Raspberry Pi WordPress Server

Self-hosted WordPress server using Raspberry Pi 4B, Nginx, MariaDB, and PHP.

Overview

This project demonstrates how to set up a web server on a Raspberry Pi 4B for hosting WordPress. It uses Nginx as the web server, MariaDB as the database server, and PHP for backend processing.

Hardware

• Raspberry Pi 4B
• Sandisk 128GB microSD card

Software Stack

• Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit
• Nginx (Web Server)
• MariaDB (Database Server)
• PHP (Backend)
• WordPress (CMS)

Setup Process

1. Prepare Raspberry Pi

• Flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit onto the microSD card.
• Connect via Ethernet and enable SSH for headless operation.
• Update the system:

  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
  

2. Install Web Server and Database

$ sudo apt install nginx -y
$ sudo apt install mariadb-server -y
$ sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql -y

3. Download and Set Up WordPress

$ cd /var/www/
$ sudo wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
$ sudo tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz
$ sudo rm latest.tar.gz
$ sudo chown -R root:root wordpress/

4. Configure Nginx

Edit the Nginx configuration:

upstream wp-php-handler {
    server unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
}
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name _;
    root /var/www/wordpress/;
    index index.php;
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass wp-php-handler;
    }
}

5. Create a Database for WordPress

$ sudo mysql
$ create database wordpress default character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci;
$ create user 'username'@'localhost' identified by 'password';
$ grant all privileges on wordpress.* TO 'username'@'localhost';
$ flush privileges;
$ exit

6. Finalize WordPress Installation

• Access the Raspberry Pi’s IP address in a web browser.
• Enter database credentials and complete the setup.

Future Plans

This setup was done for testing purposes. The web server will be moved to a different machine, and the Raspberry Pi will be repurposed for other projects.