Getting Started / Hands-on / ...

Getting Started with AWS

Deploy WordPress

with Amazon RDS

Introduction
Creating a MySQL Database with RDS
Creating an EC2 Instance
Configuring Your RDS Database
Configuring WordPress on EC2
Explore Your New Web Site and Clean Up

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.

What You Will Learn

In this lab, you will learn how to set up a WordPress site to run a blog. WordPress requires a MySQL database to store its data. For this lab, you will use Amazon RDS for MySQL to run your MySQL database.

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*

 Tutorial Prereqs

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

[*]This estimate assumes you follow the recommended configurations throughout the tutorial and terminate all resources upon completion.
[**]Accounts created within the past 24 hours might not yet have access to the services required for this tutorial.

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.
 
In the modules that follow, you’ll 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:
In the step below, you will create an AWS account so that you can follow along with the modules in this lab.

Create an AWS Account

Use a personal account or create a new AWS account for this lab 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 lab.

Once you have an AWS account set up, move on to the next module where you 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 RDS (5 minutes): Configure the 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 RDS Database (15 minutes): Configure the 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 Web Site and Clean Up (5 minutes): Clean up the resources created in this lab so that you will not be charged.
Start Module One

Creating a MySQL Database with RDS