Guided Lab: Installing WordPress on an Ubuntu VM Instance with LEMP Stack

1. Create a VM instance using the following machine configurations:

• Name: Enter your desired instance name.
• Machine type: Choose e2-small (Preset)

2. Under OS and storage, click the Change button to modify the Boot disk:

• Operating System: Ubuntu
• Version: 24.04 LTS Minimal (x86/64, amd64 noble minimal image built on 2025‑12‑17)

3. Under Network → Firewall, check:

• Allow HTTP traffic

3. Leave other configurations at their default values.

4. Click Create and wait until the VM is running.

1. SSH into the VM from the console.

2. Run the following commands:

# Update system
sudo apt update -y

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install nginx

Press y if prompted to continue.

3. Verify installation: open your VM’s Public IPv4 address in a browser. You should see the default Nginx welcome page.

1. Go back to the SHH and install MySQL.

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

2. To verify successful installation, enter mysql –version command.

1. Install PHP and extensions:

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-xmlrpc php-zip -y

2. To verify successful installation, enter the php --version command.

Note: For the purposes of this lab, we’ll use the domain name “demo” in all our configurations. Feel free to replace “demo” with your desired name.

Before editing configuration files, install Vim (or use Nano if you prefer):

sudo apt install vim -y

1. Create a Directory for Your WordPress Site:

sudo mkdir /var/www/demo

2. Set Permissions for the Directory:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/demo – It sets the owner and group to the current user (ubuntu).

3. Create an Nginx Configuration File for Your Site:

sudo vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/demo – This will generate a new empty file. Paste the following configuration (replace your_IPv4 with your VM’s Public IPv4 address):

Type i to edit the file.

server {
listen 80;
server_name your_IPv4;
root /var/www/demo;

index index.html index.htm index.php;

location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
}

location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
}

4. Press ESC, then:wq! to save the changes.

5. Link to the configuration file from Nginx’s sites-enabled directory to activate your setup:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/demo /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

6. Then, under the /sites-enabled/ directory, unlink the default configuration file:

sudo unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

7. You can test your configuration for syntax errors by typing:

sudo nginx -t

If any issues are reported, return to your configuration file and double-check its contents before proceeding.

8. When you’re finished, reload Nginx to make the changes take effect:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

1. Open the MySQL.
sudo mysql

2. Create Database:
CREATE DATABASE demo DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

3. Create User and Grant Permissions:
CREATE USER 'demo_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'demo123';
GRANT ALL ON demo.* TO 'demo_user'@'localhost';

4. Exit when done.
exit

1. Navigate to the /tmp directory.
cd /tmp

2. Download the latest WordPress package, and extract it.

curl -LO https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

sudo tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz

3. Configure WordPress:

# Copy the sample configuration file to wp-config.php for customization.
sudo cp /tmp/wordpress/wp-config-sample.php /tmp/wordpress/wp-config.php

# Copy WordPress files to the /var/www/demo directory.
sudo cp -a /tmp/wordpress/. /var/www/demo

# Set the ownership to www-data
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/demo

4. Edit wp-config.php to add database details:
sudo vi /var/www/demo/wp-config.php

Press i to edit.

Press ESC, then enter :wq! to save the changes.

5. Generate security keys:
curl -s https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/

6. Copy the output and paste it into wp-config.php, replacing the placeholders.
sudo vi /var/www/demo/wp-config.php
Press i to edit the file.

Press ESC, then enter :wq! to save the changes.

7. Restart the PHP-FPM
sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

1. In your browser, visit:

http://<VM_EXTERNAL_IP>/wordpress

2. Follow the WordPress setup wizard.

That’s it! You have successfully created an Ubuntu VM instance, installed and configured the LEMP stack, set up Nginx for WordPress, created a database and user, and deployed WordPress with the necessary configuration. Your WordPress site is now live and accessible through your VM’s public IP address. This lab demonstrates how to host a dynamic CMS on Google Cloud and provides a strong foundation for exploring advanced topics such as enabling HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt, scaling with load balancers and instance groups, and strengthening security with firewall rules and IAM policies.