Building a Scalable WordPress Infrastructure on AWS with Terraform

Overview

In the digital age, having a robust and scalable infrastructure is essential for any online presence. With the power of cloud computing, platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) provide the tools and services necessary to create scalable and reliable environments. In this blog post, we will learn how to set up a WordPress website on AWS using Terraform, a popular infrastructure-as-code tool.

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Introduction

Setting up a WordPress website on AWS using Terraform offers numerous benefits, including automation, repeatability, and scalability. Terraforms declarative syntax allows developers to define infrastructure configurations as code, enabling easy replication and modification across environments. By leveraging AWS services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3, and Load Balancer, developers can ensure high availability, security, and performance for their WordPress sites.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the implementation, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

An AWS account with appropriate permissions to create resources.
Terraform is installed on your local machine.

Steps to Setup the Infrastructure

We will use Terraform to define our infrastructure as code, making it easy to manage and reproduce. Below are the steps to be followed.

Step 1: Set up Terraform Configuration: Create a directory for your project and initialize a new Terraform configuration file (e.g., main.tf). Inside main.tf, define your provider and required resources.

# Define AWS provider 

provider "aws" { 

  region = "ap-south-1" 

} 

# Define VPC, RDS, EC2, ALB, and target group resources

# Define AWS provider

provider "aws" {

region = "ap-south-1"

}

# Define VPC, RDS, EC2, ALB, and target group resources

Step 2:

Define the Amazon VPC: To isolate our resources, define Amazon VPC with appropriate subnets, route tables, and security groups.

# Define VPC 

resource "aws_vpc" "main" { 

  cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16" 

} 

 

# Define public and private subnets 

resource "aws_subnet" "public_subnet" { 

  vpc_id            = aws_vpc.main.id 

  cidr_block        = "10.0.1.0/24" 

  availability_zone = "ap-south-1a" 

  map_public_ip_on_launch = true 

} 

 

resource "aws_subnet" "private_subnet" { 

  vpc_id            = aws_vpc.main.id 

  cidr_block        = "10.0.2.0/24" 

  availability_zone = "ap-south-1b" 

} 

 

# Define internet gateway 

resource "aws_internet_gateway" "gw" { 

  vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id 

} 

 

# Attach internet gateway to VPC 

resource "aws_vpc_attachment" "gw_attachment" { 

  vpc_id       = aws_vpc.main.id 

  internet_gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.gw.id 

} 

 

# Define route table for public subnet 

resource "aws_route_table" "public_route_table" { 

  vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id 

 

  route { 

    cidr_block = "0.0.0.0/0" 

    gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.gw.id 

  } 

 

  tags = { 

    Name = "Public" 

  } 

} 

 

# Associate public subnet with public route table 

resource "aws_route_table_association" "public_route_assoc" { 

  subnet_id      = aws_subnet.public_subnet.id 

  route_table_id = aws_route_table.public_route_table.id 

}

# Define VPC

resource "aws_vpc" "main" {

cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"

}

# Define public and private subnets

resource "aws_subnet" "public_subnet" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

cidr_block = "10.0.1.0/24"

availability_zone = "ap-south-1a"

map_public_ip_on_launch = true

}

resource "aws_subnet" "private_subnet" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

cidr_block = "10.0.2.0/24"

availability_zone = "ap-south-1b"

}

# Define internet gateway

resource "aws_internet_gateway" "gw" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

}

# Attach internet gateway to VPC

resource "aws_vpc_attachment" "gw_attachment" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

internet_gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.gw.id

}

# Define route table for public subnet

resource "aws_route_table" "public_route_table" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

route {

cidr_block = "0.0.0.0/0"

gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.gw.id

}

tags = {

Name = "Public"

}

# Associate public subnet with public route table

resource "aws_route_table_association" "public_route_assoc" {

subnet_id = aws_subnet.public_subnet.id

route_table_id = aws_route_table.public_route_table.id

}

Step 3:

Set up Amazon RDS: Configure an Amazon RDS instance to host the WordPress database.

# Define RDS instance 

resource "aws_db_instance" "wordpress_db" { 

  identifier            = "wordpress-db" 

  allocated_storage     = 20 

  storage_type          = "gp2" 

  engine                = "mysql" 

  engine_version        = "8.0.21" 

  instance_class        = "db.t2.micro" 

  username              = "admin" 

  password              = "password" 

  parameter_group_name  = "default.mysql8.0" 

  publicly_accessible   = false 

  tags = { 

    "Name" = "wordpress_db" 

  } 

}

# Define RDS instance

resource "aws_db_instance" "wordpress_db" {

identifier = "wordpress-db"

allocated_storage = 20

storage_type = "gp2"

engine = "mysql"

engine_version = "8.0.21"

instance_class = "db.t2.micro"

username = "admin"

password = "password"

parameter_group_name = "default.mysql8.0"

publicly_accessible = false

tags = {

    "Name" = "wordpress_db"

  }

Step 4:

Configure Amazon EC2 Instance: Set up an Amazon EC2 instance running Ubuntu to host WordPress.

# Define security group for EC2 instance 

resource "aws_security_group" "wordpress_sg" { 

  vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id 

 

  ingress { 

    from_port   = 22 

    to_port     = 22 

    protocol    = "tcp" 

    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"] 

  } 

 

  ingress { 

    from_port   = 80 

    to_port     = 80 

    protocol    = "tcp" 

    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"] 

  } 

 

  egress { 

    from_port   = 0 

    to_port     = 0 

    protocol    = "-1" 

    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"] 

  } 

} 

 

# Define EC2 instance 

resource "aws_instance" "wordpress_instance" { 

  ami                    = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0" # Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 

  instance_type          = "t2.micro" 

  subnet_id              = aws_subnet.public_subnet.id 

  vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.wordpress_sg.id] 

   

connection { 

    type        = "ssh" 

    user        = "ubuntu" 

    private_key = file("~/.ssh/id_rsa") # Update with your private key file path 

    host        = self.public_ip 

  } 

 

  provisioner "remote-exec" { 

    inline = [ 

      "sudo apt update", 

      "sudo apt install -y apache2 mysql-client php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql", 

      "sudo systemctl enable apache2", 

      "sudo systemctl start apache2", 

      "wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz", 

      "tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz", 

      "sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress", 

      "sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress", 

      "sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress", 

      "sudo systemctl restart apache2" 

    ] 

  } 

}

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# Define security group for EC2 instance

resource "aws_security_group" "wordpress_sg" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

ingress {

from_port = 22

to_port = 22

protocol = "tcp"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

ingress {

from_port = 80

to_port = 80

protocol = "tcp"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

egress {

from_port = 0

to_port = 0

protocol = "-1"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

# Define EC2 instance

resource "aws_instance" "wordpress_instance" {

ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0" # Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

instance_type = "t2.micro"

subnet_id = aws_subnet.public_subnet.id

vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.wordpress_sg.id]

connection {

type = "ssh"

user = "ubuntu"

private_key = file("~/.ssh/id_rsa") # Update with your private key file path

host = self.public_ip

}

provisioner "remote-exec" {

inline = [

"sudo apt update",

"sudo apt install -y apache2 mysql-client php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql",

"sudo systemctl enable apache2",

"sudo systemctl start apache2",

"wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz",

"tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz",

"sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/wordpress",

"sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress",

"sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/wordpress",

"sudo systemctl restart apache2"

]

}

Step 5:

Create Application Load Balancer: Set up an ALB to distribute traffic to our Amazon EC2 instance.

# Define ALB 

resource "aws_lb" "wordpress_lb" { 

  name               = "wordpress-lb" 

  internal           = false 

  load_balancer_type = "application" 

  security_groups    = [aws_security_group.wordpress_sg.id] 

  subnets            = [aws_subnet.public_subnet.id] 

}

# Define ALB

resource "aws_lb" "wordpress_lb" {

name = "wordpress-lb"

internal = false

load_balancer_type = "application"

security_groups = [aws_security_group.wordpress_sg.id]

subnets = [aws_subnet.public_subnet.id]

}

Step 6:

Define Target Group and Listener: Define a target group and configure a listener to forward traffic to our Amazon EC2 instance.

# Define target group 

resource "aws_lb_target_group" "wordpress_target_group" { 

  name     = "wordpress-target-group" 

  port     = 80 

  protocol = "HTTP" 

  vpc_id   = aws_vpc.main.id 

 

  health_check { 

    path                = "/" 

    interval            = 30 

    timeout             = 5 

    healthy_threshold   = 2 

    unhealthy_threshold = 2 

    matcher             = "200" 

  } 

} 

 

# Define listener for ALB 

resource "aws_lb_listener" "wordpress_listener" { 

  load_balancer_arn = aws_lb.wordpress_lb.arn 

  port              = 80

# Define target group

resource "aws_lb_target_group" "wordpress_target_group" {

name = "wordpress-target-group"

port = 80

protocol = "HTTP"

vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

health_check {

path = "/"

interval = 30

timeout = 5

healthy_threshold = 2

unhealthy_threshold = 2

matcher = "200"

}

# Define listener for ALB

resource "aws_lb_listener" "wordpress_listener" {

load_balancer_arn = aws_lb.wordpress_lb.arn

port = 80

Conclusion

In this blog post, we’ve seen how to set up a scalable WordPress infrastructure on AWS using Terraform.

By leveraging infrastructure as code, we’ve achieved reproducibility, scalability, and flexibility in managing our resources.

Using AWS services such as Amazon VPC, Amazon RDS, Amazon EC2, ALB, and target groups, we’ve created a resilient environment capable of handling WordPress workloads effectively. This approach enables efficient resource management, cost optimization, and streamlined deployment processes, which are essential for modern web applications.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding WordPress and we will get back to you quickly.

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FAQs

1. Why use Terraform for infrastructure provisioning?

ANS: – Terraform enables infrastructure as code, allowing users to define, provision, and manage cloud resources declaratively. It offers version control, automation, and reproducibility benefits, making it easier to manage complex infrastructure setups.

2. What are the advantages of hosting WordPress on AWS?

ANS: – Hosting WordPress on AWS offers scalability, reliability, and performance benefits. AWS provides a wide range of services, such as Amazon RDS for managed databases, Amazon EC2 for scalable compute resources, and ALB for load balancing, ensuring a robust infrastructure for WordPress websites.

3. How does the Application Load Balancer (ALB) improve WordPress performance?

ANS: – ALB distributes incoming traffic across multiple Amazon EC2 instances, enhancing the availability and scalability of WordPress websites. It can automatically scale in response to traffic fluctuations, ensuring optimal performance and minimal downtime.

WRITTEN BY Shaikh Mohammed Fariyaj Najam

Mohammed Fariyaj Shakh is a Sr. Research Associate – Cloud Engineer at CloudThat with a strong background in AWS and Azure infrastructure management, security, optimization, and automation. Certified in both AWS and Azure, he has hands-on experience in designing, implementing, and managing highly reliable, secure, and scalable cloud solutions. Well-versed in DevOps practices and tools such as Git, GitHub, AWS CI/CD, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform, Fariyaj leverages his expertise in automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and container orchestration to build and manage robust deployment pipelines. Known for his strong troubleshooting skills, he delivers effective and scalable solutions to complex cloud challenges.