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Creating a WordPress website using Terraform

Written by
Updated at November 26, 2024

To create and set up a WordPress website using Terraform:

  1. Prepare your cloud.
  2. Create an infrastructure.
  3. Configure WordPress.

If you no longer need the resources you created, delete them.

Prepare your cloud

Sign up for Yandex Cloud and create a billing account:

  1. Go to the management console and log in to Yandex Cloud or create an account if you do not have one yet.
  2. On the Yandex Cloud Billing page, make sure you have a billing account linked and it has the ACTIVE or TRIAL_ACTIVE status. If you do not have a billing account, create one.

If you have an active billing account, you can go to the cloud page to create or select a folder for your infrastructure to operate in.

Learn more about clouds and folders.

Make sure the selected folder has a cloud network with a subnet in at least one availability zone. To do this, select VPC on the folder page. If the list contains a network, click its name to see the list of subnets. If the subnets or network you need are not listed, create them.

The cost of hosting a website in WordPress includes:

Create an infrastructure

With Terraform, you can quickly create a cloud infrastructure in Yandex Cloud and manage it using configuration files. These files store the infrastructure description written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). If you change the configuration files, Terraform automatically detects which part of your configuration is already deployed, and what should be added or removed.

Terraform is distributed under the Business Source License. The Yandex Cloud provider for Terraform is distributed under the MPL-2.0 license.

For more information about the provider resources, see the documentation on the Terraform website or mirror website.

To create an infrastructure using Terraform:

  1. Install Terraform, get the authentication credentials, and specify the source for installing the Yandex Cloud provider (see Configure a provider, step 1).

  2. Prepare files with the infrastructure description.

    1. Create a directory for files.
    2. Download the archive (1 KB).
    3. Unpack the archive to the directory. The wordpress.tf file should be added to the directory.

    1. Create a directory for files.

    2. Create the wordpress.tf configuration file in the directory:

      wordpress.tf
      terraform {
  required_providers {
    yandex = {
      source  = "yandex-cloud/yandex"
      version = ">= 0.47.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "yandex" {
  zone = "ru-central1-a"
}

resource "yandex_compute_image" "wordpress" {
  source_family = "wordpress"
}

resource "yandex_compute_disk" "boot-disk" {
  name     = "bootvmdisk"
  type     = "network-hdd"
  zone     = "ru-central1-a"
  size     = "20"
  image_id = yandex_compute_image.wordpress.id
}

resource "yandex_compute_instance" "vm-wordpress" {
  name        = "wordpress"
  platform_id = "standard-v3"

  resources {
    core_fraction = 20
    cores         = 2
    memory        = 1
  }

  boot_disk {
    disk_id = yandex_compute_disk.boot-disk.id
  }

  network_interface {
    subnet_id          = yandex_vpc_subnet.subnet-1.id
    nat                = true
    security_group_ids = ["${yandex_vpc_security_group.sg-1.id}"]
  }

  metadata = {
    ssh-keys = "<username>:<SSH_key_contents>"
  }
}

resource "yandex_vpc_security_group" "sg-1" {
  name        = "wordpress"
  description = "Description for security group"
  network_id  = yandex_vpc_network.network-1.id

  ingress {
    protocol       = "TCP"
    description    = "ext-http"
    v4_cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    port           = 80
  }

  ingress {
    protocol       = "TCP"
    description    = "ext-https"
    v4_cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    port           = 443
  }

  egress {
    protocol       = "ANY"
    description    = "any"
    v4_cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }
}

resource "yandex_vpc_network" "network-1" {
  name = "network1"
}

resource "yandex_vpc_subnet" "subnet-1" {
  name           = "subnet1"
  zone           = "ru-central1-a"
  network_id     = yandex_vpc_network.network-1.id
  v4_cidr_blocks = ["192.168.1.0/24"]
}

resource "yandex_dns_zone" "zone-1" {
  name        = "example-zone-1"
  description = "Public zone"
  zone        = "example.com."
  public      = true
}

resource "yandex_dns_recordset" "rs-1" {
  zone_id = yandex_dns_zone.zone-1.id
  name    = "example.com."
  ttl     = 600
  type    = "A"
  data    = ["${yandex_compute_instance.vm-wordpress.network_interface.0.nat_ip_address}"]
}

resource "yandex_dns_recordset" "rs-2" {
  zone_id = yandex_dns_zone.zone-1.id
  name    = "www"
  ttl     = 600
  type    = "CNAME"
  data    = ["example.com"]
}

    For more information about the parameters of resources used in Terraform, see the provider documentation:

  3. Under metadata, enter the metadata for creating a VM instance: <username>:<SSH_key_contents>. Regardless of the username specified, the key is assigned to the user set in the WordPress image configuration. Such users vary depending on an image. For more information, see Keys processed in public images.

  4. Create resources:

    1. In the terminal, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.

    2. Make sure the configuration file is correct using the command:

      terraform validate

      If the configuration is correct, the following message is returned:

      Success! The configuration is valid.

    3. Run the command:

      terraform plan

      The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes are made at this step. If the configuration contains errors, Terraform will point them out.

    4. Apply the configuration changes:

      terraform apply

    5. Confirm the changes: type yes in the terminal and press Enter.

Configure WordPress

To configure WordPress:

After the wordpress VM's status changes to RUNNING, do the following:

  1. Under Network on the VM page in the management console, find the VM's public IP address and enter it in the A resource record you previously created.

    add-ssh

  2. Open the domain name you configured or the VM's address in the browser.

  3. Select the language and click Continue.

    choose-language

  4. Fill out information to access the website:

    1. Enter any name for the website (for example, yc-wordpress).
    2. Specify the username to be used to log in to the admin panel (for example, yc-user).
    3. Enter the password to be used to log in to the admin panel.
    4. Enter your email address.

    credentials

  5. Click Install WordPress.

  6. If the installation is successful, click Log in.

    login

  7. Log in to the website with the username and password specified in the previous steps. This will open the admin panel where you can start working with your website.

  8. Make sure the website is accessible by opening the VM's public IP address in your browser.

How to delete the resources you created

To stop paying for the resources you created:

  1. Open the wordpress.tf configuration file and delete from it the description of the infrastructure you created.

  2. Apply the changes:

    1. In the terminal, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.

    2. Make sure the configuration file is correct using the command:

      terraform validate

      If the configuration is correct, the following message is returned:

      Success! The configuration is valid.

    3. Run the command:

      terraform plan

      The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes are made at this step. If the configuration contains errors, Terraform will point them out.

    4. Apply the configuration changes:

      terraform apply

    5. Confirm the changes: type yes in the terminal and press Enter.

See also

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