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  • Prerequisites
  • Step 1: Update the system
  • Step 2: Install Apache Web Server
  • Step 3: Install PHP with dependencies
  • Step 4: Install the MariaDB database server
  • Step 5: Create a WordPress database and user
  • Step 6. Download and Install WordPress
  • Step 7. Configure WordPress
  • Step 8: Create Apache Virtual Host File
  • Step 9: Setup SSL certificate for the domain
  • Step 10: Troubleshooting

How to Install WordPress with SSL on Debian 12

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Last updated 2 months ago

Prerequisites

  1. A server with Debian 12 OS

  2. User privileges: root or non-root user with sudo privileges (no sudo before commands)

Step 1: Update the system

Before we start with LAMP installation, we need to update the system packages to the latest versions available.

apt-get update -y && apt-get upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Apache Web Server

We will start with the Apache web server from the LAMP stack first. To install the Apache Web server execute the following command.

apt install apache2 -y

Once installed, start and enable the service.

systemctl enable apache2 && systemctl start apache2

Check if the service is up and running.

systemctl status apache2
You should receive the following output

â—Ź apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-03-26 07:09:32 UTC; 32min ago Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ Main PID: 43425 (apache2) Tasks: 7 (limit: 4531) Memory: 16.5M CPU: 310ms CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service

Step 3: Install PHP with dependencies

Next, we will install PHP and unzip for later use.

apt-get install php8.2 php8.2-cli php8.2-common php8.2-imap php8.2-redis php8.2-snmp php8.2-xml php8.2-mysqli php8.2-zip php8.2-mbstring php8.2-curl libapache2-mod-php unzip -y

Check the installed PHP version.

php -v
You should get the following output

PHP 8.2.28 (cli) (built: Mar 13 2025 18:21:38) (NTS) Copyright (c) The PHP Group Zend Engine v4.2.28, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v8.2.28, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Step 4: Install the MariaDB database server

The last of the LAMP stack is the MariaDB database server. Install, enable and start the service, and check the status with this command:

apt install mariadb-server -y && systemctl enable --now mariadb && systemctl status mariadb
You should receive the following output

â—Ź mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.11.11 database server Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-03-26 07:14:59 UTC; 38min ago Docs: man:mariadbd(8) https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/ Main PID: 45352 (mariadbd) Status: "Taking your SQL requests now..." Tasks: 9 (limit: 29909) Memory: 201.7M CPU: 1.350s CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service

Step 5: Create a WordPress database and user

Next, we need to create a WordPress database, the WordPress user, and grant the permissions for that user to the database.

mariadb
CREATE USER ''@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '';
CREATE DATABASE ;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON .* TO ''@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Remember to save the credentials for the “wpuser” as you may need it in the future Please be aware that this WordPress user has nothing to do with the actual WP admin user and is only used for backend administration.

Step 6. Download and Install WordPress

Before we install WordPress, we first need to download it in the default Apache document root.

cd /var/www/html && wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip && unzip latest.zip && rm latest.zip

Next command sets the correct ownership and permissions for the WordPress files and directories. It assigns www-data ownership, then applies 755 permissions for directories and 644 for files.

chown -R www-data:www-data wordpress/ && cd wordpress/ && find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \; -o -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Step 7. Configure WordPress

Rename the sample configuration file and open it for editing.

mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php && nano wp-config.php
Default should look similar to this

// ** Database settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define( 'DB_NAME', '' );

/** Database username */ define( 'DB_USER', '' );

/** Database password */ define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '' );

Change it to this

// ** Database settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // /** The name of the database for WordPress */ define( 'DB_NAME', '' );

/** Database username */ define( 'DB_USER', '' );

/** Database password */ define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '' );

Step 8: Create Apache Virtual Host File

Navigate to the Apache configuration directory and create/open wordpress.conf for editing.

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/ && nano wordpress.conf

Paste the following lines of code, save the file and close it.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName yourdomain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress

<Directory /var/www/html/wordpress>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enables the Apache rewrite module and the WordPress site configuration.

a2enmod rewrite && a2ensite wordpress.conf

Check the syntax.

apachectl -t
You should receive the following output

AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message Syntax OK

Reload the Apache configuration, restart the service, and check its status.

systemctl reload apache2 && systemctl restart apache2 && systemctl status apache2

Once the Apache service is restarted, you can finish your WordPress installation at .

Step 9: Setup SSL certificate for the domain

If you want to present your domain without the “Not secure” warning, you need to pull a SSL certificate. Let's Encrypt is a Certificate Authority that provides free TLS certificates, making it easy for websites to enable HTTPS encryption and create a more secure Internet for everyone. Let's Encrypt is a project of the nonprofit Internet Security Research Group.

Install Certbot and Dependencies Certbot is the recommended tool for obtaining and renewing SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt. First, install Certbot and the Apache plugin.

apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y

Obtain the SSL Certificate Now, let’s obtain and install the SSL certificate for your domain.

certbot --apache -d
This initiates the certificate setup

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to cancel):

Please read the Terms of Service at https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.5-February-24-2025.pdf. You must agree in order to register with the ACME server. Do you agree?

(Y)es/(N)o: Y

Would you be willing, once your first certificate is successfully issued, to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work encrypting the web, EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.

(Y)es/(N)o: N Account registered. Requesting a certificate for

Successfully received certificate. Certificate is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live//fullchain.pem Key is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live//privkey.pem This certificate expires on 2025-06-24. These files will be updated when the certificate renews. Certbot has set up a scheduled task to automatically renew this certificate in the background.

Deploying certificate Successfully deployed certificate for greendata.dk to /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress-le-ssl.conf Congratulations! You have successfully enabled HTTPS on

If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:

  • Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org/donate

  • Donating to EFF: https://eff.org/donate-le

Test SSL Installation After the process is complete, test the SSL setup by visiting your domain with

Certbot automatically sets up a cron job for renewing your certificate. However, you can verify this.

systemctl list-timers
This will show a list of timers
NEXT                        LEFT          LAST                        PASSED       UNIT                         ACTIVATES                        ­
Wed 2025-03-26 09:09:00 UTC 11min left    Wed 2025-03-26 08:39:14 UTC 18min ago    phpsessionclean.timer        phpsessionclean.service
Wed 2025-03-26 14:15:07 UTC 5h 17min left Tue 2025-03-25 14:15:06 UTC 18h ago      systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service

Wed 2025-03-26 18:11:29 UTC 9h left       Wed 2025-03-26 07:15:21 UTC 1h 42min ago apt-daily.timer              apt-daily.service
Thu 2025-03-27 00:00:00 UTC 15h left      Wed 2025-03-26 00:00:04 UTC 8h ago       dpkg-db-backup.timer         dpkg-db-backup.service
Thu 2025-03-27 00:00:00 UTC 15h left      Wed 2025-03-26 00:00:04 UTC 8h ago       logrotate.timer              logrotate.service
Thu 2025-03-27 06:46:35 UTC 21h left      Wed 2025-03-26 06:51:30 UTC 2h 6min ago  apt-daily-upgrade.timer      apt-daily-upgrade.service
Thu 2025-03-27 08:04:34 UTC 23h left      Wed 2025-03-26 04:15:20 UTC 4h 42min ago man-db.timer                 man-db.service
Sun 2025-03-30 03:10:16 UTC 3 days left   -                           -            e2scrub_all.timer            e2scrub_all.service
Mon 2025-03-31 01:04:27 UTC 4 days left   -                           -            fstrim.timer                 fstrim.service

Alternatively, you can manually test the renewal process.

sudo certbot renew --dry-run
This shows the simulated renewal process

root@site:/var/www/html/wordpress# sudo certbot renew --dry-run Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/.conf --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Account registered. Simulating renewal of an existing certificate for --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations, all simulated renewals succeeded: /etc/letsencrypt/live//fullchain.pem (success) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 10: Troubleshooting

If there’s an issue with the SSL certificate, check Apache’s error logs.

journalctl -u apache2