Prerequisites

• Ubuntu server (20.04 or later)

• SSH access with sudo privileges

• Basic command line knowledge

Step 1: Installing the Necessary Components

First, we need to install the core components of our LEMP stack:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx mysql-server php8.1-fpm php-mysql

This command installs:

• Nginx: High-performance web server

• MySQL: Database management system

• PHP 8.1 FPM: PHP FastCGI Process Manager with MySQL extension

Step 2: Installing Additional PHP Extensions

WordPress requires several PHP extensions to function properly:

sudo apt install php-curl php-xml php-mbstring php-zip php-gd

These extensions provide additional functionality for handling images, XML processing, multibyte strings, and more.

Step 3: Downloading and Extracting WordPress

We'll download the latest version of WordPress and extract it to our web directory:

cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xvzf latest.tar.gz
sudo cp -R /tmp/wordpress/* /var/www/html/

This downloads the WordPress package, extracts it, and copies all files to the default Nginx web directory.

Step 4: Configuring Nginx for WordPress

Next, we create a custom Nginx configuration file for our WordPress site:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress

Here's the configuration I used:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name server_ip;

    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }
}

This configuration:

• Sets the server to listen on port 80

• Defines the document root where WordPress is installed

• Configures PHP processing through PHP-FPM

• Sets caching rules for static assets

Step 5: Enabling the Site and Reloading Nginx

We enable the site by creating a symbolic link and then reload Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wordpress /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 6: Ensuring PHP-FPM is Running

To make sure we have the correct PHP version, I added the Ondrej PHP repository and ensured PHP-FPM was running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.1-fpm
sudo systemctl start php8.1-fpm

Expected Outcome

After completing these steps, you should have:

1. A fully installed LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP)

2. WordPress files properly placed in the web directory

3. Nginx configured to serve WordPress with PHP processing

4. All necessary PHP extensions installed

5. A running WordPress installation accessible via your server's IP address

When you navigate to your server's IP address in a web browser, you should see the WordPress installation wizard, which will guide you through the final steps of setting up your database connection and configuring your site.

Troubleshooting Tips

If you encounter issues:

Check that all services are running

sudo systemctl status nginx mysql php8.1-fpm

Verify file permissions in /var/www/html

Check Nginx error logs:

sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log