How to Install WordPress on AlmaLinux 9

WordPress is a free, open-source and one of the most popular Content Management System (CMS) written in PHP, combined with MySQL/MariaDB database. Millions of websites are currently running on it and remains perhaps the most popular CMS for blogging, which was its original use case.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to setup a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP) stack and install WordPress on AlmaLinux 9 OS.

Step 1: Update Operating System

Update your AlmaLinux 9 operating system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

$ sudo dnf update && sudo dnf upgrade -y

Also, install:

$ sudo dnf install nano wget unzip

Step 2: Install Apache web server on AlmaLinux 9

You can install Apache via dnf package manager by executing the following command.

$ sudo dnf install httpd

You can start the httpd service and configure it to run on startup by entering the following commands:

$ sudo systemctl start httpd
$ sudo systemctl enable httpd

Verify the status of the httpd service using systemctl status command:

$ sudo systemctl status httpd

Output:

● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running)
       Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
   Main PID: 10643 (httpd)
     Status: "Total requests: 0; Idle/Busy workers 100/0;Requests/sec: 0; Bytes served/sec:   0 B/sec"
      Tasks: 213 (limit: 5738)
     Memory: 28.9M
        CPU: 198ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
             ├─10643 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
             ├─10644 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
             ├─10645 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
             ├─10646 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
             └─10647 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

If firewalld is enabled consider allowing HTTP and HTTPS services:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service={http,https}
$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload

You can test to make sure everything is working correctly by navigating to:

http://your-IP-address

If everything is configured properly, you should be greeted by the default Apache2 Page, as seen below.

Step 3: Install PHP and PHP extensions for WordPress

You can install PHP and other supporting packages using the following command:

$ sudo dnf install php php-curl php-bcmath php-gd php-soap php-zip php-curl php-mbstring php-mysqlnd php-gd php-xml php-intl php-zip

Verify if PHP is installed.

php -v

Output:

PHP 8.0.13 (cli) (built: Nov 16 2021 18:07:21) ( NTS gcc x86_64 )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.0.13, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.0.13, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Step 4: Install MariaDB and create a database

You can install MariaDB with the following command:

$ sudo dnf install mariadb-server mariadb

Start the database server daemon, and also enable it to start automatically at the next boot with the following commands:

$ systemctl start mariadb
$ systemctl enable mariadb

Verify the status of the MariaDB service using systemctl status command:

$ sudo systemctl status mariadb

Output:

● mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.5 database server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running)
       Docs: man:mariadbd(8)
             https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/
   Main PID: 13088 (mariadbd)
     Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..."
      Tasks: 11 (limit: 5738)
     Memory: 73.5M
        CPU: 390ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
             └─13088 /usr/libexec/mariadbd --basedir=/usr

Once the database server is installed, run the following command to secure your MariaDB server:

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Use the following options for the prompt.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: Enter your password
Re-enter new password: Repeat your password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart the database server for the changes to take effect.

$ sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Login to MariDB shell using the following command:

$ sudo  mysql -u root -p

To create a database, database user, and grant all privileges to the database user run the following commands:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE wordpress_db;
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'wordpress_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PaSSw0rd';
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON wordpress_db.* TO 'wordpress_user'@'localhost';
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB [(none)]> EXIT

Step 5: Download WordPress on AlmaLinux 9

We will now download the latest version of WordPress from the WordPress Official site.

Use the following command to download WordPress:

$ sudo wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip

Extract file into the folder /var/www/html/ with the following command,

$ sudo unzip latest.zip -d /var/www/html/

Change the permission of the website directory:

$ sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wordpress/
$ sudo chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/html/wordpress -R

Step 6: Configure Apache Web Server for WordPress

Navigate to /etc/httpd/conf.d directory and run the following command to create a configuration file for your installation:

$ sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/wordpress.conf

Add the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerAdmin [email protected]

ServerName your-domain.com
ServerAlias www.your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress

<Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
        Options FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/your-domain.com_error.log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/your-domain.com_access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Save the file and Exit.

Restart the Apache web server.

$ sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 7: Access WordPress Web Installer

Open your browser type your domain e.g http://your-domain.com  and click on the Let's go! button to complete the required steps:

Provide the requested database information and click on the Submit button:

Start WordPress Installation by clicking on the Run the installation button:

Provide the requested information and click on the Install WordPress button:

Once the WordPress is installed, enter your administrator user, password and click on the Log In button:

You will get the dashboard in the following screen:

Comments and Conclusion

That’s it. You have successfully installed WordPress CMS (Content Management System) on AlmaLinux 9 OS.

If you have any questions please leave a comment below.