Hosting Your Own Website in 6 Easy Steps

We all are familiar with WordPress. It is a free and open source online content management feature, this allows us to host our websites with ease. WordPress is used by 63.5% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 43.2% of all websites. It combines simplicity for users and publishers with under-the-hood complexity for developers.

Supplies

Only a handful of things are required to get started

BrainyPi or Raspberry pi
Wifi/ ethernet
Micro SD card loaded with debian
keyboard
mouse
monitor
A domain name

Step 1: Start by Installing Docker

1.1 Before installing docker and its dependencies we need to do a few steps

sudo apt-get install \
   ca-certificates \
   curl \
   gnupg \
   lsb-release

1.2 Add docker's official GPG keys

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

1.3 Use the following command to set up the repository

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

1.4 Finally, install Docker Engine

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

1.5 Lastly, run this to test the installation

sudo docker run hello-world

Step 2: Creating Configuration Files

2.1 Start by creating a directory

mkdir ~/wordpress

2.2 Create nginx.conf file

nano ~/wordpress/nginx-conf/nginx.conf

2.3 Now paste the following in the file and make sure to change "your_domain" and "www.your_domain" to your domain name.

server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        server_name your_domain www.your_domain;

        index index.php index.html index.htm;

        root /var/www/html;

        location ~ /.well-known/acme-challenge {
                allow all;
                root /var/www/html;
        }

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

        location ~ \.php$ {
                try_files $uri =404;
                fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
                fastcgi_pass wordpress:9000;
                fastcgi_index index.php;
                include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
        }

        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }

        location = /favicon.ico { 
                log_not_found off; access_log off; 
        }
        location = /robots.txt { 
                log_not_found off; access_log off; allow all; 
        }
        location ~* \.(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$ {
                expires max;
                log_not_found off;
        }
}

2.4 Creating docker-compose

nano docker-compose.yml

2.5 creating env file

nano .env

2.6 paste the following in .env file and remember to change the values

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your_root_password
MYSQL_USER=your_wordpress_database_user
MYSQL_PASSWORD=your_wordpress_database_password

2.7 creating docker-compose( remember to change "your-emailaddress@gmail.com" to your email address)

version: '3'

services:
  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: db
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    environment:
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress
    volumes:
      - dbdata:/var/lib/mysql
    command: '--default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password'
    networks:
      - app-network

  wordpress:
    depends_on:
      - db
    image: wordpress:5.1.1-fpm-alpine
    container_name: wordpress
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    environment:
      - WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=db:3306
      - WORDPRESS_DB_USER=$MYSQL_USER
      - WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=$MYSQL_PASSWORD
      - WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - app-network

  webserver:
    depends_on:
      - wordpress
    image: nginx:1.15.12-alpine
    container_name: webserver
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
      - ./nginx-conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - certbot-etc:/etc/letsencrypt
    networks:
      - app-network

  certbot:
    depends_on:
      - webserver
    image: certbot/certbot
    container_name: certbot
    volumes:
      - certbot-etc:/etc/letsencrypt
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
    command: certonly --webroot --webroot-path=/var/www/html --email your-emailaddress@gmail.com --agree-tos --no-eff-email --force-renewal -d your_domain -d www.your_domain

volumes:
  certbot-etc:
  wordpress:
  dbdata:

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

2.8 Finally run

sudo docker-compose up -d

Step 3: Installing WordPress

3.1 open a browser and type

https://your_domain_name.example

3.2 Follow the on screen instructions to finish the installation.

Step 4: Installation Screen

4.1 Click on continue

Step 5: Installation

5.1 Enter the required details

Step 6: Admin Panel

6.1 This is your admin panel, here you can configure your WordPress site.

Introduction: Hosting Your Own Website in 6 Easy Steps