From LightSail, to VPN, to a complex servers infrustructure with Load Balancers. Thank you Nicolas El Khoury, Lead DevOps Engineer and a Community Lead - Amazon Web Services Beirut User Group, in sharing your knowledge with US.

1. Wordpress Deployment on
AWS
Nicolas El Khoury
nicolas.kh4@gmail.com
+961 70 146 509

2. Background Information
● BE Computer Engineering - Lebanese American University
● Masc Information Systems Security - Concordia University
○ Publications in the areas of cloud computing, NFV, SDN.
● Lead DevOps Engineer - Designer-24
● Community Lead - Amazon Web Services Beirut User Group
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3. Outline
● Introduction to Cloud Computing.
● Deploying Wordpress on Amazon LightSail.
● Deploying Wordpress on a Linux Server.
● Designing a Secure, Robust, and Scalable architecture for WordPress
applications on AWS. 3

4. Introduction to Cloud Computing.
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5. 5

6. Types of Cloud Computing Services
● Infrastructure as a Service: Storage Space, Virtual Machines, Bandwidth.
● Platform as a Service: Operating Systems, Programming Languages, etc.
● Software as a Services: Any Software you access online (iTunes, Google
Sheets, booking.com, uber, Designer-24, cheapoair).
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7. Advantages of Cloud Computing
● Less Cost: The services are free from capital expenditure.
● 24 X 7 Availability: Servers are always running.
● Automated Updates on Software
● Flexibility in Capacity (Scalability)
● Pay for what you use only
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8. Deploying Wordpress on Amazon
Lightsail
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9. AWS Lightsail
● AWS Service offering a ready-made environment for multiple applications
(Wordpress, Joomla, Magento, etc).
● Targets users with no knowledge in system administration or people who don’t
want to worry about servers.
● Configures all the environment automatically.
● Inexpensive!
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10. Lightsail in the Background
● Launch a Virtual Machine.
● Attach a Disk.
● Manage Permissions (IAM).
● Create a Security Group.
● Setup DNS.
● Create Static IP.
● Install all the components for wordpress (Web server, Database, PHP,
Wordpress app).
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11. Lightsail Pricing
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12. Setup Wordpress on Lightsail Demo
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13. Advantages of Lightsail
● Simplified UI: runs through preinstalled software with the server.
● Speed: Ability to spin up a server in minutes.
● Affordability: Ability to run a server for $3.5/month.
● Reliability: Deployed on a leading cloud platform. Chances of downtime are
very small.
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14. Disadvantages of Lightsail
● Predefined Configuration: Inability to choose different components
(webserver, database, etc).
● SPOF: Single point of failure.
● One application per server.
● Not suitable for enterprise grade applications.
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15. Deploying Wordpress on a Linux Server
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16. Wordpress Environment
● Database: Store collection of information.
● Wordpress Framework.
● PHP Framework: Serve PHP code.
● Web Server: serve the files that form Web pages to users.
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17. Install a Wordpress Environment on Wordpress
● Install a Database Management System.
○ Create a Database, and a username and password.
● Install PHP.
● Install Nginx (Web Server).
● Configure Nginx.
● Configure wp-config.php
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18. Wp-config.php configuration
define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress' ); //name of the database
define( 'DB_USER', 'wordpressuser' ); //username
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'test' ); //password
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' ); //mysql hostname
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19. Nginx Configuration
server {
listen 80; //listen on port 80
root /var/www/html/wordpress; //the root directory for the wordpress app
index index.php; //the index file (main entry point)
server_name www.mylocalwp.com mylocalwp.com; //the domain name
location / { //defines how requests are processed for different URIs and resources
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ .php$ { //serve the php request
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
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20. Demo
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21. Custom Deployment Advantages
● Custom components.
● Better Design flexibility.
● Multiple applications on one server.
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22. Custom Deployment Disadvantages
● Not suitable for production.
● Unscalable.
● Single point of failure.
● Improper environment isolation.
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23. Building the Infrastructure on AWS
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24. Architecture Considerations
● Security.
● Availability (fault Tolerance).
● Scalability.
● Visibility: Logging, monitoring, tracing.
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25. Virtual Private Cluster
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26. Launch the Instances
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27. Load Balancing
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28. Architecture Considerations
● Security.
● Availability (fault Tolerance).
● Scalability.
● Visibility: Logging, monitoring, tracing.
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29. Security
● VPC Level:
○ Ingress Traffic Control: Network traffic originating from outside of the VPC
○ Egress Traffic Control: Network traffic leaving a VPC
● Load Balancer Level:
○ Security Groups: A security group acts as a virtual stateful firewall that controls the
traffic
○ Host/Path/Port based Routing
● Instances Level:
○ Security Groups
○ Deployed in private subnets
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30. AWS ALB Routing Policies
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Example of AWS ALB Routing Policies, AWS Documentation

31. Availability
● Instance Level: Launching replicas
● Load Balancer Level: managed by AWS
● Availability Zone: Spreading instances across multiple availability zones
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32. Scalability
● Ability to scale instances on demand, automatically, with a few clicks of
a button.
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33. Visibility
● Logging: AWSLogs driver
● Monitoring:
○ Instances: CPU Utilization, Network in, Network Out, etc.
○ Load Balancer: Target Response Time, 4XX Count, 5XX Count, etc.
● Tracing:
○ The load balancer saves important information of each request.
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34. Cost Estimation
AWS Cost Calculator
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35. Published Articles
● Proposed Infrastructure Setup on AWS for a Microservices
Architecture.
○ Chapter 1: Introduction and Design Considerations
○ Chapter 2: Overview of the Infrastructure and Components
○ Chapter 3: Deployment Strategy for Microservices
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