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Install WordPress on a VPS Set up WordPress on your Arcline VPS from scratch — LAMP or LEMP stack with PHP, MySQL, and Nginx or Apache. wordpress 2

Install WordPress on a VPS

Installing WordPress on a VPS gives you full control over the server configuration, performance tuning, and security. This guide covers both a LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP-FPM) and a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP).

If you haven't set up your VPS yet, start with Initial VPS Setup.

Choose your stack

Stack Web Server Best for
LEMP Nginx + PHP-FPM High traffic, static caching, modern setups
LAMP Apache + PHP Simpler .htaccess support, beginner-friendly

This guide covers the LEMP stack (Nginx) as the primary setup with LAMP (Apache) notes where they differ.

Step 1 — Install the stack

LEMP (Nginx)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx mysql-server php-fpm php-mysql php-curl php-gd \
  php-mbstring php-xml php-zip php-intl php-imagick unzip curl

LAMP (Apache)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y apache2 mysql-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql \
  php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip php-intl php-imagick unzip curl

Secure MySQL and create the database

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the prompts — set a root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, remove test databases, and reload privileges.

Now create the WordPress database and user:

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE wordpress CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'a-strong-password-here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Replace a-strong-password-here with an actual strong password.

Step 2 — Download and set up WordPress

cd /tmp
curl -O https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar xzf latest.tar.gz
sudo mv wordpress /var/www/yourdomain.com
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/yourdomain.com

Step 3 — Configure Nginx (LEMP)

Create the Nginx site configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/yourdomain.com;
    index index.php index.html;

    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 = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    # Block access to sensitive files
    location ~* /\.(?!well-known\/) { deny all; }
    location ~* /wp-config\.php { deny all; }
    location ~* /xmlrpc\.php { deny all; }

    # Cache static assets in the browser
    location ~* \.(css|js|ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|webp|svg|woff2?|ttf|otf|eot)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Enable the site and test the config:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Replace php8.1-fpm.sock with the PHP version you installed. Check your PHP version:

php -v

Step 3 (alt) — Configure Apache (LAMP)

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain.com.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain.com

    <Directory /var/www/yourdomain.com>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Enable and restart:

sudo a2ensite yourdomain.com.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 4 — Set up SSL with Let's Encrypt

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

For Apache, use python3-certbot-apache instead.

Certbot modifies your Nginx/Apache config to add SSL automatically. Certificates renew automatically via a systemd timer — verify with:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Step 5 — Complete the WordPress install

Visit https://yourdomain.com in your browser and complete the WordPress setup wizard. When prompted for database credentials, enter:

Field Value
Database Name wordpress
Username wpuser
Password the password you set in Step 1
Database Host localhost
Table Prefix wp_

Step 6 — Configure file permissions

WordPress needs write access to wp-content/uploads (for media) but the rest of your install should be read-only for the web server to prevent tampering.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/yourdomain.com
sudo find /var/www/yourdomain.com -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/yourdomain.com -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
sudo chmod 640 /var/www/yourdomain.com/wp-config.php

Step 7 — Configure PHP-FPM for WordPress

Edit the PHP-FPM pool config:

sudo nano /etc/php/8.1/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

Increase resource limits for a production WordPress site:

pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 20
pm.start_servers = 5
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 10
pm.max_requests = 500

Adjust pm.max_children based on your VPS RAM: roughly (available_RAM - 512MB) / 50MB per child.

Apply changes:

sudo systemctl restart php8.1-fpm

Step 8 — Set up a firewall

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable

For stricter security, see Set up fail2ban.

Step 9 — Configure WordPress cron properly

WordPress's default pseudo-cron runs on every page load, which is wasteful on a VPS. Replace it with a real system cron job:

sudo crontab -u www-data -e

Add:

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1

Then disable WordPress pseudo-cron in wp-config.php:

define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true );

Performance tuning

PHP opcache

Uncomment and tweak in /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini:

opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.revalidate_freq=2
opcache.fast_shutdown=1

MySQL tuning

For a 2 GB VPS, add to /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf:

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 512M
innodb_log_file_size = 128M
query_cache_type = 0

Run MySQLTuner after a few days of uptime for more specific recommendations:

sudo apt install mysqltuner
sudo mysqltuner

WordPress object caching with Redis

If your VPS has enough RAM (2 GB+ free), Redis dramatically speeds up WordPress:

sudo apt install redis-server
sudo systemctl enable redis-server

Install the Redis Object Cache plugin in WordPress admin and click Enable Object Cache.

Automating updates

Set up unattended security updates for the OS:

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades

WordPress core auto-updates are enabled by default for minor versions. For plugins and themes, enable auto-updates in WordPress admin → Plugins → toggle Enable auto-updates on each plugin you trust.

Next steps