Setting Up Multiple WordPress Sites on Virtual Ubuntu Server

For advanced users looking to efficiently manage multiple WordPress sites on an Ubuntu server, the following guide provides a streamlined, copy-paste sequence of commands. This comprehensive setup will handle essential tasks such as updating and upgrading your system, installing necessary packages, configuring virtual hosts, setting directory permissions, and creating MySQL databases and users. By following these steps, you’ll have a robust and scalable environment for hosting multiple WordPress sites with minimal hassle.

Step 1: Update and Install Necessary Packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y 
sudo apt install -y apache2 mysql-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

Step 2: Create Directories and Download WordPress

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/localpress
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/templatepress

cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
sudo tar -xzf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/localpress --strip-components=1
sudo tar -xzf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/templatepress --strip-components=1

Step 3: Set Permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/localpress /var/www/templatepress
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/localpress /var/www/templatepress

Step 4: Configure Virtual Hosts

sudo tee /etc/apache2/sites-available/localpress.conf <<EOL
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin admin@localpress.local
    ServerName localpress.local
    DocumentRoot /var/www/localpress
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/localpress_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/localpress_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
EOL

sudo tee /etc/apache2/sites-available/templatepress.conf <<EOL
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin admin@templatepress.local
    ServerName templatepress.local
    DocumentRoot /var/www/templatepress
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/templatepress_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/templatepress_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
EOL

sudo a2ensite localpress.conf
sudo a2ensite templatepress.conf
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5: Create MySQL Databases and Users

sudo mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE localpress_db;"
sudo mysql -e "CREATE DATABASE templatepress_db;"
sudo mysql -e "CREATE USER 'localpress_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';"
sudo mysql -e "CREATE USER 'templatepress_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';"
sudo mysql -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON localpress_db.* TO 'localpress_user'@'localhost';"
sudo mysql -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON templatepress_db.* TO 'templatepress_user'@'localhost';"
sudo mysql -e "FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Step 6: Update Hosts File

sudo tee -a /etc/hosts <<EOL
127.0.0.1 localpress.local
127.0.0.1 templatepress.local
EOL

Step 7: Configure WordPress Files

cd /var/www/localpress
sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
sudo nano wp-config.php

Update the following in wp-config.php:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'localpress_db' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'localpress_user' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

For templatepress:

cd /var/www/templatepress
sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
sudo nano wp-config.php

Update the following in wp-config.php:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'templatepress_db' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'templatepress_user' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

http://localpress.local
http://templatepress.local