I've spent many years installing and configuring WordPress blogs on EC2, and here's generally how things start.

Manual Install

First download these tools:

# Apache2    => httpd
# PHP        => php
# MySQL Ext  => php-mysql
# MySQL      => mysql-server
# SSL Module => mod_ssl
# OpenSSL    => openssl

Log in as Super User

sudo su

Use Yum package manager to start installing these LAMP stack apps.

yum install httpd php php-mysql mysql-server mod_ssl openssl

From there, I then have to configure Apache, PHP, MySQL, SSL to then get around to these commands:

Download WordPress

wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Unpack WordPress

tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz

For those of you who want me to write a post about doing a manual install, please comment below. Otherwise, here's a right, reliable way to install WordPress using a Bitnami pre-packaged cartridge.

One-Click Install

Step 0 - Register for AWS

Register for Amazon Web Services.

Step 1 - Install Bitnami

Install this Bitnami marketplace package.

Once you install WordPress, review your Bitnami system logs found in EC2 system logs.

Go to Actions > Instance Settings > > Get System Log to find the auto-generated password. This password is what you will use to log into the WordPress Admin.

get-system-log

Scroll down until you see something like this.

bitnami-password

This password is how you access the WordPress admin portal.

# http://www.mywebsite.com/wp-login.php
User: user
Pass: < password found in Bitnami System Logs>

Step 2 - Create a PEM

While installing the package, create a <key name>.pem file and download it to your local computer. This is the key you will use to ssh into your app.

Step 3 - Modify the PEM permissions

Change the permissions on the .pem file

chmod 600 /path/to/<keyname>.pem

Step 4 - SSH into EC2

SSH into your EC2 instance

ssh -i ~/path/to/<key name>.pem bitnami@ip.address

sudo /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/bnconfig --disable_banner 1

Step 6 - Change your WordPress site URL

sudo /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/bnconfig --machine_hostname <sub.domain.extension>

WordPress Permissions

If WordPress ever tells you to update your permissions for /uploads, here is how to do it.

sudo chown -R daemon:daemon /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress/htdocs/wp-content/uploads

Part 2 - Manually Installing SSL

The next entry will help you manually install an SSL certificate from GoDaddy.

Read More

Troubleshooting

Getting WordPress Admin Password (Alt Method)

If you are having a hard time finding the default password to the WordPress Admin, the second option is to SSH into your EC2 instance and type within the command-line:

cat bitnami_application_password

Related

If you want to do more things to your Bitnami install, read these:

Resources