How to Setup WordPress with Nginx and Cloudflare on Ubuntu

Why set this up?

You want this setup to protect your site from hackers and to ensure your pages load quickly for visitors. It adds a professional layer of security and performance optimization to your blog or business site.

What happens when done?

Once finished, your website will be fully encrypted with an SSL certificate, hosted on a fast Nginx server, and protected by Cloudflare’s global network.

How to set up Cloudflare

Setting up Cloudflare is a key step to protect and speed up your website, especially when using WordPress with Nginx and Cloudflare on Ubuntu.

https://dash.cloudflare.com/sign-up

Enter your email and create an account.

After logging in, click the button to add a site.

Type in your domain name. registered

Cloudflare will look for your current domain settings. If found, it will import them automatically.

Choose the free plan for this setup.

Cloudflare will give you two nameservers. You must log in to your domain provider’s website and replace your old nameservers with these new ones.

For example, if you use a service like Google Domains, find the custom nameserver section and paste the Cloudflare addresses there.

After saving, return to Cloudflare and wait for the status to show as Active. This can take up to an hour.

Once active, you will see your DNS records.

Click the Crypto tab and set your SSL to Full (strict).

Scroll down to Origin Certificates and click to create one. These help encrypt the connection between Cloudflare and your server.

Let Cloudflare generate the key and click Next.

Note: You will need admin privileges (sudo) to create these files on your server.

sudo nano /etc/ssl/private/cloudflare_key_example.com.pem

sudo nano /etc/ssl/certs/cloudflare_example.com.pem

Download the Cloudflare Origin Pull certificate here: Set up authenticated Origin pulls · Cloudflare SSL docs

sudo nano /etc/ssl/certs/origin-pull-ca.pem

You should now have three files on your server. Keep these safe.

In the Cloudflare Crypto settings, turn on “Always use HTTPS.”

Enable “Authenticated Origin Pulls” and “Opportunistic Encryption.”

Enable “Automatic HTTPS Rewrites.”

Go to Page Rules and create a rule to always use HTTPS for your domain.

How to install and configure WordPress

1Install Nginx

Requires admin privileges.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Use these commands to manage the service:

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Test if it works by visiting your server’s address in a browser.

2Install MariaDB

MariaDB is a popular database that WordPress needs to store all your site’s information, and you’ll 💿 install it on your Ubuntu server next.

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client

Manage the service:

sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo systemctl enable mysql.service

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Secure your database:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Test the installation:

sudo mysql -u root -p

3Install PHP

WordPress runs on PHP, so 💿 installing the right version on your Ubuntu system is crucial for your site to function correctly.

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

sudo apt update

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip

Update the configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
date.timezone = America/Chicago

Restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Create a test file to verify PHP:

sudo nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Visit the file in your browser to see the info page.

4Create the Database

Requires admin privileges.

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE wpdatabase;

CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

GRANT ALL ON wpdatabase.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

5Download WordPress

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

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/example.com/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/example.com/

6Configure Nginx for WordPress

Configuring Nginx tells your web server how to handle requests for your WordPress site, making sure it runs smoothly.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/html/example.com;
    index  index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/cloudflare_example.com.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/cloudflare_key_example.com.pem;
    ssl_client_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/origin-pull-ca.pem;
    ssl_verify_client on;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

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

    location ~ .php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
         include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

7Enable the site

Enabling your WordPress site with Nginx connects everything, allowing you to finish the setup wizard and start using your new website.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Visit your domain in a browser to finish the WordPress setup wizard.

Enter the database details you created earlier.

Create your admin account.

Finally, 💿 install the official Cloudflare plugin on your WordPress dashboard to finish the integration.

Summary

By following these steps, you have successfully secured your website with Cloudflare SSL, set up a high-performance Nginx web server, and installed WordPress with a dedicated MariaDB database on your Ubuntu Linux system.

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