GNet Solutions » GNU/Linux Administration

This is a simple guide for setting up WordPress with nginx on Debian 10.

• Make sure the system is up to date:
  

  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
  

Install Nginx¶

• Install nginx:
  

  sudo apt install nginx
  

• Start and enable nginx at boot:
  

  sudo systemctl nginx enable
  sudo systemctl nginx start
  

Install PHP¶

• Install php-fpm and extensions:
  

  sudo apt install php-fpm php-common php-gd php-getid3 php-mysql php7.3-cli php7.3-common php7.3-gd php7.3-json php7.3-mysql php7.3-opcache php7.3-readline
  

• Start and enable php-fpm:
  

  sudo systemctl enable php7.3-fpm
  sudo systemctl start php7.3-fpm
  

Install MariaDB¶

• Install MariaDB:
  

  sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client
  

• Secure the database server:
  

  sudo mysql_secure_installation
  

  • NOTE: I had an issue logging in as root, to workaround this:
    

    sudo systemctl stop mariadb
    sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking
    mysql -u root
    
    UPDATE mysql.user SET plugin = 'mysql_native_password' WHERE user = 'root' AND plugin = 'unix_socket';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    
    sudo kill -9 $(pgrep mysql)
    
    sudo systemctl start mariadb
    

Configure a new MySQL database¶

• Log into the MySQL console:
  

  mysql -h localhost -u root -p
  

  • Create the wordpressuser user with the SuperSecretPassword password and the wordpressdb database:
    

    CREATE USER 'wordpressuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'SuperSecretPassword';   
    CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS  `wordpressdb` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `wordpressdb`.* TO 'wordpressuser'@'localhost';
    flush privileges;
    exit
    

Install Wordpress¶

• Install git:
  

  sudo apt install git
  

• Download wordpress:
  

  cd /var/www
  sudo git clone -b 6.0-branch --depth=1 https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git
  

• Create the nginx config:
  

  sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wordpress.conf
  

  • And add the following:
    

    fastcgi_cache_path /var/cache/nginx/examplesite.com levels=1:2 keys_zone=wpcache:200m max_size=10G inactive=2h use_temp_path=off;
    fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
    fastcgi_ignore_headers Cache-Control Expires Set-Cookie;
    
    upstream SITEPHP {
       server unix:/var/run/examplesite.com.sock;
    }
    
    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  examplesite.com;
        root /usr/local/www/examplesite.com;
        index index.php;
        client_max_body_size 12m;
    
      set $skip_cache 0;
    
      if ($request_method = POST) {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
      if ($query_string != "") {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
    
      if ($request_uri ~* "/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|wp-.*.php|^/feed/*|/tag/.*/feed/*|index.php|/.*sitemap.*\.(xml|xsl)") {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
    
      if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author|wordpress_[a-f0-9]+|wp-postpass|wordpress_no_cache|wordpress_logged_in") {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
    
      add_header X-FastCGI-Cache $upstream_cache_status;
    
      location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
      }
    
      location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
      }
    
      location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
      }
    
      location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
        fastcgi_pass SITEPHP;
        fastcgi_cache wpcache;
        fastcgi_cache_valid 200 301 302 2h;
        fastcgi_cache_use_stale error timeout updating invalid_header http_500 http_503;
        fastcgi_cache_min_uses 1;
        fastcgi_cache_lock on;
        fastcgi_cache_bypass $skip_cache;
        fastcgi_no_cache $skip_cache;
      }
    
      location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
      }
    }
    
    server {
      listen       443 ssl;
      server_name  examplesite.com;
      root /var/www/examplesite.com;
      index index.php;
      client_max_body_size 128m;
    
      access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log;
      error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log;
    
      set $skip_cache 0;
    
      if ($request_method = POST) {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
      if ($query_string != "") {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
    
      if ($request_uri ~* "/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|wp-.*.php|^/feed/*|/tag/.*/feed/*|index.php|/.*sitemap.*\.(xml|xsl)") {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
    
      if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author|wordpress_[a-f0-9]+|wp-postpass|wordpress_no_cache|wordpress_logged_in") {
        set $skip_cache 1;
      }
    
      ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/examplesite.com/fullchain.pem;
      ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/examplesite.com/privkey.pem;
    
      # Configure Strong SSL
      ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
      ssl_ciphers EECDH+CHACHA20:EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH;
      ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    
      ssl_session_cache  builtin:1000  shared:SSL:10m;
      ssl_stapling on;
      ssl_stapling_verify on;
      ssl_dhparam /usr/local/etc/nginx/dhparam.pem;
      add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=63072000;
      add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
      add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
      add_header X-FastCGI-Cache $upstream_cache_status;
    
      location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
      }
    
      location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
      }
    
      location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
      }
    
      location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
        fastcgi_cache wpcache;
        fastcgi_cache_valid 200 301 302 2h;
        fastcgi_cache_use_stale error timeout updating invalid_header http_500 http_503;
        fastcgi_cache_min_uses 1;
        fastcgi_cache_lock on;
        fastcgi_cache_bypass $skip_cache;
        fastcgi_no_cache $skip_cache;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
        fastcgi_pass SITEPHP;
      }
    
      location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
      }
    }
    

• Change the wordpress ownership:
  

  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/WordPress/
  

• Restart nginx:
  

  sudo systemctl nginx restart