Detailed Guide for Hosting a WordPress Website on AWS

Overview

Choosing the right cloud provider is usually based on several options: cost, reliability, security, compatibility, and more.

While adopting new cloud technologies is challenging, adhering to the budget without compromising the security posture can be next to impossible without an expert.

If you need many services, AWS is probably the best for you. AWS offers 200+ services highest by any. AWS is the leading cloud provider in the market and is known for its reliability and uptime. It means websites hosted on Amazon will rarely go down. They are the cloud hosting provider with the largest share of the market by a good bit. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is perhaps the most popular cloud hosting provider today.

Managing a Server Via AWS

Configuring Amazon Cloud is not easy unless you are a cloud wizard. The command line interface holds a lot of promise, but it is not friendly to those who don’t know their way around it. So, what should you do? Learn the command line interface and get started with it.

Step 1: Setting up EC2 Instance on AWS for WordPress

We first need to set up an AWS EC2 instance, for which we click on Services > Compute > EC2 to install a virtual server on the cloud.

Then, “EC2 Dashboard” screen, will appear on your browser, and next, you need to click on Instances > Launch Instance.

After that, an operating system for instance needed to be selected and I’m going with Amazon Linux 2 AMI.

If we use the search feature to look for “WordPress” setups, we’ll find over 100 different configurations to choose from. In the list, look for the WordPress Certified by Bitnami and Automatic options.

When we click on ‘Select’ it will show us the details for this configuration and the hourly fees for different levels of instances.

Next, the instance-type section will appear from where we can select the number of vCPUs, RAM, and instance type for the server. Then we’ll see, by default, it will be selected as a t2.micro instance. So, just click Next.

Then, a new section appears from where we can check and configure the instance details. Just click Next, no need to change any details.

We can add a new volume in the storage section, increase the volume size, and other storage-related settings. Here, again don’t need to change anything, just simply click Next.

Next, we need to click on Add Tag, fill in the Key and Value field, and then click Next. In my case, Key = Name and Value = HanCloud.

Next, section is a security group configuration. Here, we can set a name for your security group and add the description. Also, we can add new rules and set the access point (IPs) for each.
Next, click on the Add Rule button and select SSH. Repeat the same to add HTTP and HTTPS. After that, we must change the Source and, in the image, below Anywhere is selected as you can see.

This is the last part of the setup section from where we can review the instance (Storage, Tags, etc) and create a new key pair.

The first thing we need to do is click Launch and select Create a new key pair. After that, just fill in the name for the key pair name and then click Download Key Pair.

That’s all, Our EC2 instance has launched successfully.

Step 2: Access the instance and find its public IP

For accessing the new instance, return to the AWS console home look for the Services tab at the top of the screen, then select the EC2 option:

On this page, look for the Running Instances option under the main menu:

Now, if we have a single instance running at this point and when we select it, we’ll notice it lists the instance’s public IP under its details:

If we enter the ‘Public IP address into the navigation bar, we’ll see a brand-new WordPress website!

Our WordPress website is ready to use now. However, before we do anything else, we’ll have to map a domain to this IP address, so everyone else can access it through the domain address.

Conclusion

Amazon is no longer ‘just’ a retail giant. It also dominates the field when it comes to cloud hosting services. AWS powers the web services of tech giants such as Apple and Netflix, so you know you’re in good company. However, you need to know how to navigate the complexities of cloud hosting.

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