Install WordPress with Docker Nginx Reverse Proxy to Apache with SSL

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Install WordPress with Docker Nginx Reverse Proxy to Apache with SSL – Google Cloud. In this guide you are going to learn how to make a best performance setup with Docker, Docker Compose, Nginx, Apache, PHP7.4 and Let’s Encrypt to run WordPress on Ubuntu 20.04.

For WordPress database we will use a high performance external database server provided by Google (Cloud SQL).

Table of Contents

This setup is tested on Google Cloud Platform with a Compute Engine with a 1.75 GB RAM Machine running Ubuntu 20.04 boot image and a Cloud SQL instance with MySQL 5.7.

You can also make this setup in any cloud services like AWS or Azure or DigitalOcean or any dedicated servers.

Prerequisites

Running Compute Engine, see the Setting up Compute Engine Instance.
Follow this guide to Install Docker on Ubuntu 20.04.
For managing containers install Docker Compose on your server.
A n external database server, see how to set up Cloud SQL in Google Cloud.
Configure DNS to point the domain to the server to install SSL.

Once you have all the prerequisites done you can proceed to make the setup and configure WordPress.

Create Docker Compose YML File

SSH inside your server and start by creating a docker-compose.yml file.

sudo nano docker-compose.yml

Copy the entire contents below and paste it in the file.

Make sure to replace the below mentioned environment variables.

version: "3.8"
services:
    wordpress:
        container_name: wordpress
        image: wordpress:php7.4-apache
        restart: always
        stdin_open: true
        tty: true
        environment:
            WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: CLOUDSQL_IP
            WORDPRESS_DB_USER: database_user
            WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: database_user_password
            WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: database_name
        volumes:
            - ./wordpress:/var/www/html
       
    nginx:
        container_name: nginx
        image: nginx:latest
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
            - 80:80
            - 443:443
        volumes:
            - ./nginx/conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d
            - ./certbot/conf:/etc/nginx/ssl
            - ./certbot/data:/var/www/html

    certbot:
        container_name: certbot
        image: certbot/certbot:latest
        command: certonly --webroot --webroot-path=/var/www/html --email [email protected] --agree-tos --no-eff-email -d domain.com -d www.domain.com
        volumes:
            - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
            - ./certbot/logs:/var/log/letsencrypt
            - ./certbot/data:/var/www/html

Hit CTRL-X followed by Y and ENTER to save and exit the file.

Here are the configuration details.

version: Compose file version which is compatible with the Docker Engine. You can check compatibility here.
services: here we have 3 services named wordpress, nginx and certbot.
image: We use latest WordPress with PHP7.4, Apache, Nginx and Certbot images available in Docker hub.
volumes:
- wordpress: we have configured this directory to be synced with the directory we wish to use as the web root inside the container.
- conf.d: here we will place the Nginx configuration file to be synced with the default Nginx conf.d folder inside the container.
- cedtbot/conf: this is where we will receive the SSL certificate and this will be synced with the folder we wish to inside the container.
- ports: configure the container to listen upon the listed ports.
- command: the command used to receive the SSL certificate.
environment: here we list all the environment variables that are available for the WordPress image.
- CLOUDSQL_IP: Replace it with your external database IP address.
- database_user: Replace it with your database user name
- database_user_password: Replace it with your database user password.
- database_name: Replace it with your database name.

Configure Nginx

As per the docker-compose.yml configuration we need to create the default.conf file inside the nginx/conf directory.

Create the directory besides your docker-compose.yml file to hold the configuration file.

sudo mkdir -p nginx/conf

Create a file named default.conf.

sudo nano nginx/conf/default.conf

Place the following configurations, here we use reverse proxy configuration to wordpress container running Apache.

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

    server_name domain.com www.domain.com;

    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php;

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

    location / {
        try_files $uri @apache;
    }

    location ~ ^/\.user\.ini {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~*  \.(svg|svgz)$ {
        types {}
        default_type image/svg+xml;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location @apache {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress:80;
    }

    location ~[^?]*/$ {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress:80;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress:80;
    }

    location ~/\. {
        deny all;
        access_log off;
        log_not_found off;
    }
}

Hit CTRL-X followed by Y and ENTER to save and exit the file.

Now you have your docker compose configuration and your Nginx configuration.

Start Containers

Start the containers using the following command, you will receive the SSL certificates once the containers are started.

docker-compose up -d

Once all containers are started you will see two additional directories certbot and wordpress created alongside your docker-compose.yml file.

The directory wordpress holds all your WordPress website source code.

The directory certbot holds all the files related to your SSL certificates.

To view the containers you can execute the following command.

docker-compose ps

Configure Let’s Encrypt SSL

As you have received the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate you can configure HTTPS and setup redirection to HTTPS.

Edit the default.conf and make the following changes.

sudo nano nginx/conf/default.conf

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

    server_name domain.com www.domain;

    return 301 https://www.domain.com$request_uri;
}

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

    server_name domain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/live/domain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/live/domain.com/privkey.pem;
    
    return 301 https://www.domain.com$request_uri;
}

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

    server_name www.domain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/live/domain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/live/domain.com/privkey.pem;

    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php;

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

    location / {
        try_files $uri @apache;
    }

    location ~ ^/\.user\.ini {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~*  \.(svg|svgz)$ {
        types {}
        default_type image/svg+xml;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location @apache {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress:80;
    }

    location ~[^?]*/$ {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress:80;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress:80;
    }

    location ~/\. {
        deny all;
        access_log off;
        log_not_found off;
    }
}

Hit CTRL-X followed by Y and ENTER to save and exit the file.

Now restart the Nginx service to load the new configurations.

docker-compose restart nginx

Now you can check your domain name. You will get a redirection to HTTPS and you will see the WordPress installation page to complete the installation.

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Conclusion

Now you have learned how to install and setup WordPress with Nginx, Apache, PHP 7.4 and Let’s Encrypt with Docker on Ubuntu 20.04.

Thanks for your time. If you face any problem or any feedback, please leave a comment below.

3 Reviews 3 Reviews

Nigel says:

Under Site Health Status I get:

The REST API request failed due to an error.
Error: cURL error 7: Failed to connect to mydomain port 443: Connection refused (http_request_failed)

Thanks

Andre says:

Hello guys!

Well, first of all I would like to say that your website has become a reference for me.
Thank you very much for sharing so didactically valuable and updated information. They are generous!

But, I have a beginner’s question:

I even understand why port 80 conflicts with Apache and Nginx, but normally I stop port 80 from Apache or Nginx. Do you have any other solution, say that you have “good technical practice”?

Thank you!

André

Cloudbooklet says:

Hi Andre,

Thank you for using Cloudbooklet. While you use Docker containers for Nginx and Apache the port 80 wont get any conflict because they the two web servers are in separate containers and they both can be accessible using port 80. If you dont use container setup then you will face the conflict.