How to set up WordPress on AWS EC2

The WordPress Certified by Bitnami and Automattic software bundle on the AWS Marketplace is one of the easiest ways to set up a WordPress instance within minutes. I’m not too fond of the read-my-life-history-before-I-give-you-the-recipe type blogs, so let’s jump into the steps needed to set up WordPress on AWS EC2. You can work through the blog post or Youtube video set out below, or if you feel that you need a quick summary of the steps required, you can watch the CQ (code quicky) video for this tutorial.

I’m assuming that you already have an AWS account. However, if you do not, you can follow the How to create and activate a new AWS account guide which I will not cover in this post.

Step 1: Find and subscribe to the AWS EC2 WordPress bundle

Here is a list of WordPress software bundles on the AWS Marketplace. Next, click on the WordPress Certified by Bitnami and Automattic bundle, which will take you to the product page, from where you can get detailed information such as pricing, usage, support, and reviews. Subsequently, click on the Continue to Subscribe button at the top of the page.

So to continue with the set up of WordPress on AWS EC2, click on the Accept Terms button and wait for AWS to complete the subscription.

Once the subscription is complete, click on the Continue to Configuration button at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Configure the AWS EC2 WordPress bundle

You can leave default values selected for the fulfillment option and Software versions on the configuration page unless you have a different requirement. Also, select your region. In my case, I’m choosing Asia Pacific (Sydney) as it’s the closest region to New Zealand, where I live. Once the region was selected, click on the Continue to Launch button at the top of the screen.

Step 3: Launch the AWS EC2 WordPress bundle

Set the Action to Launch from website once the WordPress bundle was configured and leave the default selected values for the EC2 Instance Type, VPC, and Subnet settings.

Create a new Security Group

In the Security Group Settings section, click on the Create New Based On Seller Settings button.

Enter a name and description for the new security group and click on the Save button.

Create a new AWS EC2 Key Pair

Click on the Create a key pair in EC2 link.

On the key pairs screen, click on the Create key pair button. Next, enter a name and click on the Create key pair button. Save the resulting .ppk file in a safe location as this file is needed to connect to your EC2 instance.

In the Key Pair Settings section, click the refresh button next to the Key Pair dropdown, subsequently select the newly created Key Pair and click on the Launch button. Wait for the EC2 instance to be launched and click on the EC2 Console link.

Step 4: Log into the WordPress admin console

In the AWS EC2 console, click the checkbox next to your EC2 instance and select Monitor and troubleshoot > Get system log from the Action dropdown menu at the top of the screen.

Scroll down the system log until you find the automatically generated username and password.

Note the EC2 instance public IPv4 address listed in the AWS EC2 console. Subsequently type the IP address followed by /admin into a browser window, enter the username and password and click on the Log In button.

If you feel in any way that this post was helpful, please consider buying me a coffee to help me create more blog posts, videos, and tutorials.

If you want to keep up to date with my latest posts, check out the list of posts on the home page and make sure that you follow icode4coffee on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.