Muhammad Ishaq

📌 Overview

This project is a hands-on DevOps learning project where I deployed a WordPress eCommerce website on AWS EC2 using Ubuntu Linux.
The main purpose of this project was to understand how real websites are deployed, configured, secured, and accessed on the internet.

Instead of using managed hosting, everything was done manually to gain real-world experience with Linux servers, web servers, databases, DNS, and SSL.

🧠 What This Project Covers

Cloud infrastructure using AWS EC2
Linux server setup and management
Apache, PHP, and MySQL configuration
WordPress deployment and troubleshooting
Domain, DNS, HTTPS, and Cloudflare
Real DevOps-style problem solving

🏗️ Architecture Overview

The application runs on a single EC2 instance where all services are installed and managed manually.

User → Cloudflare DNS → AWS EC2 → Apache → WordPress → MySQL

This setup helps understand how traffic flows from a user’s browser to the backend services. logo

⚙️ Environment Setup

🚀 Step 1: Launching the EC2 Instance

I started by launching an EC2 instance on AWS with the following configuration:

Instance Type: t2.micro
OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Security Group:
Port 22 (SSH)
Port 80 (HTTP)
Port 443 (HTTPS)

This instance acts as the main server for the application.

🔐 Step 2: Connecting to the Server

After launching the instance, I connected to it using SSH.

ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@<EC2_PUBLIC_IP>

This gave me terminal access to manage the server directly.

🌐 Step 3: Installing Apache Web Server

Apache was installed to serve web pages:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2 -y
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2

At this point, the Apache default page was accessible via the public IP.

🧩 Step 4: Installing PHP

WordPress requires PHP, so I installed PHP along with required extensions.

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip php-intl -y

Apache was restarted to apply changes.

🗄️ Step 5: Setting Up MySQL Database

MySQL was installed and configured locally on the same EC2 instance.

Created a database
Created a dedicated database user
Assigned permissions securely

This database stores WordPress content, users, and settings.

📝 Step 6: Installing WordPress

WordPress was downloaded and placed inside the Apache document root:

cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzf latest.tar.gz
sudo mv wordpress /var/www/html/

File ownership and permissions were fixed to avoid access issues.

🔁 Step 7: Fixing URLs and Permalinks

Initially, WordPress was installed inside a subdirectory. Later, it was moved to the root domain for cleaner URLs.

I fixed..

.htaccess rewrite rules
WordPress site URL settings
Apache mod_rewrite

This step helped resolve login and page access issues.

🔒 Step 8: Enabling HTTPS (SSL)

To secure the website, HTTPS was enabled using Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y
sudo certbot --apache

This automatically configured SSL using Let’s Encrypt.

🌍 Step 9: Domain & Cloudflare Setup

The domain was connected using Cloudflare:

DNS records configured
Proxy enabled for security
HTTPS enforced

Cloudflare adds an extra security and performance layer.

🛒 Step 10: WordPress eCommerce Setup

After the server setup:

Installed an eCommerce theme
Created pages (Home, Shop, Blog, Contact)
Configured menus and layout
Tested frontend and admin dashboard

The site was now fully functional.

🧪 Troubleshooting & Learnings.

During the project, I solved issues like:

WordPress redirect loops
Apache rewrite problems
DNS resolution delays
Login and permalink errors

These problems helped me understand how DevOps troubleshooting works in real systems.

🌐 Live Project Link

🔗 https://yourdomain.com

📌 Final Thoughts

This project gave me strong confidence in cloud deployment and DevOps fundamentals. It showed me how small configuration mistakes can break applications — and how to fix them systematically.

This is just the beginning, and I plan to improve this setup using automation and containers in future projects.

🚀 WordPress eCommerce Deployment on AWS (DevOps Project)