Overview

This article suggests how you can install WordPress on Amazon EC2 instances running Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023), including steps to obtain and install HTTPS certificate.

WordPress requirements

WordPress requirements are

• PHP 7.4 or greater
• MySQL 8.0 or greater
• MariaDB 10.5 or greater

Hosting team recommendations for WordPress 6.8 are

• PHP: 8.2.x, 8.3.x
• MySQL: 8.0.x, 8.4.x
• MariaDB: 10.11.x, 11.4.x

PHP 8.4 and MariaDB 10.11 were added to AL2023 versions 2023.7.20250331 and 2023.7.20250428 respectively. Other supported PHP, MySQL and MariaDB versions are listed on WordPress Compatibility page.

Method 1: Manual Installation

Launch EC2 instance

Launch a new AL2023 EC2 instance with the following features

• Outbound internet connectivity
• Attached security group allows inbound HTTP and HTTPS
• Amazon Linux 2023 version 2023.7.20250428 or higher. To verify release version, execute rpm -q system-release. If you are running a lower version, refer to documentation for upgrade instructions
• To prevent your EC2 public IP address from changing, associate an Elastic IP address

Both x86_64 and arm64 architectures are supported, with AWS Graviton processors usually providing better PHP performance

Connect to EC2 instance

Connect to your EC2 instance.

Install Apache web server

sudo dnf install -y httpd mod_ssl mod_fcgid
sudo systemctl enable --now httpd

Install PHP

We will install PHP 8.3. Modify phpVersion value below if you want to install a different PHP version

phpVersion=php8.3
sudo dnf install -y $phpVersion $phpVersion-{cli,fpm,opcache}
sudo dnf install -y $phpVersion-mysqlnd
sudo dnf install -y $phpVersion-{gd,intl,zip,bcmath,soap}

Compile PHP extensions

Highly recommended PHP extensions such as igbinary and imagick need to be compiled

sudo dnf install -y php-devel php-pear gcc
sudo pecl update-channels

cd /tmp

sudo pecl install igbinary
sudo tee /etc/php.d/25-igbinary.ini > /dev/null << EOF
extension=igbinary.so
EOF

sudo dnf install -y ImageMagick ImageMagick-devel
yes | sudo pecl install imagick
sudo tee /etc/php.d/25-imagick.ini > /dev/null << EOF
extension=imagick.so
EOF

sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm

WordPress Hosting Handbook provides a complete list of recommended and optional extensions to install. For example, you may want to compile apcu, redis and memcache recommended extensions. You can refer to How do I compile PHP extensions on Amazon Linux 2023? for PHP extension compilation guidance.

Install MariaDB database server

sudo dnf install -y mariadb1011-server
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

Create database and user

We will need to create a database and user. Modify below values especially DB_USER_PW and execute the script block

DB=wordpress
DB_USER=wordpress
DB_USER_PW=changeStr@ongPass0rd

sudo mysql -u root -e "CREATE USER '$DB_USER'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '$DB_USER_PW';
CREATE DATABASE $DB CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON $DB.* TO '$DB_USER'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Download WordPress installation files

Download latest WordPress version. If you need an earlier version, get download link from Releases page.

cd /tmp
curl -L -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xf latest.tar.gz
sudo rsync -r /tmp/wordpress/ /var/www/html/
sudo chown apache:apache -R /var/www/html

Restart services

sudo systemctl restart php-fpm
sudo systemctl restart httpd

Install HTTPS certificate

This section requires a FQDN (fully qualified domain name) whose DNS entry resolves to your EC2 instance public internet IP address.

Skip this section if you do not have a domain name. Alternatively, go to Amazon Route 53 console to register a domain. After which, create a DNS record to your EC2 instance public IP address.

Using Certbot

While there are other options, this section shows how to use Certbot to request and install free HTTPS certificates.

Install Certbot and configure Apache virtual host.

sudo dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-dns-route53 python3-certbot-apache
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now certbot-renew.timer

sudo tee /etc/httpd/conf.d/www.conf > /dev/null << EOF
<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html
</VirtualHost>
EOF

sudo systemctl restart httpd

To obtain and install Let's Encrypt certificate for HTTPS

sudo certbot --apache

Refer to How to use Certbot to enable HTTPS with Apache or Nginx on EC2 instances running Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) ? for more details

WordPress installation

If you have installed a certificate, open a browser to your domain name, e.g. https://<wordpress.example.com>/. Else open a browser to your EC2 instance IP address, eg https://<EC2-IP-ADDRESS>

Run the install script. You will need to enter the database credentials that was configured previously to setup configuration file.

Optional: remote graphical desktop (GUI) access

If you need a graphical desktop environment, refer to How do I install GUI (graphical desktop) on Amazon EC2 instances running Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023)?

Method 2: CloudFormation

This method uses CloudFormation infrastructure as code template to automate previous method install steps, and include additional functional, security and performance features.

Go to ec2-lamp-server GitHub repository and download AL2023 template. Login to CloudFormation console and create a stack using the downloaded file.

In LAMP section, select WordPress under Application stack to install

Refer to site for parameter options and deployment instructions, including WordPress install video and HTTPS certificate request.

Other Options

Other install options include:

• Tutorial: Host a WordPress blog on AL2023
• Launch WordPress site with Amazon Lightsail
• Tutorial: Deploy WordPress website with an external Amazon RDS database to Elastic Beanstalk

Pre-built AMIs are available from AWS Marketplace