Jul 26, 2019

Installing WordPress with Docker and Quickly Migrating All Data Manually

🤖This article was translated by AI (LLM). There may be errors or inaccuracies. For the original content, please refer to the original version.

Environment selection: Bare metal -> Docker

Main software choices: NGINX, MariaDB, phpMyAdmin

Due to MySQL’s excessive memory requirements, the original server configuration could no longer support its operation.

Therefore, purchased a new server configuration on DigitalOcean and decided to deploy using Docker for easier management.

From my observation, there currently isn’t a complete tutorial on this topic, so I’ll provide a brief overview here.

Preface

Regarding web server and database program selection:

Nginx vs Apache: What are their pros and cons?, Comprehensive comparison between MariaDB and MySQL

Reference materials (main):

How To Install WordPress With Docker Compose, Running WordPress with MariaDB

Preparations (What You Need)

A server currently running WordPress normally
An environment ready for deployment (can be the same server, but since you may need to temporarily run two complete WordPress services, it may require more memory >= 1G)

Installing Docker

APT Installation of Docker Packages

Refer to the official tutorial for installation.

PS: Please install docker-ce instead of docker.io, reason: What is docker.io in relation to docker-ce and docker-ee?

Refer to official documentation

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Writing Configuration Files

Create a folder to store all configuration files

mkdir -p $HOME/.config/wordpress

Writing Docker Configuration Files (Configuration for reference only, please carefully review the information explanation section)

$HOME/.config/wordpress/docker-compose.yml

version: '3'

services:
  db:
    image: mariadb
    container_name: mariadb
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    environment:
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress
    volumes:
      - dbdata:/var/lib/mysql
    networks:
      - app-network

  wordpress:
    depends_on:
      - db
    image: wordpress:fpm
    container_name: wordpress
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    environment:
      - WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=db:3306
      - WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress
      - WORDPRESS_DB_USER=$MYSQL_USER
      - WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=$MYSQL_PASSWORD
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - app-network

  webserver:
    depends_on:
      - wordpress
    image: nginx
    container_name: webserver
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
      - ./nginx-conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - certbot-etc:/etc/letsencrypt
    networks:
      - app-network

  certbot:
    depends_on:
      - webserver
    image: certbot/certbot
    container_name: certbot
    volumes:
      - certbot-etc:/etc/letsencrypt
      - wordpress:/var/www/html
    command: certonly --webroot --webroot-path=/var/www/html --email [email protected] --agree-tos --no-eff-email --force-renewal -d example.com -d www.example.com

volumes:
  certbot-etc:
  wordpress:
  dbdata:

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

$HOME/.config/wordpress/.env

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=XXXXXXXX
MYSQL_USER=wordpress
MYSQL_PASSWORD=XXXXXXXX

$HOME/.config/wordpress/.dockerignore

.env
.git
docker-compose.yml
.dockerignore

Configuration Information Explanation

.dockerignore

My understanding is that it’s similar to .gitignore used to ignore unnecessary files

.dockerignore File from Beginner to Practice

.env

A simple file used to store environment variables needed later, it can be named differently or not created at all

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=XXXXXXXX (Enter initial Root password)
MYSQL_USER=wordpress (Enter WordPress database operation username, can be freely filled)
MYSQL_PASSWORD=XXXXXXXX (Enter initial password for the above user)
# It is recommended to use a **password generator** to create sufficiently secure passwords

docker-compose.yml

Used to orchestrate Docker images. Describes the dependencies between Docker images and the parameters set to start them. In short, it’s to avoid manually entering too many commands and reduce operational complexity.

Using docker-compose Instead of docker run

Applying for HTTP Certificate

Let’s Encrypt HTTPS certificates can be obtained as long as your web server is running normally, so next we’ll get NGINX running normally.

Writing NGINX Configuration (Only for Obtaining Certificates)

Reference How To Install WordPress With Docker Compose

Create folder

mkdir -p $HOME/.config/wordpress/nginx-conf

$HOME/.config/wordpress/nginx-conf/nginx.conf

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

    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    root /var/www/html;

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

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass wordpress:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off; access_log off;
    }
    location = /robots.txt {
        log_not_found off; access_log off; allow all;
    }
    location ~* \.(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$ {
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }
}

Running Containers

Enter the folder where docker-compose.yml is located

cd ~/.config/wordpress

Run containers

docker-compose up -d

You will see:

Creating db ... done
Creating wordpress ... done
Creating webserver ... done
Creating certbot ... done

Check container status

docker-compose ps

Confirm test HTTPS certificate has been obtained

docker-compose exec webserver ls -la /etc/letsencrypt/live

Run certbot separately again

docker-compose up --force-recreate --no-deps certbot

Configuring NGINX

Reference How To Install WordPress With Docker Compose

Stop nginx service

docker-compose stop webserver

Download CertBot’s predefined NGINX SSL configuration file

curl -sSLo nginx-conf/options-ssl-nginx.conf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/certbot/certbot/master/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/_internal/tls_configs/options-ssl-nginx.conf

Edit nginx.conf (be sure to replace example.com)

Complete NGINX configuration includes HTTP redirect to HTTPS and SSL configuration.

WordPress Installation Complete

At this point, the Docker environment for WordPress has been installed.

Now when you visit your server’s IP in a browser, you should normally see the WordPress welcome screen.

The following content is about the complete quick migration of website data.

WordPress Data Migration

Database Migration

Reference official documentation

Here we choose phpMyAdmin as the database operation tool

Database Backup

Install phpMyAdmin

APT install phpmyadmin

sudo apt install phpmyadmin

Link phpMyAdmin to web server

ln -s /uer/share/phpadmin /var/www/html/phpadmin

Access phpMyAdmin

Visit http:///phpmyadmin in browser

Export WordPress database

Select WordPress database (the database you need to export)

Select database

Click “Export” button

Click export

Click “Go” to download backup file locally.

Database Import

Install Docker version phpMyAdmin

Confirm docker internal network connection

docker network ls

Run phpMyAdmin

docker run --name myadmin -d --link mariadb:db -p 8081:80 --net wordpress_app-network phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

Docker will attempt to run the image (it will download automatically if it doesn’t exist), link phpMyAdmin with MariaDB database, bind the container in wordpress_app-network, and bind the web access port to the host’s public port 8081.

Access phpMyAdmin

Visit http://:8081 in browser

Import WordPress database

Select WordPress database (the database you need to import)

Select database

Click “Import” button

Click import

Upload backup file
Click “Go”

Website File Migration

Website files include plugins you’ve installed, images you’ve uploaded, and other resource files.

WordPress File Backup

SSH login to old server

ssh -p <your ssh port> <your ssh login username>@<your old server IP>

Confirm website file location

ls -la /var/www/html/wordpress

Package website files

sudo tar -czvf ~/html.tar.gz /var/www/html/

Modify backup archive permissions (for easier download)

sudo chown $USER:$USER html.tar.gz

Exit SSH login

exit

Download backup archive

scp -r -P <your ssh port> <your ssh login username>@<your old server IP>:~/html.tar.gz ./

WordPress File Recovery Upload Backup Archive

Upload backup archive

scp -r -P <your ssh port> ./html.tar.gz <your ssh login username>@<your new server IP>:

SSH login to new server

Extract backup archive

tar -xzvf ~/html.tar.gz

Transfer backup files to Docker volume

docker cp ~/var/www/html wordpress:/var/www

Enter folder where docker-compose.yml is located

cd $HOME/.config/.wordpress

Check transferred files

docker-compose exec webserver ls -la /var/www/html/

Fix website file permissions

docker-compose exec wordpress chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

Fix WordPress Database Reading

Edit wp-config.php file

cd $/HOME/var/www/html/wordpress
vim wp-config.php

Modify the following parts to match what you set earlier in the .env file

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

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'wordpress');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', '123456');

/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'db:3306');

Overwrite WordPress volume wp-config.php file

docker cp wp-config.php wordpress:/var/www/html/wp-config.php

WordPress Data Recovery Complete

Shut down phpMyAdmin

docker stop myadmin

To ensure database security, be sure to stop it and only enable it when debugging is needed.

Postscript

This data migration mainly focused on two directions: environment setup (test availability) and data backup (identify relevant files).

Possible Errors and Solutions

New website runs normally but displays no information when accessed (blank).

Reason: Database imported and running normally, website data not imported successfully.

Other issues, please note the following:
Please check if the website runs normally without importing configurations.
WordPress issues are mainly about file and database matching.

Troubleshooting methods:

Check Docker logs docker-compose logs service_name
Use phpMyAdmin to check if database and users are normal

Installing WordPress with Docker and Quickly Migrating All Data Manually

Preface

Preparations (What You Need)

Installing Docker

APT Installation of Docker Packages

Grant Docker Operation Permissions to Login User

Writing Configuration Files

Writing Docker Configuration Files (Configuration for reference only, please carefully review the information explanation section)

Configuration Information Explanation

.dockerignore

.env

docker-compose.yml

Applying for HTTP Certificate

Writing NGINX Configuration (Only for Obtaining Certificates)

Running Containers

Configuring NGINX

WordPress Installation Complete

WordPress Data Migration

Database Migration

Database Backup

Database Import

Website File Migration

WordPress File Backup

WordPress File Recovery Upload Backup Archive

Fix WordPress Database Reading

Postscript

Possible Errors and Solutions