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Assignment 1: Installing WordPress On A VM

Purpose of Assignments in OPS705​

Unlike labs, assignments have minimal instructions. You are given specifications on what the assignment needs, and you must rely on your previous work in the course to complete them. If the assignment doesn't have the command you need, you can find it in your previous labs.

And don't be afraid to do a little research!

Assignments in OPS705 are built as an assessment of your ability to meet the course objectives. As such, your professor is unable to provide detailed help.

Objectives of Assignment 1​

In this assignment, you will install a WordPress blog from scratch on a new Azure-based Linux VM.

All components necessary to run the application will be directly inside this virtual machine. In essence, you will be creating a LAMP stack:

  • Linux
  • Apache
  • MySQL
  • PHP

This is what you'll need to get Wordpress working.

Hint: Many of these commands require elevated root privileges.

Azure Linux VM Configuration​

Create a new, third Ubuntu Linux VM with the following specifications:

  1. Virtual machine name: assign1-username
  2. Virtual machine size: Standard_B1s
  3. IP address: Public

All other options, set up as you did with your previous Azure Linux VM.

Post-Installation Setup​

  1. Fully update the system.
  2. Only allow public-key authentication.
  3. SSH must only listen on port 22222.
  4. Install the prof key into your new VM under your regular user.

Apache Configuration​

Install apache on your new VM as you have in previous labs. Use default port 80 for the web server.

MySQL Database Configuration​

MariaDB Server Installation​

  1. Install the mariadb-server software and configure its systemd service. Use the default port 3306.

  2. The service starts up automatically. You can find it with: systemctl status mariadb

  3. Once the database is up, run the command and follow the defaults: 

    mysql_secure_installation

    (Don't forget to set a root password during this process!)

  4. With your new password, log in to your database with the following command: 

    mysql -h localhost -u root -p

    (Type your password in the prompt)

Create Separate User and Database for Wordpress​

Now that you're logged in, you have to create a separate user and database for Wordpress.

  1. Create the new database: 

    CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

  2. Create the new user: 

    CREATE USER wordpressadmin@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

    (Change the password to something else!)

  3. Give your new user privileges to that database: 

    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO wordpressadmin@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

  4. Tell MariaDB to reload privileges: 

    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Use the database hostname, user, and password created in this section's Step 1 and Step 2 for your connector information in the WordPress setup later on. Do NOT use root with WordPress.

PHP Installation​

  1. Install PHP: 

    apt install php

  2. Install the PHP plugin for MySQL:

    apt install php-mysql

After the packages are installed, restart the apache service and mariadb services.

WordPress Website Configuration​

To install WordPress, you'll need to download the zip file from online, unzip it, and move the files into your apache web directory.

Unzip and Move Wordpress Files​

  1. Download the zip with the following command: 

    wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

  2. Unzip the file: 

    tar -zxvf latest.tar.gz

  3. Copy the contents of the new directory wordpress into: /var/www/html/

    (Don't move the directory itself! Remember your Lab 3 CLI work.)

  4. Delete the Ubuntu Apache test page: index.html

Set File Permissions​

  1. Give www-data (your webserver) ownership of all WordPress files: 

    chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

  2. Give www-data proper permissions of WordPress files: 

    chmod -R 775 /var/www/html

Wordpress Database Connector Page​

  1. Paste the URL hostname of your VM into a browser on your local machine to connect to your Wordpress webpage. (You should not have to add wordpress to the end of your URL. If you do, go back and check where your files are on your server.)
  2. You should see the WordPress database connector page.
  3. For Database Name, write it out. What you see in the field by default doesn't get sent, so type in, manually: wordpress
  4. Use localhost as your Database Host.
  5. Use the username and password you created for your database earlier here. (Again, do not use root.)

Wordpress Site Configuration​

During Wordpress setup, after the database connection page, use the following values:

  • Site Title: Full Name's Assignment 1
  • Username: senecausername
  • Password: insertpassword
  • Your Email: senecaemailaddress

WordPress Blog​

Customize your blog by choosing a different theme from the default. Choose a WordPress.org theme from the menu.

Create three blog entries of the following topics:

  1. Have you ever installed services like this outside of OPS705? If so, elaborate.
  2. Which types of databases have you used in the DAD program so far? Which has been your favourite?
  3. What was the most difficult part of this assignment for you?

Firewall Configuration​

Once you've finished setting up your WordPress blog, you must lock down your Ubuntu firewall.

Requirements:

  1. Must use iptables, not ufw.
  2. Only the following INPUT traffic is allowed:
    1. RELATED,ESTABLISHED
    2. LOOPBACK/ALL
    3. SSH (on modified port)
    4. HTTP
    5. DNS
    6. DHCP
    7. Azure infrastructure
    8. Default policy for INPUT and FORWARD must be set to DROP
  3. The Wordpress blog page must load automatically when the VM is started up, at the FDQN of that VM.

Lab Submission​

As with previous labs, your work will be evaluated by accessing your site directly.

To formally submit, you must include the following:

  1. In the comment section of your submission, paste the URL (FQDN) of your new site.

Reminder: Once submitted, please shutdown your VM.