to the site over the https protocol. If you don't enter a custom domain, a TLS/SSL certificate is configured on the rDNS domain instead. Connections using your IP address aren't secured and will use the http protocol.

2. Within the WordPress login page, enter the username (admin username) created during your instance deployment and the password automatically generated for this username. Then click Log In.

3. Once you're logged in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard, create new posts, add users, modify the theme, and adjust any other settings.

View your website

Open a web browser and navigate to https://[domain], replacing [domain] with the custom domain you entered during deployment or your Linode instance’s IPv4 address or rDNS domain. You should be able to view your WordPress site.

Manually configure a domain

If you didn't set up a domain during the deployment process, you can add it manually in WordPress. Make sure you have a registered domain.

1. Within the name servers for your domain name, create an A record.

   The hostname/name field should be @ for a bare domain (example.com) or should specify the subdomain you want to use, such as app for app.example.com.

   It’s common to create two A records, one using @ and one using www. The IP address should be the IPv4 address of your new Linode instance. If you don't have a name server, use Linode’s DNS Manager.

2. Update WordPress so that it uses your new domain name. You can do this directly in the WordPress Admin Dashboard.

   1. Log in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard.

   2. Select Settings in the sidebar and then select the General option from the dropdown menu.

   3. Within the General Settings form, update the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) fields with the full domain you assigned to your site, like http://example.com or http://www.example.com.

   4. Click Save Changes.

   Note: You can also add your new domain through the command line. See Changing The Site URL to learn more.

Reset your admin password or email

If you need to reset your admin user’s password and you aren’t receiving the password reset request email, you can update the password from the command line.

You can also use this method to update the email address for your admin account without needing an email confirmation.

1. Log in to the Linode instance using SSH or Lish.

2. Navigate to the public_html directory of your WordPress installation with cd /var/www/example.com/public_html.

3. Using WP-CLI, update the password or email address, or any other values as needed. See the WP-CLI wp user update command for details.

   • Update password.

     Bash

     wp user update jsmith --user_pass="p@ssw0rd" --allow-root

   • Update email.

     Bash

     wp user update jsmith --user_email="jsmith@example.com" --allow-root

Additional resources

For more information about adding and modifying content in WordPress, see their official documentation.

• WordPress Documentation: Learn the basic workflows for using WordPress.
• WordPress Themes: A collection of WordPress themes.
• Migrating WordPress: Change the site URL.

For more information about the WordPress deployment, see our official documentation.

• Securing WordPress: Advice on securing WordPress through HTTPS, using a secure password, changing the admin username, and more.