Debian 12 WordPress Installation Tutorial (LNMP Environment)

After purchasing a VPS, you need to install a website environment on the server to install WordPress. Typically, Naiba recommends beginners to directly install Baota Panel (Click here for tutorial). If you plan to install only one website on the server, or if the server configuration is low, Naiba suggests directly installing the LNMP environment without a panel, which is Linux+Nginx+MySQL+PHP. This will be more resource-efficient.

In previous tutorials, Naiba recommended the LNMP one-click installation script (Click here for tutorial). However, there is information online suggesting this one-click package script was poisoned. Regardless of whether it was corrected later, reputation is hard to restore. So, if you really need to install the LNMP environment to build a website, Naiba recommends installing it manually and not using online one-click scripts. This article will use Debian 12 as an example to show how to manually install the LNMP environment and set up a WordPress website.

Preliminary Preparation

Buy VPS

To install the LNMP environment, we need to purchase a VPS. For VPS selection, you can refer to Naiba's previous article:

Naiba's Personally Tested VPS Recommendations

Of course, besides the VPS recommended by Naiba, other VPS you purchase yourself can also be used. The method is the same; just ensure the VPS system is Debian 12.

Connect to VPS

To connect to the VPS, we still need to use SSH software. Naiba recommends Xshell here. If you are a Mac user, you can directly use the system's built-in Terminal.

Xshell is free for personal use. You can also use other similar software to manage the VPS. For using Xshell to connect and manage your VPS, please refer to the article below:

Tutorial on Using Xshell 7 to Connect to VPS_How to Log into VPS from Computer

One-click WordPress Installation

We have written a one-click script to install the LNMP environment and WordPress website, and automatically apply for a security certificate, which is more convenient than the manual method below.

The usage method is very simple:

1. Point your domain name to your server IP (Required. If not pointed, follow the manual configuration method)

2. Copy the command below

apt-get update -y && apt-get install -y curl bash && curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/naibabiji/1kwp-debian/main/install.sh | bash -s -- your@email.com yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com

3. Modify the email and website in the above code to your actual information

One email and one domain are required. If you only want to bind one domain, then fill in only one.

4. Paste the modified code into your SSH software interface and press Enter. It will be installed in about 5 minutes.

If you still don't know how, follow theNaibabiji WeChat Official Account and reply „One-click WP" to get the video tutorial.

Manually Install LNMP Environment and Set Up WordPress Website

Install Basic Software

After connecting to the VPS, we firstupdate the system components using the command below.

apt update -y && apt upgrade -y

Then enter the following command toinstall PHP and related components

apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-gd php-cli php-curl php-mbstring php-zip php-opcache php-xml php-mysqli -y

Next,install NGINX

apt install nginx -y

Next,install MariaDB. Some online resources say that compared to MySQL, MariaDB has higher performance, faster replication, better security measures, and additional storage engines.

apt install mariadb-server -y

Use the mysql_secure_installation script to improve database security.

mysql_secure_installation

After entering this command, there will be some English prompts. First press Enter, then press Y for all prompts with [Y/n].

If you don't understand English, just remember that the following is asking you to set a new database password.

Change the root password? [Y/n] y
New password:

The entered password will not be displayed. Remember it yourself and don't forget.

Create Database

Next, we need to prepare for installing WordPress. First, create a database.

mysql -uroot -p

After entering the above command, you need to verify the database administrator password. Then enter the command interface and enter the following commands in order.

CREATE DATABASE naibabiji_db;
CREATE USER naibabiji_user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'blog_NaiBaBiJi_Com';
GRANT ALL ON naibabiji_db.* TO naibabiji_user@localhost;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

In these codes, naibabiji_db is the database name you want to create, naibabiji_user is the database username you create, and blog_NaiBaBiJi_Com is the database password. Modify them according to your needs.

Configure NGINX

First, create a directory to store the files for our website, which is the website root directory folder.

mkdir -p /var/www/html/test.naibabiji.com/public_html

Create virtual host configuration file

vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/test.naibabiji.com.conf

Then pressi, after pasting the following content, pressESCkey and enter:wqSave

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name test.naibabiji.com;
  root /var/www/html/test.naibabiji.com/public_html;
  index index.html;

  location / {
    index index.php index.html index.htm;
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
  }

  location ~* \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
  }
}

In the above code, the `server_name test.naibabiji.com;` part. In our tutorial, we only bound one domain name. Normally, when you are building an enterprise website, you should change it to `server_name naibabiji.com www.naibabiji.com;` like this.

Create symbolic link

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/test.naibabiji.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Delete default site

rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Verify NGINX configuration

nginx -t

Restart NGINX

systemctl restart nginx

Configure SSL Certificate

At this point, if you open your website in a browser, the following screenshot will appear. We will first install the security certificate and then proceed to install WordPress. (If you cannot open the website, it means you have not resolved the domain name. Please go and resolve the domain name first. Refer to the tutorial:Domain Topic）

First, install snapd

apt install snapd -y

Later, if snapd needs to be updated, use the following command

snap install core; snap refresh core

Install Certbot

snap install --classic certbot

Run certbot to apply for an SSL security certificate

/snap/bin/certbot --nginx -d test.naibabiji.com

To apply for security certificates for both the www and non-www URLs simultaneously, please use the following code

/snap/bin/certbot --nginx -d naibabiji.com -d www.naibabiji.com

After entering the command, you will be prompted to enter an email address. Press Enter, and for the next few prompts, simply press Y and then Enter.

Later, when you need to renew the SSL certificate, run the following command

certbot renew

After the application is complete, open the website and you will see a small lock icon.

Install WordPress Website Program

Switch to the website root directory

cd /var/www/html/test.naibabiji.com/public_html/

Download the WordPress installation package file using wget

wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip

Extract the installation package

unzip latest.zip

If the command is not found, first install it using `apt install unzip -y`

Enter the extracted folder, move all files to the parent directory, and switch to the parent directory.

cd wordpress
mv * ..
cd ..

Modify file permissions

chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/test.naibabiji.com/public_html
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/test.naibabiji.com/public_html

Open your URL to enter the WordPress installation interface.

Configure Pseudo-Static Rules

If you are familiar with the vi editor, you can directly use `vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/test.naibabiji.com.conf`

Considering that many beginners read Naibabiji, you can modify the file by downloading it via SFTP, editing it, and then overwriting the original.

After opening, find the `/etc/nginx/sites-available/` folder on the right side, download your website's configuration file to your computer, and then open it with Notepad or another text editor.

Replace the code highlighted in the box in the image below.

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

# Add trailing slash to */wp-admin requests.
rewrite /wp-admin$ $scheme://$host$uri/ permanent;

After saving, upload it to the server to overwrite the original file.

Then, enter `systemctl restart nginx` in xshell.

After the restart is complete, refresh your webpage, and the pseudo-static rules will take effect.

Resolve 404 Error When Accessing Without HTTPS

The tutorial above uses a subdomain for demonstration. In practice, you might be adding a primary domain and a www subdomain, such as naibabiji.com and www.naibabiji.com.

If your default access URL is set to https://naibabiji.com, directly opening www.naibabiji.com in a browser will show a 404 error. This is because the code automatically loaded when applying for the SSL certificate writes a 404. We just need to do the following.

Similarly, edit the file that needs to be modified for the pseudo-static rules mentioned above, and change the content in the screenshot above.

listen 80;
server_name pinenut.net www.pinenut.net;
return 404; # managed by Certbot

Finally, modify the line with 404 to: return 301 https://naibabiji.com; # managed by Certbot

Then restart nginx. This way, accessing URLs without https will redirect to the primary domain with https.

The above is the method for manually installing the LNMP environment and then installing WordPress. If you still don't know how, Naiba offers paid deployment services.Welcome to contact us.。

Supplement: Enable Redis Object Cache for WordPress Website

1. Install the Redis server and PHP Redis extension.

# 安装Redis服务器
apt install redis-server -y

# 安装PHP Redis扩展
apt install php-redis -y

# 重启PHP-FPM使扩展生效
systemctl restart php8.2-fpm

2. Verify the installation.

# 检查Redis服务状态
systemctl status redis-server

# 验证PHP Redis扩展是否加载
php -m | grep redis

3. Install the WordPress Redis caching Plugin.

Log in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to "Plugins" → "Add New", search for "Redis Object Cache", install and activate it.

4. Go to the Plugin settings page to enable caching.