What is this?

This repository contains all the files you need to start a Wordpress website accelerated by PHP-FPM and a MariaDB database, all contained in a Docker stack.

Getting Started

1. Install Docker Engine

This is beyond the scope of this article. Please follow the instructions at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ After you've installed Docker, please follow the Post-installation steps here (Steps 1-3): https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/

2. Clone The Repository

1. In the command line, navigate to the folder you'd like to be the home for your wordpress installation. I recommend your user's home folder (~) or (/home/user).
2. Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/ahildebrand12/wordpress-stack

3. You'll now have a folder called "wordpress-stack" in your chosen directory. This will be the name of your docker stack. Rename this folder to whatever you'd like to name your stack.

mv wordpress-stack mywordpresssite

4. CD into the folder.

cd mywordpresssite

3. Set Variables

Inside the mywordpresssite folder, there is a file called example.env. You'll want to open this file with nano and edit the variables.

nano example.env

You'll see a file that looks like this. Fill in these variables with the necessary information. Once you're done, use the CTRL+O keys to save, and CTRL+X to exit.

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=
MYSQL_DATABASE=
MYSQL_USER=
MYSQL_PASSWORD=
WORDPRESS_TAG=php8.1-fpm
WORDPRESS_HTTP_PORT=8080
PHPMYADMIN_PORT=8081

Then rename the file to .env from example.env

mv example.env .env

4. Launch Site

Run the following command to bring up the site. After it's online, it can take a minute to initialize the database. Once it's done, the site will be accessible at the WORDPRESS_HTTP_PORT you set.

docker compose up -d

Running Behind A Reverse Proxy

If you're getting a redirect loop, you'll need to add the following code to your wp-config.php file.

define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
// in some setups HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO might contain 
// a comma-separated list e.g. http,https
// so check for https existence
if (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'], 'https') !== false)
$_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

Setting up SQL Backup Cron Job

1. Install cron service.

sudo apt install cron

2. Edit crontab file.

sudo /etc/crontab

3. Add the following cron job. This one will run every dat at 9PM. Be sure to actually edit the values in the mysqldump.sh file before adding cron job.

0 9 * * *       root    sh /path/to/mysqldump/mysqldump.sh

Change PHP Values (Memory and Upload Limit)

1. In the php folder, edit the php.ini file.

nano php.ini

2. The contents will look like this. You can adjust the values to your preference.

file_uploads = On
memory_limit = 512M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
post_max_size = 100M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 1000

Activate Redis Object Cache

1. Add the following to the wp-config.php file in the html folder.

define('WP_REDIS_HOST', 'redis');

2. Install the "Redis Object Cache" plugin.
3. In the plugin settings, click Enable Cache.

Folder Permissions

The folder permissions can get reset for a variety of reasons. If this happens, your wordpress site might not load or give permission errors. Below are the necessary user:group ownership permissions for each folder and all subfolders and files. Note that 1000:1000 represents your current user. You can find your user and group ip with the following command.

id

You will see something like this. That is your user and group id.

uid=1000(youruser) gid=1000(youruser)

Here are the proper folder permissions.

wordpress-stack/
├─ php/     1000:1000
├─ nginx/   1000:1000
├─ html/    82:82
├─ mysql/   999:999
├─ redis/   999:1000

You can correct the permissions with the commands

[user@server wordpress-stack]$ sudo chown -R 1000:1000 php/
[user@server wordpress-stack]$ sudo chown -R 1000:1000 nginx/
[user@server wordpress-stack]$ sudo chown -R 82:82 html/
[user@server wordpress-stack]$ sudo chown -R 999:999 mysql/
[user@server wordpress-stack]$ sudo chown -R 999:1000 redis/

Mount Cache Directory in Memory for Faster Cache

Edit the /etc/fstab file

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line, changing the directory to the directory of your wordpress cache folder.

tmpfs /home/user/sites/mywebsite.com/html/wp-content/cache tmpfs nosuid,nodev,noatime,user,uid=82,gid=82 0 0

Recommended Plugins

These are my recommended plugins.

• Redis Object Cache (follow instructions above to activate)
• UpDraft Plus
• WP Super Cache
• WebP Express (Nginx already preconfigured to work with webp.)