Introduction to Docker: Docker Container for WordPress is a platform that allows developers to package, distribute, and run applications in containers. Containers are lightweight and portable, ensuring applications run consistently across different environments. This guide will explore setting up a Docker container for WordPress, a popular content management system (CMS) and blogging platform. See more blog
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Why use Docker Container for WordPress ?
WordPress The ability to adapt Docker Container for WordPress offers several benefits:
Isolation: Containers isolate applications and dependencies, preventing conflicts with other software on the host system.
Container portability: Docker container be run on any computer with Docker installed. This makes it simple to move and install WordPress instances.
Version Control: You can specify the exact version of WordPress, PHP, and other dependencies, ensuring consistency across development, staging, and production environments.
Easy Scaling: Docker makes it simple to scale WordPress instances horizontally by spinning up additional containers.
Now, let’s create a Docker container for WordPress step by step:
1. Install Docker: If you haven’t already, install Docker on your proccess. You can follow your specific platform’s official Docker installation guide, available at https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/.
2. Create the Docker Network by establishing the Docker network is a good practice to enable communication between the WordPress container and a database container. Open your terminal and run the following command:
Code:
Docker network creates WordPress-net This command creates a bridge network named wordpress-net.
3. Set Up a MySQL Container: WordPress requires a database to store its data. We can use a MySQL container for this purpose. Run the following command to create a MySQL container within the WordPress-net network:
Code:
docker run -d \
--network wordpress-net \
--name mysql-container \
-e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your_root_password_here \
-e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress \
-e MYSQL_USER=wordpress \
-e MYSQL_PASSWORD=your_password_here \
mysql:5.7 Replace your_root_password_here and your_password_here with secure passwords of your choice. This command sets up a MySQL container with a database named “WordPress” and a user “WordPress” with the provided password.
4. Create a WordPress Configuration Directory: Create a directory on your host machine to store WordPress configuration files. This allows you to customize your WordPress installation and maintain configuration changes. For example:
Code:
mkdir wordpress-config 5. WordPress Docker Image: pull now WordPress Docker image out of Docker by using this command:
Code:
docker pull wordpress: latest
This command fetches the latest WordPress image from the official repository.
6. Configure WordPress: Create a wp-config.php file with the necessary WordPress configuration in your WordPress-config directory. Here’s a minimal example:
Code:
<?php
define( 'DB_NAME', 'WordPress' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'WordPress' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'your_password_here' );
define( 'DB_HOST,' 'mysql-container' );
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' ); Make sure to replace ‘your_password_here’ with the password you set for the MySQL user in the previous step. This configuration file tells WordPress how to connect to the MySQL database container.
7. Create a Docker Volume for WordPress Data: To persist WordPress data and ensure it survives container restarts or updates, create a Docker volume. The following command is needed:
Code:
Docker volume creates WordPress-data This command makes the Docker volume titled”wordpress-data.
8. Run the WordPress Container: It’s time to create and run the WordPress container, link it to the MySQL container, and mount the WordPress data volume. Use the following command:
Code:
docker run -d \
--network wordpress-net \
--name WordPress-container \
-p 8080:80 \
-v WordPress-config:/var/www/html/wp-config \
-v WordPress-data:/var/www/html/wp-content \
WordPress: latest Let’s break down this command:
–network wordpress-net: Connects the container to the wordpress-net network for communication with the
MySQL container.
–name WordPress-container: Assigns a name to the WordPress container.
-p 8080:80: Maps port 8080 on your host to port 80 in the container.
-v WordPress-config:/var/www/html/wp-config: Mounts the WordPress-config directory as the WordPress configuration directory.
-v WordPress-data:/var/www/html/wp-content: Mounts the WordPress-data volume as the WordPress content directory.
9. Access WordPress: Now that your WordPress container is running, open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080. You should see the WordPress installation page.
Conclusion: In this comprehensive guide, we’ve covered setting up a Docker container for WordPress. This approach offers isolation, portability, version control, and scalability, making it an ideal choice for developing and deploying WordPress websites. Following these steps, you can easily create and manage WordPress instances in Docker container, ensuring a reliable and consistent environment for your web projects.