Deploy WordPress with Amazon RDS

HOW-TO GUIDE

Introduction: Deploy WordPress with Amazon RDS

Follow step-by-step instructions to set up a WordPress site to run a blog

Overview

WordPress is a highly popular content management system (CMS) that is used for over 30% of all sites on the internet. It is most commonly used for blogs but can also be used for running e-commerce sites, message boards, and many other popular use cases. In this guide, you will learn how to set up a WordPress site to run a blog.

What you will accomplish

WordPress requires a MySQL database to store its data.
 
In the modules that follow, you will see how to configure a WordPress installation using Amazon RDS for MySQL. To configure this WordPress site, you will create the following resources in AWS:

Why this matters

Database maintenance for your WordPress site is critical. Your database instance holds all of your important data for your WordPress site. If the database goes down, your website may go down with it, and you could even lose your data.
 
Database maintenance can also be difficult, and database administrators have years of specialized experience. When setting up a WordPress site, you want to stay focused on designing your page and generating your content, not worrying about database performance and backups.

 AWS experience

Intermediate

 Time to complete

50 minutes

 Cost to complete

Free Tier eligible*

[*]This estimate assumes you follow the recommended configurations throughout the guide and terminate all resources upon completion.

 Requires

  • AWS account with administrator-level access**
  • Recommended browser: The latest version of Chrome or Firefox

[**]Accounts created within the past 24 hours might not yet have access to the services required for this guide.

 Services used

 Last updated

September 5, 2023

Amazon RDS for MySQL helps with both of these problems. Amazon RDS for MySQL is a managed database offering from AWS. With Amazon RDS for MySQL, you get:
  • Automated backup and recovery so that you won’t lose data in the event of an accident
  • Regular updates and patches, keeping your database secure and performant
  • Easy installation with smart default parameters.
These features allow you to get a fast, reliable database without requiring specialized database knowledge. You can get on your way faster and start building your website.

Prerequisites

A personal AWS account: Use a personal account or create a new AWS account for this guide rather than using an organization’s account to ensure that you have full access to the necessary services and do not leave behind any resources from the guide.

Once you have an AWS account set up, move on to the next module where you will launch a MySQL database instance with Amazon RDS.

Modules

This tutorial is divided into five short modules. You must complete each module in order before moving on to the next one.

  1. Creating a MySQL Database with Amazon RDS (5 minutes): Configure the Amazon RDS database to allow access to specific entities.
  2. Creating an EC2 Instance (10 minutes): Create an EC2 instance to run your WordPress site.
  3. Configuring Your Amazon RDS Database (15 minutes): Configure the Amazon RDS database to allow access to specific entities.
  4. Configuring WordPress on EC2 (15 minutes): Install the WordPress application and dependencies on the EC2 instance.
  5. Explore Your New Website and Clean Up (5 minutes): Clean up the resources created in this guide so that you will not be charged.

Creating a MySQL Database with Amazon RDS

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