CentOS – WordPress Install

These steps are based on CentOS Server 64-bit

1. Download CentOS
2. Install CentOS
3. Configure CentOS
4. Install WordPress
5. Configure WordPress
6. Backup/Restore MySQL Database

Download CentOS

First we must download the CentOS DVD image, it is recommended to download straight from the official CentOS site (https://www.centos.org/download/).
For this document we will use CentOS 64-bit Everything ISO downloaded from http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/7/isos/x86_64/CentOS-7-x86_64-Everything-1511.iso

Install CentOS

1. Load the computer with the DVD (created from the ISO) or VM with the ISO
2. Select the language (English & English (United States) then click the “Continue” button.
   
3. Select the “Network & Host Name”
   
   • Network settings:
     
   • Set Ethernet (or other network) to on
   • Name the server in “Host name” text box, by default it will say localhost.localdomain
   • For now click on the “Done” button in the top left
4. Select the “Date & Time”
   
   • Date & Time settings:
     
     You may need to toggle the “Network Time” on to off and back on for the network time server to update connection

   • Select your region and City
   • Click on the “Done” button in the top left
5. Select the “Installation Destination”
   
   Up to your discretion or company requirements (for this guide I have made assumptions):
   • Partitioning: “Automatically configure partitioning.”
     
   • Encryption: “Encrypt my data”
     Type in and confirm passphrase and click on the “Save Passphrase” button.
     Click on the “Done” button in the top left to return to the previous screen.
     
6. Click on “Begin Installation”
7. Click on “Root Password”
   
   • Set and confirm the password
     
   • Click on the “Done” button in the top left
8. Click on “User Creation”
   
   • Fill out the Full name and user name
     
   • OPTIONAL: Check the check box to “Make this user administrator”
   • OPTIONAL BUT SUGGESTED: Keep the check box checked for “Require a password to use this account”
   • Set and confirm password
   • Click on the “Done” button in the top left
9. Click on the “Finish Configuration” button in the bottom right
   
10. Click on the “Reboot” button
    
11. If you created a hard drive passphrase you will see something like this
    
12. Once you see this command you are ready to configure CentOS for WordPress
    

Configure CentOS

1. Login as root
2. Install SSH

   yum -y install openssh-server openssh-clients
   

   With SSH now installed if you are on Windows it’s suggested you go to Putty and connect to do the rest.

3. Run Yum Update

   yum -y update
   

4. Install wget

   yum -y install wget
   

5. Install MariaDB

   yum -y install mariadb-server mariadb
   systemctl start mariadb.service
   systemctl enable mariadb.service
   

   Configure Security Settings

   /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
   

6. Install Apache2

   yum -y install httpd
   systemctl start httpd.service
   systemctl enable httpd.service
   

   Allow HTTP and HTTPS in CentOS Firewall

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

   Test your Apache2 Installation
   Go to http://(IP or HostName)

7. Install PHP

   yum -y install php
   systemctl restart httpd.service
   echo "<?PHP phpinfo() ?>" > /var/www/html/info.php
   yum -y install php-mysql php-gd php-ldap php-odbc php-pear php-xml php-xmlrpc php-mbstring php-snmp php-soap curl curl-devel
   systemctl restart httpd.service
   

   Test your PHP Installation
   Go to http://(IP or HostName)/info.php

Install WordPress

1. Download the latest released version of WordPress

   mkdir /var/www/serversetup/
   wget --no-check-certificate http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz -O /var/www/serversetup/WordPress_`date +"%m-%d-%Y"`.tar.gz
   

2. Create the database and a user for WordPress to use.
   For our purposes the values we use can be changed to suit your needs:
   • Database: Site1WPDB
   • Username: Site1WPUSR
   • Password: Site1WPUSRPWD

   mysql -h localhost -u root -p
   CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS Site1WPDB;
   CREATE USER 'Site1WPUSR'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Site1WPUSRPWD';
   GRANT ALL ON Site1WPDB.* TO 'Site1WPUSR'@'localhost';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   Exit;
   

3. tar zxvf /var/www/serversetup/WordPress_`date +"%m-%d-%Y"`.tar.gz -C /var/www/serversetup
   

4. Configure WordPress
   For our purposes the values we use can be changed to suit your needs:
   • Database: Site1WPDB
   • Username: Site1WPUSR
   • Password: Site1WPUSRPWD

   cd /var/www/serversetup/wordpress
   cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
   sed -i 's/database_name_here/Site1WPDB/g' wp-config.php
   sed -i 's/username_here/Site1WPUSR/g' wp-config.php
   sed -i 's/password_here/Site1WPUSRPWD/g' wp-config.php
   rm -f /var/www/html/info.php
   mv -v /var/www/serversetup/wordpress/* /var/www/html/
   cd /var/www/html
   echo '<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>' > .htaccess
   echo 'RewriteEngine On' >> .htaccess
   echo 'RewriteBase /' >> .htaccess
   echo 'RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]' >> .htaccess
   echo 'RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f' >> .htaccess
   echo 'RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d' >> .htaccess
   echo 'RewriteRule . /index.php [L]' >> .htaccess
   echo '</IfModule>' >> .htaccess
   groupadd www-data
   sudo usermod -a -G www-data wpadmin
   chown wpadmin:www-data -R /var/www
   

5. Now go to http://(IP or Hostname)/ to finish the setup
   
   
   • “Site Title” is the title of the site
   • “Username” is the admin user that you will primary use for administration tasks
     Suggestion: Do not use admin, webmaster, administrator
   • “Password”, type your desired password
     If you do not have a strong password it will warn you but you can check a check box to allow the weak password – NOT RECOMMENDED
   • “Your E-mail” is the email address for the admin of the site, best to make this a distribution list of trusted individuals otherwise the email of the administrator account
   • “Privacy”, typically if the site is internal you want to uncheck the check box otherwise you want search engines to see you.
   • When ready click on the “Install WordPress” button
   • You are now ready to login

Configure WordPress

Two Factor Auth

This plugin is to add security to the WordPress site by requiring all users to use a two factor authentication so that simply having the password won’t let a potential hacker in.

Setup

1. Install from http://(IP or Hostname)/wp-admin/plugin-install.php?tab=plugin-information&plugin=two-factor-auth&TB_iframe=true&width=772&height=799
2. On the Plugins page, activate the Two Factor Auth plugin
3. Click on the Settings link, by default all user types are required to use the two factor process
4. Click on “Two Factor Auth” link just above the “Tools” menu link
   
   

   There are two delivery types; Email and Third Party Apps
   Note: Whether you choose Email or Third Party Apps the users will initially get emailed their one time code when they login for the first time.

5. Select “Third party apps (Duo Mobile, Google Authenticator etc)”
6. With your phone scan the QR-Code on the screen using one of the tested apps
   • Android – Duo Mobile or Google Authenticator
   • iPhone – Duo Mobile
   • Windows Phone – Windows Authenticator
7. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find “Advanced”, click on “Show advanced info” it is suggested to keep it on “TOTP (time based)”
8. Click on “Save Changes” button.
9. Log out of the site
10. Log back in, type in your username and password then click on the “Log In” button
    
    
11. Type in the six digit number on your phone app or that you recieved in your email
    
    

Support

If you forget/lose the authentication codes you need to terminal into the server and run the disable script.

mv /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/two-factor-auth/ /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/two-factor-auth_disabled/

Once you are able to get back in run the enable script

mv /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/two-factor-auth_disabled/ /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/two-factor-auth/

Backup/Restore MySQL Database

The purpose of this step is to have a quick repeatable command to backup and restore a database.
Log in a your username (not root) and run this command
For our purposes the values we use can be changed to suit your needs:

• Database: Site1WPDB
• Username: Site1WPUSR
• Password: Site1WPUSRPWD

echo '[mysqldump]'> ~/.my.cnf;
echo 'user=Site1WPUSR'>> ~/.my.cnf;
echo 'password=Site1WPUSRPWD' >> ~/.my.cnf;
chmod 0600 ~/.my.cnf

mysqldump -u Site1WPUSR Site1WPDB > ~/WordPress_DB_Backup_`date +"%m-%d-%Y_%I-%M-%S"`.sql
tar -zcvf WordPress_Site_Backup_`date +"%m-%d-%Y_%I-%M-%S"`.tar.gz /var/www/html

Make sure you modify the date of the file to what you want to restore from.

mysql -u Site1WPUSR Site1WPDB < ~/WordPress_DB_Backup_08-27-2015.sql