How to install WordPress on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 Linux

This article covers an installation of WordPress, free and open-source content management system, on RHEL 8 Linux Server. In this instance the installation is based on the well-know LAMP stack comprising the RHEL 8, MariaDB, PHP and Apache webserver.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to Install LAMP Stack on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8.
• How to configure MariaDB database.
• How to install WordPress on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8.
• How to open HTTP and HTTPS firewall ports.

Installed WordPress on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Server/Workstation.

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

How to install WordPress on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 Linux step by step instructions

1. Install all prerequisites.

   The following command will install all prerequisites and tools required to perform the WordPress installation:

   # dnf install php-mysqlnd php-fpm mariadb-server httpd tar curl php-json
   

2. Open HTTP and optionally HTTPS port 80 and 443 on your firewall:

   # firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http 
   # firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
   # firewall-cmd --reload
   

3. Start both the Apache webserver and the MariaDB services:

   # systemctl start mariadb
   # systemctl start httpd
   

   Enable MariaDB and httpd to start after system reboot:

   # systemctl enable mariadb
   # systemctl enable httpd
   

4. (Optional) Secure your MariaDB installation and set root password:

   # mysql_secure_installation
   

5. Create a new database wordpress and give new user admin access to the wordpress database with password pass:

   # mysql -u root -p
   mysql> CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
   mysql> CREATE USER `admin`@`localhost` IDENTIFIED BY 'pass';
   mysql> GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO `admin`@`localhost`;
   mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   mysql> exit
   

---

---

6. Download and extract WordPress. Start by downloading the WordPress installation package and extracting its content:

   $ curl https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz --output wordpress.tar.gz
   $ tar xf wordpress.tar.gz
   

   Copy the extracted WordPress directory into the /var/www/html directory:

   # cp -r wordpress /var/www/html
   

   Lastly in this step, change permissions and change file SELinux security context:

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

7. Access WordPress installation wizard and perform the actual WordPress installation. Navigate your browser to http://localhost/wordpress or http://SERVER-HOST-NAME/wordpress and follow the instructions.
   

   Enter previously configured database details as per Step 5.

   ---

   ---

   

   Start WordPress installation by clicking on the Run the installation button.

   

   Provide the requested information by the WordPress wizard.

   

   This screen will show once the WordPress installation was successful.

   ---

   ---

   

   Login with your new user credentials.

   

   WordPress admin back-end. All done.