Install and Configure WordPress with LAMP on Ubuntu with Ansible

Introduction

There are always times when we need to have new servers configured. This could be to distribute the workload or if we simply need more servers. When setting up new servers, users need to utilize server automation to configure them. This is done in order to minimize manual intervention. Ansible is one of the configuration management tools that can be used to automatically configure a new server reducing the chances of human error when manually setting the server up.

Ansible is a feature-rich tool while being simple in architecture. It facilitates the configuration of servers through scripts. Due to its concise architecture, Ansible does not require any other software to be installed across the nodes.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use Ansible to automate the installation of WordPress with the LAMP stack running on an Ubuntu server. WordPress is a CMS that is used to create blogs and websites utilizing PHP as coding language and MySQL database to store data. Once we have WordPress installed, users can administer the site using the web frontend.

Prerequisites

Since this tutorial is based on Ubuntu, you will need to have the latest Ubuntu version installed with sudo permissions. If you do not have Ubuntu installed, you can follow our How to set up your Ubuntu server.
We will also need to have an Ansible control node. It must have a control node with sudo permissions and firewall enabled. Installing and Configuring Ansible on Ubuntu 20.04 contains a detailed guide on how to configure Ansible.
We also need remote Ansible hosts running the latest Ubuntu. The hosts are essentially the managed nodes in Ansible.

Ansible Playbook Actions Summary

In this section, we will see what our Ansible Playbook does when we execute it. This procedure is an alternative to the manual setup provided here: How to Install WordPress with LAMP on Ubuntu 20.04.

When we run the Playbook, Ansible will:

Install aptitude which is a preferred Ansible package manager.
Install and configure PHP extensions and LAMP packages.
Create a new Apache VirtualHost for the WordPress website.
Enable the mod_rewrite module and disable the default website offered by Apache.
Set the password for the MySQL root user.
Remove the anonymous MySQL accounts and test database.
Create a new user and a new database. These will be used by the WordPress website.
Set up UFW to allow HTTP traffic on the configured port ( 80 by default).
Download and unpack WordPress.
Setup the directory permissions and ownerships.
Configure a new wp-config.php file using its template.

WordPress on LAMP Ansible Playbook Guide

First, we will have to obtain the WordPress on LAMP playbook and its dependencies from the do-community/ansible-playbooks repository. We will clone this repository inside the Ansible Control Node.

You can run the git pull command as mentioned below:

cd ~

git clone https://github.com/do-community/ansible-playbooks.git

cd ansible-playbooks

cd ~

git clone https://github.com/do-community/ansible-playbooks.git

cd ansible-playbooks

Make sure you have the updated pull of the above mentioned repository. This is if you have cloned the repository before. Below is how you can take the updated:

cd ~/ansible-playbooks

git pull

cd ~/ansible-playbooks

git pull

Now we have to locate the files inside the wordpress-lamp_ubuntu folder. The name of this folder can be different depending upon the version of Ubuntu you are using. At a glance, you will see the following structure in this directory:

Let’s summarize the purpose of these files below:

files/apache.conf.j2: Apache uses VirtualHost. This file is used to specify the settings for VirtualHost.
files/wp-config.php.j2: This file contains settings for configuring WordPress.
vars/default.yml: It configures the playbook settings.
playbook.yml: If there are tasks that need to be executed on a remote server, this file is used to configure them.
readme.md: Guide to using the playbook.

We have to edit the playbook’s variable file in order to customize the installation. First, open the vars/default.yaml file which is located inside the above mentioned directory:

cd wordpress-lamp_ubuntu1804

nano vars/default.yml

cd wordpress-lamp_ubuntu1804

nano vars/default.yml

This file is quite lengthy. It has a number of configurations to help us with our installation:

---
#System Settings
php_modules: [ 'php-curl', 'php-gd', 'php-mbstring', 'php-xml', 'php-xmlrpc', 'php-soap', 'php-intl', 'php-zip' ]

#MySQL Settings
mysql_root_password: "mysql_root_password"
mysql_db: "wordpress"
mysql_user: "sammy"
mysql_password: "password"

#HTTP Settings
http_host: "your_domain"
http_conf: "your_domain.conf"
http_port: "80"

---

#System Settings

php_modules: [ 'php-curl', 'php-gd', 'php-mbstring', 'php-xml', 'php-xmlrpc', 'php-soap', 'php-intl', 'php-zip' ]

#MySQL Settings

mysql_root_password: "mysql_root_password"

mysql_db: "wordpress"

mysql_user: "sammy"

mysql_password: "password"

#HTTP Settings

http_host: "your_domain"

http_conf: "your_domain.conf"

http_port: "80"

Here we are concerned with the following variables:

php_modules: An array containing PHP extensions that should be installed to support your WordPress setup. If you want to install more modules you can specify this here.
mysql_root_password: The password for the root MySQL account.
mysql_db: This specifies the name of the MySQL database which WordPress will be using.
mysql_user: The name of the MySQL user that should be created for WordPress.
mysql_password: The password for the new MySQL user.
http_host: Domain name or the IP of the server.
http_conf: The name of the configuration file that will be created within Apache.
http_port: HTTP port for this virtual host. This port is used to access the website. The default value is 80.

Next, enter the values in the above file and save and close. For the users using the nano editor, press CTRL+X, Y, and press ENTER.

Now you are ready to run this playbook. You can run this playbook on one or more servers. If you want to run this playbook on any specific server, you can use -l flag. Further, if you need to specify the user to connect to the remote server, specify the user using the -u flag.

Suppose that we want to execute our playbook on any one server, srvr1 using the user u1, we can run the below command:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml -l server1 -u cloudsigma

1	ansible-playbook playbook.yml -l server1 -u cloudsigma

Once you run the above command you will get an output like below:

PLAY [all] ********************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ********************************************************************************

ok: [server1]

TASK [Install prerequisites] ********************************************************************************

ok: [server1]

PLAY [all] ********************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ********************************************************************************

ok: [server1]

TASK [Install prerequisites] ********************************************************************************

ok: [server1]

Wait until the playbook execution is completed. Then, navigate to the server_name on your web browser:

http://server_host_or_ip/

1	http://server_host_or_ip/

You will see the screen:

WP Page

Next, select the language of your choice and press Continue. You will get the next screen prompting some details to conclude the installation:

After that, enter the information and press Install WordPress. It will take some time and then you will see a screen like below:

Select Login to login into your website and configure the settings:

Ansible Playbook Content

Remember the wordpress-lamp_ubuntu folder. It contains a few files inside it. So let us go over them one at a time:

● vars/default.yml

This file contains values that are used to configure settings for your WordPress website:

#System Settings
php_modules: [ 'php-curl', 'php-gd', 'php-mbstring', 'php-xml', 'php-xmlrpc', 'php-soap', 'php-intl', 'php-zip' ]

#MySQL Settings
mysql_root_password: "mysql_root_password"
mysql_db: "wordpress"
mysql_user: "sammy"
mysql_password: "password"

#HTTP Settings
http_host: "your_domain"
http_conf: "your_domain.conf"
http_port: "80"

#System Settings

php_modules: [ 'php-curl', 'php-gd', 'php-mbstring', 'php-xml', 'php-xmlrpc', 'php-soap', 'php-intl', 'php-zip' ]

#MySQL Settings

mysql_root_password: "mysql_root_password"

mysql_db: "wordpress"

mysql_user: "sammy"

mysql_password: "password"

#HTTP Settings

http_host: "your_domain"

http_conf: "your_domain.conf"

http_port: "80"

● files/apache.conf.j2

This file is used to configure the Apache VirtualHost:

<VirtualHost *:{{ http_port }}>
  ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
  ServerName {{ http_host }}
  ServerAlias www.{{ http_host }}
  DocumentRoot /var/www/{{ http_host }}
  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

  <Directory /var/www/{{ http_host }}>
    Options -Indexes
  </Directory>

  <IfModule mod_dir.c>
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.cgi index.pl  index.xhtml index.htm
  </IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

ServerName {{ http_host }}

ServerAlias www.{{ http_host }}

DocumentRoot /var/www/{{ http_host }}

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

Options -Indexes

</Directory>

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.cgi index.pl index.xhtml index.htm

</IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

● files/wp-config.php.j2

This file is used to configure WordPress. It contains unique keys and salts generated by hash functions:

<?php

/**
* The base configuration for WordPress
*
* The wp-config.php creation script uses this file during the
* installation. You don't have to use the web site, you can
* copy this file to "wp-config.php" and fill in the values.
*
* This file contains the following configurations:
*
* * MySQL settings
* * Secret keys
* * Database table prefix
* * ABSPATH
*
* @link https://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php
*
* @package WordPress
*/

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', '{{ mysql_db }}' );
/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', '{{ mysql_user }}' );
/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '{{ mysql_password }}' );
/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );

/** Filesystem access **/
define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

/**#@+

* Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.
*
* Change these to different unique phrases!
* You can generate these using the {@link https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ WordPress.org secret-key service}
* You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies. This will force all users to have to log in again.
*
* @since 2.6.0
*/
define( 'AUTH_KEY',         '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY',    '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY',        '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT',        '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT',   '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT',       '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

/**#@-*/

/**
* WordPress Database Table prefix.
*
* You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each
* a unique prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
*/
$table_prefix = 'wp_';

/**
* For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
*
* Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
* It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
* in their development environments.
*
* For information on other constants that can be used for debugging,
* visit the Codex.
*
* @link https://codex.wordpress.org/Debugging_in_WordPress
*/
define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
define( 'ABSPATH', dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/' );
}

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php' );

<?php

/**

* The base configuration for WordPress

* The wp-config.php creation script uses this file during the

* installation. You don't have to use the web site, you can

* copy this file to "wp-config.php" and fill in the values.

* This file contains the following configurations:

* * MySQL settings

* * Secret keys

* * Database table prefix

* * ABSPATH

* @link https://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php

* @package WordPress

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //

/** The name of the database for WordPress */

define( 'DB_NAME', '{{ mysql_db }}' );

/** MySQL database username */

define( 'DB_USER', '{{ mysql_user }}' );

/** MySQL database password */

define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '{{ mysql_password }}' );

/** MySQL hostname */

define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */

define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */

define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );

/** Filesystem access **/

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

/**#@+

* Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.

* Change these to different unique phrases!

* You can generate these using the {@link https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ WordPress.org secret-key service}

* You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies. This will force all users to have to log in again.

* @since 2.6.0

define( 'AUTH_KEY', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'NONCE_KEY', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'AUTH_SALT', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

define( 'NONCE_SALT', '{{ lookup('password', '/dev/null chars=ascii_letters length=64') }}' );

/**#@-*/

/**

* WordPress Database Table prefix.

* You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each

* a unique prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!

$table_prefix = 'wp_';

/**

* For developers: WordPress debugging mode.

* Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.

* It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG

* in their development environments.

* For information on other constants that can be used for debugging,

* visit the Codex.

* @link https://codex.wordpress.org/Debugging_in_WordPress

define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */

if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {

define( 'ABSPATH', dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/' );

}

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */

require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php' );

● playbook.yml

This file contains all the tasks defined from this setup. It begins by listing a group of servers that are targeted by this setup. It includes the vars/default.yml variable file to load configuration options:

---
- hosts: all
  become: true
  vars_files:
    - vars/default.yml

  tasks:
    - name: Install prerequisites
      apt: name=aptitude update_cache=yes state=latest force_apt_get=yes
      tags: [ system ]

    - name: Install LAMP Packages
      apt: name={{ item }} update_cache=yes state=latest
      loop: [ 'apache2', 'mysql-server', 'python3-pymysql', 'php', 'php-mysql', 'libapache2-mod-php' ]
      tags: [ system ]

    - name: Install PHP Extensions
      apt: name={{ item }} update_cache=yes state=latest
      loop: "{{ php_modules }}"
      tags: [ system ]

# Apache Configuration

    - name: Create document root
      file:
        path: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}"
        state: directory
        owner: "www-data"
        group: "www-data"
        mode: '0755'
      tags: [ apache ]

    - name: Set up Apache VirtualHost
      template:
        src: "files/apache.conf.j2"
        dest: "/etc/apache2/sites-available/{{ http_conf }}"
      notify: Reload Apache
      tags: [ apache ]

    - name: Enable rewrite module
      shell: /usr/sbin/a2enmod rewrite
      notify: Reload Apache
      tags: [ apache ]

    - name: Enable new site
      shell: /usr/sbin/a2ensite {{ http_conf }}
      notify: Reload Apache
      tags: [ apache ]

    - name: Disable default Apache site
      shell: /usr/sbin/a2dissite 000-default.conf
      notify: Restart Apache
      tags: [ apache ]

# MySQL Configuration

    - name: Set the root password
      mysql_user:
        name: root
        password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"
        login_unix_socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
      tags: [ mysql, mysql-root ]

    - name: Remove all anonymous user accounts
      mysql_user:
        name: ''
        host_all: yes
        state: absent
        login_user: root
        login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"
      tags: [ mysql ]

    - name: Remove the MySQL test database
      mysql_db:
        name: test
        state: absent
        login_user: root
        login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"
      tags: [ mysql ]

    - name: Creates database for WordPress
      mysql_db:
        name: "{{ mysql_db }}"
        state: present
        login_user: root
        login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"
      tags: [ mysql ]

    - name: Create MySQL user for WordPress
      mysql_user:
        name: "{{ mysql_user }}"
        password: "{{ mysql_password }}"
        priv: "{{ mysql_db }}.*:ALL"
        state: present
        login_user: root
        login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"
      tags: [ mysql ]

# UFW Configuration

    - name: "UFW - Allow HTTP on port {{ http_port }}"
      ufw:
        rule: allow
        port: "{{ http_port }}"
        proto: tcp
      tags: [ system ]

  # WordPress Configuration

    - name: Download and unpack latest WordPress
      unarchive:
        src: https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
        dest: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}"
        remote_src: yes
        creates: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress"
      tags: [ wordpress ]

    - name: Set ownership
      file:
        path: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}"
        state: directory
        recurse: yes
        owner: www-data
        group: www-data
      tags: [ wordpress ]

    - name: Set permissions for directories

      shell: "/usr/bin/find /var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \\;"
      tags: [ wordpress ]

    - name: Set permissions for files
      shell: "/usr/bin/find /var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \\;"
      tags: [ wordpress ]

    - name: Set up wp-config
      template:
        src: "files/wp-config.php.j2"
        dest: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress/wp-config.php"
      tags: [ wordpress ]

  handlers:
    - name: Reload Apache
      service:
        name: apache2
        state: reloaded

    - name: Restart Apache
      service:
        name: apache2
        state: restarted

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---

- hosts: all

become: true

vars_files:

- vars/default.yml

tasks:

- name: Install prerequisites

apt: name=aptitude update_cache=yes state=latest force_apt_get=yes

tags: [ system ]

- name: Install LAMP Packages

apt: name={{ item }} update_cache=yes state=latest

loop: [ 'apache2', 'mysql-server', 'python3-pymysql', 'php', 'php-mysql', 'libapache2-mod-php' ]

tags: [ system ]

- name: Install PHP Extensions

apt: name={{ item }} update_cache=yes state=latest

loop: "{{ php_modules }}"

tags: [ system ]

# Apache Configuration

- name: Create document root

file:

path: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}"

state: directory

owner: "www-data"

group: "www-data"

mode: '0755'

tags: [ apache ]

- name: Set up Apache VirtualHost

template:

src: "files/apache.conf.j2"

dest: "/etc/apache2/sites-available/{{ http_conf }}"

notify: Reload Apache

tags: [ apache ]

- name: Enable rewrite module

shell: /usr/sbin/a2enmod rewrite

notify: Reload Apache

tags: [ apache ]

- name: Enable new site

shell: /usr/sbin/a2ensite {{ http_conf }}

notify: Reload Apache

tags: [ apache ]

- name: Disable default Apache site

shell: /usr/sbin/a2dissite 000-default.conf

notify: Restart Apache

tags: [ apache ]

# MySQL Configuration

- name: Set the root password

mysql_user:

password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"

login_unix_socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

tags: [ mysql, mysql-root ]

- name: Remove all anonymous user accounts

mysql_user:

host_all: yes

state: absent

login_user: root

login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"

tags: [ mysql ]

- name: Remove the MySQL test database

mysql_db:

state: absent

login_user: root

login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"

tags: [ mysql ]

- name: Creates database for WordPress

mysql_db:

state: present

login_user: root

login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"

tags: [ mysql ]

- name: Create MySQL user for WordPress

mysql_user:

password: "{{ mysql_password }}"

priv: "{{ mysql_db }}.*:ALL"

state: present

login_user: root

login_password: "{{ mysql_root_password }}"

tags: [ mysql ]

# UFW Configuration

- name: "UFW - Allow HTTP on port {{ http_port }}"

ufw:

rule: allow

port: "{{ http_port }}"

proto: tcp

tags: [ system ]

# WordPress Configuration

- name: Download and unpack latest WordPress

unarchive:

src: https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

dest: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}"

remote_src: yes

creates: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress"

tags: [ wordpress ]

- name: Set ownership

file:

path: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}"

state: directory

recurse: yes

owner: www-data

group: www-data

tags: [ wordpress ]

- name: Set permissions for directories

shell: "/usr/bin/find /var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \\;"

tags: [ wordpress ]

- name: Set permissions for files

shell: "/usr/bin/find /var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \\;"

tags: [ wordpress ]

- name: Set up wp-config

template:

src: "files/wp-config.php.j2"

dest: "/var/www/{{ http_host }}/wordpress/wp-config.php"

tags: [ wordpress ]

handlers:

- name: Reload Apache

service:

state: reloaded

- name: Restart Apache

service:

state: restarted

You can modify these files as needed to fit your specific needs for the website you are building.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we demonstrated how you can automate the installation and setup of a WordPress website running on the LAMP stack on the latest Ubuntu operating system with Ansible.

For more guides on working with Ansible, you can check out the following tutorials on our blog:

Happy Computing!

About
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About Pranay Kapgate

Software Engineer | Open Source Software aficionado

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