Tutorial - CMS, manually install WordPress
How to manually install WordPress
Last updated 16th November 2022
Objective
This tutorial will help you install WordPress CMS (Content Management System) manually in just a few steps.
OVHcloud provides services that you are responsible for with regard to their configuration and management. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that they function properly.
This tutorial is designed to help you with common tasks. Nevertheless, we recommend contacting a specialist provideror the WordPress support if you encounter any difficulties. We will not be able to assist you. You can find more information in the Go further section of this guide.
To install WordPress automatically from your OVHcloud Control Panel, please refer to our documentation on installing a 1-click module.
To manually install another CMS (Joomla!, Drupal, PrestaShop), please refer to our documentation on installing a CMS manually.
Requirements
- An OVHcloud web hosting plan that contains at least one database.
- A domain name
- Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
Instructions
Step 1 - Prepare for installation
To install the CMS WordPress on your web hosting plan, you will need to make some preparations.
1.1 - Set up the root folder
The root folder is the directory of the hosting plan in which your CMS will be installed. We recommend choosing an empty directory to avoid conflicts with your other multisites.
Consult our documentation that describes how to add a multisite on your web hosting plan, to define the root folder to use for your WordPress.
If you define a root folder name that does not exist on your web hosting plan, it will be automatically created in your web hosting plan’s FTP storage space.
1.2 - Check the domain name configuration
- Make sure that the domain name you will use to access your WordPress, as well as its subdomain “www”, point to the IP address of your web hosting plan.
To retrieve the IP address of your Web Hosting plan, log in to your OVHcloud Control Panel. Go to the Web Cloud section and select your hosting from Hosting plans.
In the General information box, you will find the IP address of your web hosting plan under IPv4.
If your domain name’s active DNS zone is managed in your OVHcloud Control Panel, compare your hosting plan’s IP address with the one in your domain’s DNS zone, using our OVHcloud DNS zone documentation.
If you have activated the CDN or Country IP options for your domain name, use the appropriate IP address by referring to our documentation: IP address list for Web Hosting clusters.
If you are unable to perform these checks, contact the hosting provider for your active DNS zone to update the configuration of your domain name.
Any changes you make to your DNS zone can take between 4 and 24 hours to propagate.
- Get the information you need to log in to your web hosting plan’s FTP space.
- Retrieve access to your Web Hosting plan’s database if it already exists, or create one using our documentation.
1.3 - Install the free FTP client "FileZilla"
You can find the download link for FileZilla and a tutorial on how to use it in our documentation on Using FileZilla with your OVHcloud hosting.
1.4 - Prepare a database
CMSs need a database to work. Our Web Hosting solutions include them.
Use our documentation to create a database from your web hosting plan.
Once you have created the database, retrieve the connection settings (server, database name, user name, and password) and save them for step 3 in this guide.
If you would like to install your WordPress CMS with an existing database, you can retrieve the connection settings for your database directly from the website files linked to it.
If this is also a CMS like the one you need to install, you can use this guide to identify the configuration files in your FTP storage space.
Then log in to your database to list the prefixes of the tables already inside. This is to avoid choosing a table "prefix" already used by another of your sites.
To connect to your database linked to your Web Hosting plan, see this guide.
Step 2 - start manual installation
2.1 - Retrieve WordPress source files
Go to the official WordPress website to download the CMS source files.
On the download page, note the PHP version and the MySQL or MariaDB version required to run WordPress.
Then configure the PHP version on your web hosting plan by referring to our guide on changing PHP versions of a web hosting plan.
If your hosting's PHP version already meets the minimum requirement for WordPress, no changes are necessary.
If you have other websites hosted on your Web Hosting plan, check that they are compatible with the PHP version you choose for your WordPress.
2.2 - Unzip downloaded source files to new folder
The downloaded file is in a compressed archive format. Create a folder named WordPress on your computer and then uncompress the contents of the downloaded file into the WordPress folder.
To do this, open the folder containing the compressed file, right-click on the file and select “Extract all... ”.
Enter the WordPress folder as destination to extract your files.
2.3 - Move the source files from the local folder to the root folder on your web hosting plan
Once you have unpacked the files in your WordPress folder, log in to your storage space via FTP using the Filezilla client. Then copy the files from the WordPress folder to the root folder you defined on your hosting in step 1 of this guide.
We strongly recommend that you use an empty root folder to avoid conflicts with another site. Ensure that the destination folder does not contain any items before moving the files.
If your root folder was not created automatically during the actions described in step 1, you can create it via Filezilla.
It may take a few minutes to upload all the files to your web hosting plan.
Once the transfer is complete, check that all the elements in the local WordPress folder have been correctly transferred to the root folder on your web hosting plan.
Special Case: If you have limited internet speed and/or a hosting plan Pro or higher, you can use an SSH connection to upload the WordPress source files to your web hosting plan’s storage space.
To log in to your hosting plan via SSH, please refer to our guide: Accessing a web hosting plan via SSH.
Once you have logged in via SSH, run the following commands.
- Open the root folder where you want to install WordPress on your web hosting plan:
cd NameOfYourTargetFolder
- Download the WordPress source files directly to your root folder:
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
- Uncompress the WordPress source files in your root folder:
tar xvf latest.tar.gz
- A wordpress folder is created in your root folder. Move its contents to the base of your root folder:
mv wordpress/* ./
- Delete the empty wordpress folder:
rmdir ./wordpress/
- Delete the archive file latest.tar.gz:
rm -f latest.tar.gz
Step 3 - Finalise the installation
Before you continue with the installation, clear your Internet browser cache to avoid any errors.
3.1 - Access your WordPress website via your browser
Enter your domain name into the address bar of your web browser.
If the WordPress source files have been correctly placed in your root folder, the WordPress page for selecting the language appears:
Select the site language and click Continue.
3.2 - Link your WordPress and your database
WordPress will ask you to retrieve the login details for your database:
Having your database login details ready (if necessary, read Step 1.4 in this guide), click on Let's go! to continue.
The following page appears:
Enter the information requested for the database:
-
Database name: this name was defined when the database was created in the OVHcloud Control Panel.
-
ID: it is identical to the database name if you are using a database included with your web hosting plan.
-
Password: it was sent to you by email when the database was created. You may have modified it in the meantime.
-
Database address: Enter the name of your database server, in the installation email or in your OVHcloud Control Panel.
The server name of a database included with your web hosting plan usually has this form: NameOfYourDatabase.mysql.db.
- Table prefix: if you are installing with a brand new database, enter your preferred “prefix”. If you are using a database that is already in use by another website, please refer to Step 1.4 of this guide to avoid entering a table "prefix" that is already in use in your database.
Click Submit to validate the database connection information.
If everything went well, the following page appears:
Click Launch Installation.
3.3 - Configure administrative access to the backend of your WordPress and provide your admin email address
Once you have set it up, WordPress will ask you for information on your future website and to set up your Administrator account.
This will give you access to the administration panel (backend) of your WordPress CMS.
Enter the information requested:
- Site title: Enter your website’s title.
- Username: Define the Administrator login for WordPress.
- Password: Set the password for this Administrator account.
- Your Email: Enter a valid email address.
- Search engine visibility: Tick this box to prevent search engine bots from referencing your WordPress site.
Click Install WordPress as soon as you have entered all of the information correctly.
3.4 - Finalise the manual installation and test Administrator access
Installation is complete if the following page is displayed:
At this stage, simply click on the Log in button to test access to the admin panel of your new WordPress CMS. Enter the credentials created previously in step 3.3.
OVHcloud support does not include third-party solutions such as WordPress. Support teams are therefore unable to assist you with using or configuring a CMS.
For support of this type, please use the forums dedicated to the WordPress software.
Once connected, the following page appears:
You can now start creating the content for your WordPress website!
Go further
For specialised services (SEO, development, etc.), contact OVHcloud partners.
If you would like assistance using and configuring your OVHcloud solutions, please refer to our support offers.
Join our community of users on https://community.ovh.com/en/.
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